I love music. I love the way that a certain song can make you feel a certain way even when you're not already feeling that emotion. I especially love being able to share music that I find especially powerful with others in the hopes that they too will love the songs just as much as I do. Here, I'm going to share a few songs that made me cry and attempt to tell you why you should listen to them too.

1. Hammers and Strings [A Lullaby] - Jack's Mannequin

This song is about a girl with depression who talks to the singer of the song who she hasn't talked to in a while and is asking for him to write a song that has meaning and so he writes about her depression in a way that tells a story of trying to get better in more ways than one. If the singer sounds familiar, that is because he is Andrew McMahon who has recently come back with his new band Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness. Anyways, I think that this song is beautiful in every aspect of the term and has made me cry countless times. If you don't listen to any other song on the list, listen to this one. Favorite line (Which was hard to pick because I love every line): Come on, write me a song/Give me something to trust/Just promise you won't let it be/Just the keys that you touch

2. Northern Downpour - Panic! at the Disco

This song, just like most Panic! at the Disco songs, has lyrics that are purposefully vague yet somehow make the listener understand what they are saying and elicit from them a sort of pensive sadness that might make you shed a few tears. The song has a beautiful sound, starting with an acoustic guitar and coming in with piano in the first half in a way that gives it a unique feeling. The lyrics are equally beautiful, my favorite line being I know the world's a broken bone,/ but melt your headaches call it home.

3. Miserable at Best - Mayday Parade

This song made me bawl like a baby the first time I listened to it because it was just so beautifully sad I couldn't do anything but be emotionally drawn to it. The song is completely on piano and tells the story of a guy who was emotionally invested in a girl, but the girl has not chosen him back. It is a ballad of trying to let go of the one you love, but tells the emotional side of how hard it is. You can't help but put yourself in that situation and feel bad for the guy because the emotion is so raw. My favorite line in this song is Because these words were never easier/For me to say or her to second guess/But I guess/That I can live without you but/Without you I'll be miserable

4. Boring - The Brobecks

This one is by a band that 99% of people haven't heard of, but the song is one that I find especially helpful in putting into words the feeling of depression. Though the song is mainly about someone feeling empty about the absence of someone else, I think that it's also more than that and that "missing person" could also be missing emotion. The sound, though seemingly upbeat, is oddly haunting and hollow in a way that conveys the feeling of being alone in a crowd, where everyone else is feeling one way and you are feeling another. Favorite line: Wasted, time is less effective,/Then growing less attractive to you,/There's nothing that's new anymore.