"Emotionless" by Good Charlotte used to be the "oh dear god here comes the sadness" song, then it became pretty much all of Underclass Hero by Sum 41.

Originally Posted by oceanblue

The Early November - Dinner at the Money Table

I was going through a really rough time my freshmen year of college, multiple roommate changes, my best friend taking a semester off, and a boy situation that didn't work out right. Lyrically this song stuck with me, and just explained exactly how I felt at the time.

Acceptance - Hold On

This song helped me get over an incredibly manipulative and abusive relationship. It was quite possibly the only positive thing I listened to, and the message finally got driven home.

Jimmy Eat World - Clarity (album)

Whenever I just can't handle things (like my grandmother recently passing away), I always find comfort in this album. It is a masterpiece, and has helped me through break ups, hook-ups gone awry, all nighters in my studio, and any other issue life seems to throw at me .

This x 234739642492

All of Coming Home by New Found Glory. Came out at the beginning of what has proved to be my longest relationship and every lyric hit home. A lot of love in that record.

Other end of the scale, listening to John Mayer's Battle Studies will always remind me of the end of it. Poignant words in most of those tracks.

The Spill Canvas - Lullaby: I went this show with this girl who I was infatuated with at the time and when they started playing this song I was fighting the urge to take her in my arms and just hold her. I didn't because just a month earlier I had drunkenly confessed my feelings for her and got the awkward "just friends" talk... couple months later she confessed that she wanted me to hold her during that concert and I've always kicked myself for not doing it.

Jimmy Eat World - Drugs or Me: My best friend for many many years went down a bad path in high school and got heavily involved in drugs. Me and his family tried desperately to help him but he was too far gone to listen to us or accept any help. I heard this song for the first time the night before I found out he had OD'd and was going to show him this song... I still have to skip this song when I listen to Futures.

Divided by Friday - Face To Face: This goes back to the girl from the first post. During our senior year of high school she moved away without telling anyone but her teachers and deleted her facebook so no one could contact her. I never quite got over her but entered another relationship. This girl in this new relationship completely changed how I looked at everything and even though we're both young I truly feel like this relationship is going to last (1 Year, 5 Months so far) but I still search for this other girl every once in a while so I can show her this song... This song perfectly explains everything I've gone through with my relationship with her and my current GF entering my life. If anyone's still reading this I would STRONGLY urge you to listen to this song

Less Than Jake: Look What Happened

I never was really into LTJ, but I was dating a guy who loved them and so I started listening to them. He asked me which tracks of theirs I liked and I said this was one of my favorites and it turned out it was also his favorite. Even though we're not together anymore, I still think of all the fond memories I have of our relationship.

Yellowcard: With You Around

Even though I don't associate this song with any particular person or relationship, I basically want it to be my life. Every time I hear Ryan belting out "you're like a slow song starting to accelerate" and "now I wanna chase forever down with you around" I get this feeling like I will, someday, be able to put this song to good use. Maybe that's weird, but I think it's one of the best love songs written in a while.

Sorry, this is enough for a mix-cd...

Bright Eyes - Make A Plan To Love Me
Dustin Kensrue - Pistol
Lydia - This Is Twice Now
The Honorary Title - Far More
Jack's Mannequin - Bruised
Alkaline Trio - We Can Never Break Up
As Tall As Lions - Love Love Love (Love Love)
Further Seems Forever - For All We Know
Set Your Goals - To Be Continued...
Senses Fail - Martini Kiss
Good Old War - We've Come A Long Way
Further Seems Forever - On Legendary
The Used - Taste Of Ink
Rise Against - Swing Life Away
Dear And The Headlights - I Just Do
Yellowcard - Rocket
blink 182 - Violence

Right now is With You Around and The Weigth

Originally Posted by mar_

This is an example of where the same song can have totally opposite meanings to people. My boyfriend used one of the verses to convince me to give us a try, which makes sense in a way since we'd met through our mutual enjoyment of the band.

I guess I wasn't very clear; I actually think the song is half optimistic and half sad. Ha. It's more that when I was listening to it so often right when it came out, I was depressed... But you are def. right. It's really cool when songs do that. There are definitely some good lines in it for the opposite...

I'm guessing the part used was the one that includes the album title? Really like that part, too.

Darling you fucked uppppppppppppp

floater-every time i die: i got heavily into this song after a break up a few years ago. i was in a band at the time and in between starting a new job and dealing with the break up i'd live for the band. every show i had to look forward to got me through the week. and i remember i'd listen to that song almost as high as my speakers would go before each show to get pumped up.

i'll come back to this tomorrow when i remember more.

