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This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Furman chapter.

I am a music junkie. I spend hours every day listening to music. I tend to gravitate toward the sadder genres of music. I don’t know about you, but I can memorize all the lyrics to a song without ever really thinking about what they mean. This week, I took some time to think about my favorite lyrics, and I found them more heartbreaking than before. 

  1. “Cherry Wine” by Hozier 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdSCCwtNEjA

“Her fight and fury is fiery

Oh but she loves

Like sleep to the freezing

Sweet and right and merciful

I’m all but washed

In the tide of her breathing.” 

This lyric really got to me. Especially the line “like sleep to the freezing”, because when someone is freezing to death, they fall asleep near the end and can’t feel the pain of dying anymore. Read that again. Her love is the distraction from the pain of slowly dying.

  1. “Jealous” by Labrinth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50VWOBi0VFs

“As I sink in the sand

Watch you slip through my hands

Oh, as I die here another day

Cause all I do is cry behind this smile” 

The feeling of dying inside over and over again as you watch the person you love the most breaks my heart. 

  1. “Gravity” by Sara Bareillis 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEXhAMtbaec

“I’ll still feel you here until the moment I’m gone

You hold me without touch

You keep me without chains

I never wanted anything so muchThan to drown in your love and not feel your rain”

The weight on your heart when you have someone toxic in your life, but all you want is for them to love you like you need. I listen to this song almost every day . 

  1. “What do I do?” by Emily James 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhpEvy0zRmI

“Will I fall into you, only to lose myself again?

Are you still as reckless as you were back then?

Learned your lessons or do you pretend

that you’re better just to fool somebody new”

Thinking about giving someone a second chance because you love them, but being scared to lose yourself, such a powerful lyric. 

  1. “Skinny Love” by Bon Iver

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNzCDt2eidg

“Come on, skinny love, just last the year

Pour a little salt, we were never here

My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my

Staring at the sink of blood and crushed veneer

I tell my love to wreck it all

Cut out all the ropes and let me fall

My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my

Right in this moment, this order’s tall”

This song. I can’t. It’s about wanting to change your lover to make them what you need just to hold onto them a little longer. You know you’re asking too much, but you want to stay with them. 

  1. “When you love someone” by James TW

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Bf3CJZ4hvg

“Sometimes moms and dads fall out of love

Sometimes two homes are better than one

Some things you can’t tell your sister ’cause she’s still too young

Yeah you’ll understand

When you love someone”

As a child of divorce, this one crushes my soul. Learning that love isn’t always pretty or elegant; it can be messy and still be love. 

  1. “Roadtripsong” by Abby Cates 

Abby Cates – Roadtripsong (Official Audio)

“I wished so hard that I could fly

My wings just weighed me down

I dreamed that I could be a boat

But I sailed too far and drowned

And oh I wished and longer for

These dreams to all come truе

Of all the things I’ve wanted

Lovеr, what I want most is you

You, you, you”

This idea of wanting to fly, getting wings, and then being stuck on the ground keeps me up at night. Every lyric of this song fills my soul with the most serene sadness. 

  1. “If this is the Last Time” by LANY 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPbG4mIgKAw

“Sorry for the fights and the tone of my voice

Sorry for the nights when I made the wrong choice

Life is flyin’ by and it’s hittin’ me now

I hope it’s not, but

If this is the last time, please come close

I love you with all my heart, you know

I don’t wanna cry, I’m bad at goodbye

If this is the last time

Then let’s do the things we always do

Like go to the mall and buy some shoes

I don’t wanna cry, I’m bad at goodbye

If this is the last time”

LANY is known for their heartbreakers, but this one is about your parents slipping away. It just hits different. 

  1. “Vincent” by Don McLean 

don mclean – vincent

“Now, I understand what you tried to say to me

And how you suffered for your sanity

And how you tried to set them free

They would not listen, they did not know how

Perhaps they’ll listen now”

This is an oldie, but a goodie. The song is a tribute to the life of Vincent Van Gogh, and the struggles of an artist, how they are not seen until they are gone.  

  1.  “Sara” by We Three (TW: self harm) 

We Three – Sara (Official Music Video)

“Little Sara, last night you got it bad

In that moment you could barely even

Add up two or three reasons why you’re glad

And I guess that’s why you grabbed your pen and pad

It was 6:14 and you could barely even read

All the words you’d written down of why it was time for you to leave

Your phone was on the ground and you could barely hear it ring

Couldn’t even hear a sound, couldn’t feel a single thing” 

This song had me full out ugly crying the first time I heard it. It gets really real about the struggles of depression and feeling invisible. It is very graphic so I caution listeners. 

Well if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be crying in my room and listening to these songs on repeat. 

Margaret Bovard is a senior at Furman University from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and she is a Health Science major. In addition to being a writer for HerCampus, Margaret works in a cardiology lab on campus and participates in theater. She is very passionate about sustainability and hopes to be an alpaca farmer one day. Margaret is an old soul, in her free time she knits, cross stitches, and complains about her back pain :). She can not wait to see the impact that HerCampus will have on Furman's Campus.