English Music, Sad Love Songs

About English Music, Sad Love Songs

Any music lover has a playlist for, well, just about anything. Whether you need a workout playlist to pump you up, a party playlist to help all your friends hit the dance floor, or a playlist full of love songs for your S/O, there's a spot on your streaming service just for those key moments. Of course, a sad playlist is essential for those times when you just want to curl up in bed. If you just need to have a good cry, are dealing with a broken heart, or are feeling a little lost with new changes in your life, there's nothing wrong with wallowing in some sad music and letting yourself feel all the feels. Check out these sad songs from your favorite artists like Olivia Rodrigo, Conan Gray, Phoebe Bridgers, and Harry Styles to refresh your sad music playlist.

1. David Bowie — "Blackstar"
Two days after David Bowie's Blackstar was released, on Jan. 8, 2015, the cultural icon went gentle into that good night. But not silently. He left a swan song, beautifully, heart-wrenchingly wrought in his final album's transcendent 10-minute title track, which explores myriad mysterious musical and lyrical ideas.

2. "Someone Like You" — Adele
Adele's catalog is designed to draw maximum tears out of its listeners' eyes, but the 21 track "Someone Like You" is enough of a cry-along ballad to necessitate multiple boxes of tissues. Over a simple piano backing, Adele sings of seeing her ex-lover with someone new and resolving to do better in love next time; her voice remains steely, but crests into desperation as she pleads to not be forgotten.

3. "Praying" — Kesha
In the midst of a legal battle with former collaborator Dr. Luke, Kesha released "Praying," the lead single off her third studio album, to universal acclaim. While the singer never specifically said the piano pop-ballad was related to the producer, the song, fueled by her demons and suicidal thoughts, became an act of courage and a lesson in forgiveness.

4. "Codeine Crazy" — Future
The project that kicks it all off ends bleakly with "Codeine Crazy," where Future delivers his hedonistic deeds not as trophies, but symptoms. "Take all my problems and drink out the bottle and f--- on a model," he starts his verse, portraying the empty craving of an addict.

5. "Your Best American Girl" — Mitski
Mitski is a storyteller, not a memoirist, and her songs should be read that way. "Your Best American Girl" doesn't gain its power from real-life lyrics (though the struggle of relating to a partner who was raised in a different culture is surely relatable to many listeners) but from the way Mitski's voice and instrumentals build across different modes, ratcheting from too-cool-for-it deadpan to a devastating crescendo of cathartic ecstasy.

6. "Soon You'll Get Better" — Taylor Swift
This pared-down track that just barely features the Chicks is a get-well-soon ode to Taylor Swift's mother, Andrea, who is battling cancer again after first being diagnosed in 2015.

7. "Fear" — Kendrick Lamar
To Pimp a Butterfly's ambition pushed Kendrick Lamar's already-fervent praise into messianic worship.

8. "Writer In the Dark" — Lorde
Sometimes there's just no getting over them. And yet the spiked glee that's wrapped around the lyric "Bet you rue the day you kissed a writer in the dark" is worth the agony and ecstasy of flinging herself wholly and willingly into the destructive arms of heartache in the first place.

9. "Rainbow" — Kacey Musgraves
This ballad off Kacey Musgraves' Grammy-winning Golden Hour began as an encouraging note to herself before morphing into its final version of offering a light for those struggling through hard times. The imagery of someone holding tight to their umbrella in a struggle to protect themselves against the elements of life contrasts with the beautiful promise of a rainbow hanging over their head — a symbol of better times ahead.

10. "Self Control" Frank Ocean
Self Control is about the nearing end of an affair. Keep a place for me,he sings over classic bare guitar strums.