9 votes

Songs that move you (towards positivity)

After reading a thread on AskReddit requesting songs that made people cry, I thought about my favorite music and realized that most of the songs that made me cry were because they were uplifting in one way or another. So here I am today, asking you this: what songs move you to tears because of positive emotions? Here are a few of mine:

The Beatles - Let It Be. It's almost embarrassing to put this one first, but a simple three word phrase has never been filled with so much meaning. "Let it be" is practically my motto, and it's the philosophy which has most helped to steer me towards sanity. The music accompanying the lyrics just resonates with my heartstrings and it always makes me feel relieved after listening.

Yoko Kanno - Gotta Knock a Little Harder. People often describe music they like as being written for them. To me, this song feels like my very essence was put into sound. Its a song about breaking free of depression and loneliness. The thing I love about it is how honest it is; breaking through that door is brutally difficult. I love how there isn't an extra verse telling you how much better the narrator's life is after breaking through the door (or even that they made it through), instead implying it through choral swells and a little bit of the listener's imagination.

Arto Lindsay - Counting the Roses. This one may be cheating a little, because it's really the context of the song that makes me cry. It was written for a video game called D2, where a tragic character named Kimberly wrote the lyrics after a particularly terrible day. While the song is beautiful by itself, what affects me is the concept that it represents: even in an ugly, poisonous, depressing world, pure and beautiful things can still be found.

2 comments

  1. Amarok
    Link
    I made a mixtape of this sort of music a few years back. I only bring it up because one of the tracks you listed is the opener. Here's the track list.

    I made a mixtape of this sort of music a few years back. I only bring it up because one of the tracks you listed is the opener. Here's the track list.

    1 Gotta Knock A Little Harder - Yoko Kanno & The SEATBELTS feat Mai Yamane

    2 All The Little Creatures Know / It - Rich Aucoin

    3 Them That Do Nothing - Field Music

    4 Seeing Is Believing - The Superimposers

    5 The Next Time Around - Little Joy

    6 Hang Loose - Alabama Shakes

    7 All Wash Out - Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros

    8 Danse Carribe - Andrew Bird

    9 Oh, Look What The Sun Did! - Josh Rouse & The Long Vacations

    10 Pure Joy - M. Ward

    11 Tell Me A Tale - Michael Kiwanuka

    12 Step On - Baby Charles

    13 Go To Hell - Raphael Saadiq

    14 Beggarman - Smoove & Turrell

    15 Airplane Blues - The Antiques

    16 A Thousand Years - The Coral

    17 Blood Dries Darker - Woods

    18 Help You Decide - The Young Sinclairs

    19 Word Of Mouth - Shakey Graves

    20 Lay Me Down - The Oh Hellos

    21 How The Story Goes - The Redwalls

    22 You Can Never Hold Back Spring - Tom Waits

    2 votes
  2. TornaydoTornahdo
    Link
    Rilo Kiley's A Better Son/Daughter is that kind of thing for me. It definitely starts out a bit dark, but it is certainly one of the better examples of positivity in the face of depression.

    Rilo Kiley's A Better Son/Daughter is that kind of thing for me. It definitely starts out a bit dark, but it is certainly one of the better examples of positivity in the face of depression.