This is going to be a TL:DR for a lot of people, but it's one of the best stories about a song that I have, so here goes:


I'd say I've been in love twice in my life: once with the girl I'm with now, the girl I'm probably going to marry, and once with the girl who was pretty much my best friend in the world throughout my junior year of high school. I always thought she was gorgeous, always loved spending time with her, but for a very long time, I didn't see her as anything other than a friend. I knew that it wasn't an option, knew subconsciously that if I went down that road I was just going to get hurt. And then one day, it all just changed, and when I looked at her, I knew I'd never wanted anything in my life as I wanted to be with her.

She was a year ahead of me in school, and on the night after her last day of high school, we got together and had a big party with a bunch of our closest friends. Sometime in the course of that drunken night, I found myself pouring my heart out to her, and to my surprise, my feelings were at least somewhat reciprocated. I drove home the next morning thinking that it was only a matter of time before she broke up with her boyfriend, before we could be together, spend the summer young, in love, and full of life: what a sucker I was.

As the weeks turned into months and my summer began to vanish out from under me, my hope diminished, but was no less pronounced. My feelings would only increase with any time we spent together. The parties were the best, when we'd each get a few drinks in us and let our guards down a little. Or maybe those nights were the worst, because of all the false hope they gave me. Either way, it all came crashing down on me soon enough, at her graduation party. In a lot of ways, it was a great day: I saw a lot of my friends that had been MIA since the summer began, met her family, got to spend a few great minutes with the girl who I was in love with, but there were always more guests for her to greet, more gifts for her to open. As I watched her that day, suddenly everything felt different. Because what we had together, whatever it was, was a sort of secret that we could just fold up and put away for an afternoon. None of these people knew about it. Even some of my best friends didn’t know how crazy I was about this girl. When her boyfriend arrived (hours after I did), I felt alone in that crowded space, even as I sat with my friends, and I thought about how unfair it was that he got to have her and I didn’t. That what they shared together wasn’t this secret that could just be turned off for an hour. And I realized that the difference between the two of us was that she could turn off how she felt (whatever that was), but that I never could.

As it started to rain, I made my excuses, gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek, and left. As I drove through that pouring rain, with my ipod on shuffle, Third Eye Blind's "Motorcycle Drive-By" came on, and as I listened to those lyrics, to what Stephen Jenkins was belting out, chills ran through my entire body and I got choked up. “I’ve never been so alone and I’ve never been so alive” came flooding out of my speakers, and for the first time in months, my wall came tumbling down. All my optimism and numbness was replaced by disappointment, pain and anger. Anger at myself for believing that this could happen and anger at her for giving me so much false hope. Those lyrics resonated with me like few ever have, before or since. As I drove through that driving rain, with my speakers turned up to a breaking point, I felt alive with every fiber of my being: with pain and anger and memories, both good and bad, with hopes and dreams, disappointments and failures. It was the kind of personal epiphany that only happens a few times in a lifetime.

As the song reached its climax, I was singing along, belting it out at the top of my lungs. The final lines were electrifying:

I go home to the coast, it starts to rain
I paddle out on the water, alone
Taste the salt and taste the pain
I’m not thinking of you again
The summer dies, the swells rise
The sun goes down in my eyes
See this rolling wave
Darkly coming to take me home
And I’ve never been so alone
And I’ve never been so alive

As I pulled into my driveway, those final lines rang through my car and cut to the very core of me: I felt every word. I stepped out of my car, into the pouring rain, with that song still running through me, and for a moment, I just stood there and let the rain soak me to the bone. And I said to myself: “I’ve never been so alone, and I’ve never been so alive”.

And I meant it.

Originally Posted by Broden Terry

Before I start, I fully endorse the "For You" (Angus and Julia Stone) and "My Baby" (Julia Stone) selections.

"The Places We Call Home" by Lanterns On The Lake. Without exaggeration, this is one of the most gorgeous tracks that I've heard in recent memory. My girlfriend doesn't really appreciate music like this because she considers it too slow, but the melody is wondrous and as soon as that chorus hits, it immediately takes me back to falling in love with my girl in the autumn of 2008.

"This Will Change Us" by Union Sound Set. It's a really slow moving track, but I just can't help but get swept up within the lyrics. One of them is, "We walked roads to start this, in the small hope we'd make it / and I held what we could be, 'Cause I was what you gave me". Plus it doesn't hurt that the chorus is stunning.

Another one by Lanterns on the Lake, this time it's "I Love You, Sleepyhead". It's another one of those soft, delicate tracks that I gravitate towards. It just deals with needing that one person to come save you, and when strings, violins, pianos all weave their way into the mix, it's all just really touching. Definitely one of my favourites.

Last one otherwise I'll end up writing a novel, "Radiate" by Ellington. I had bought their EP titled More Like a Movie, Less Like Real Life and I cannot underestimate the importance that those six songs have on my relationship even to this day. We often joke that some couples only have 'their song' when we're so fortunate to have 'our EP'. Listening to those songs, especially "Radiate", brings back only the best of memories.

I never listened/heard of lanterns on the lake before this post. This is beautiful. Thanks for a lot for posting this.

Originally Posted by chiefjordo

I guess I wasn't very clear; I actually think the song is half optimistic and half sad. Ha. It's more that when I was listening to it so often right when it came out, I was depressed... But you are def. right. It's really cool when songs do that. There are definitely some good lines in it for the opposite...

I'm guessing the part used was the one that includes the album title? Really like that part, too.

I get what you're saying.
And yup.

Originally Posted by narcoleptic953

This is going to be a TL:DR for a lot of people, but it's one of the best stories about a song that I have, so here goes:


I'd say I've been in love twice in my life: once with the girl I'm with now, the girl I'm probably going to marry, and once with the girl who was pretty much my best friend in the world throughout my junior year of high school. I always thought she was gorgeous, always loved spending time with her, but for a very long time, I didn't see her as anything other than a friend, because I knew that it wasn't an option, knew subconsciously that if I went down that road I was just going to get hurt. And then one day, it all just changed, and when I looked at her, I knew I'd never wanted anything in my life as I wanted to be with her.

She was a year ahead of me in school, and on the night after her last day of high school, we got together and had a big party with a bunch of our closest friends. Sometime in the course of that drunken night, I found myself pouring my heart out to her, and to my surprise, my feelings were at least somewhat reciprocated. I drove home the next morning thinking that it was only a matter of time before she broke up with her boyfriend, before we could be together, spend the summer young, in love, and full of life: what a sucker I was.

As the weeks turned into months and my summer began to vanish out from under me, my hope diminished, but no less pronounced. My feelings would only increase with any time we spent together. The parties were the best, when we'd each get a few drinks in us and let our guards down a little. Or maybe those nights were the worst, because of all the false hope they gave me. Either way, it all came crashing down on me soon enough, at her graduation party. In a lot of ways, it was a great day: I saw a lot of my friends that had been MIA since the summer began, met her family, got to spend a few great minutes with the girl who I was in love with, but there were always more guests for her to greet, more gifts for her to open. As I watched her that day, suddenly everything felt different. Because what we had together, whatever it was, was a sort of secret that we could just fold up and put away for an afternoon. None of these people knew about it. Even some of my best friends didn’t know how crazy I was about this girl. When her boyfriend arrived (hours after I did), I felt alone in that crowded space, even as I sat with my friends, and I thought about how unfair it was that he got to have her and I didn’t. That what they shared together wasn’t this secret that could just be turned off for an hour. And I realized that the difference between the two of us was that she could turn off how she felt (whatever that was), but that I never could.

As it started to rain, I made my excuses, gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek, and left. As I drove through that pouring rain, with my ipod on shuffle, Third Eye Blind's "Motorcycle Drive-By" came on, and as I listened to those lyrics, to what Stephen Jenkins was belting out, chills ran through my entire body and I got choked up. “I’ve never been so alone and I’ve never been so alive” came flooding out of my speakers, and for the first time in months, my wall came tumbling down. All my optimism and numbness was replaced by disappointment, pain and anger. Anger at myself for believing that this could happen and anger at her for giving me so much false hope. Those lyrics resonated with me like few ever have, before or since. As I drove through that driving rain, with my speakers turned up to a breaking point, I felt alive with every fiber of my being: with pain and anger and memories, both good and bad, with hopes and dreams, disappointments and failures. It was the kind of personal epiphany that only happens a few times in a lifetime.

As the song reached its climax, I was singing along, belting it out at the top of my lungs. The final lines were electrifying:

I go home to the coast, it starts to rain
I paddle out on the water, alone
Taste the salt and taste the pain
I’m not thinking of you again
The summer dies, the swells rise
The sun goes down in my eyes
See this rolling wave
Darkly coming to take me home
And I’ve never been so alone
And I’ve never been so alive

As I pulled into my driveway, those final lines rang through my car and cut to the very core of me: I felt every word. I stepped out of my car, into the pouring rain, with that song still running through me, and for a moment, I just stood there and let the rain soak me to the bone. And I said to myself: “I’ve never been so alone, and I’ve never been so alive”.



And I meant it.

Thanks so much for sharing this. I got chills and could relate strongly to the feeling. Well-written

Originally Posted by Johnnydcp

Thanks so much for sharing this. I got chills and could relate strongly to the feeling. Well-written

Thanks man, I appreciate it. I wrote part of that awhile ago, as part of a piece I was doing about the songs that are most important to me. There aren't a lot that have such a vivid, single memory attached to them as that one.