Illustration courtesy of Ava O’Connor.

Sad music for the old soul

This generation has a fascination with soul-crushing sad music. While Mitski and Sufjan Stevens are great, I think it’s important to recognize that there are a lot of rock and metal tunes with more nuance to their lyrics than you’d expect. They can be a great soundtrack for those nights where your situationship has you in tears

Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad by Def Leppard 

In their 1992 album “Adrenalize,” Def Leppard asks you the question straight up. The main guitar riff is drawn out, the notes rising and falling like a long inhale and a wistful sigh. The chorus is full and layered with haunting harmonies, a production trait of the illustrious Mutt Lange, who helped shape Def Leppard’s iconic multi-harmonic vocals. While the album itself isn’t a masterpiece, the aura of melancholy is present throughout some of the tunes, like this one, due to its release shortly after the death of their longtime guitarist Steve Clark. Regardless, “Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad” is a great song to yearn to, especially if you’re getting over that one person who might not want you back (screw them! You’re better than that).

Hard Luck Woman by KISS

Intentionally written in the style of Rod Stewart (in fact, so much so that I can’t unhear that), Hard Luck Woman is a fun one since you can interpret it in two different ways. At least, that’s how I like to listen to it. The swaying acoustic ballad sings of a nameless lover, the titular “Hard Luck Woman,” being left by the singer, KISS drummer Peter Criss. When listening, you might be the “Hard Luck Woman,” being left behind, or perhaps you’re the singer, forced to bid farewell to a lover no longer serving you. Lyrically, it’s quite poetic, singing of the “sailors only daughter, child of the water, too proud to be a queen.” While it’s a touch woeful, “Hard Luck Woman” is not a spiteful song. It embraces the normalcy of a breakup, with an attitude of “that’s life” hidden within its folky melody, because breakups are just as human as falling in love.

Another Rainy Night (Without You) by Queensrÿche

If you’re willing to embrace the drama that is “Another Rainy Night (Without You),” this is the perfect song to channel heartbroken rage. In other words, it’s a song for staring out your rainy window and drawing broken hearts in the condensation. Singer Geoff Tate brings a shrill, almost operatic quality to the vocals, the lyrics chock full of bitterness, unlike my previous song pick. What I really dig about this tune is that it aged like fine wine. Have you ever waited all night for a call or text from that one person? You might relate to the lines, “But now my take-out food is growing cold, and the candle’s burned a hole in the floor, and I’m still waiting for the ring of the phone.” Pretty literal, but don’t act like you haven’t spent a whole night hung up on a notification that never showed. It’s okay, I’ve been there, too.

Back to the Bullet by Saraya

This one’s for the girls! Well, between you and me, I believe all of these songs are for the girls, but this one especially, thanks to Sandi Saraya being on vocals. “Back to the Bullet” is a delicious mix of 80s pop synths and arena rock guitars, making it the kind of song to dance around to with angry tears in your eyes. Saraya sings this criminally underrated tune about the funny things we do when we’re stuck on someone: driving past their house, feeling as if everywhere this person goes, you’d like to go, too. The lines “Heard it all before and I know I’ll hear it again/”He’s no good, better stay away”/But every night when I picture us alone/Oh, the words just fade away” sum up the unfortunately common occurrence of completely ignoring your girl friends’ advice about that one man you can’t seem to let go of. Let. Him. Go. Or go “Back to the Bullet,” your choice.

Real Love by Slaughter

Gen Z seems to have a commitment problem. Now I’m no psychologist, so I’m not going to go into why this might be, or give you advice on how to cope with this issue. Instead, I’ll recommend a song that might share that same sentiment. “Real Love’s” chorus asks the same questions the hopeless romantics of this generation have been asking: “Real love, won’t somebody show me? Real love, isn’t anyone true anymore?…Real love, where are you?” And Mark Slaughter has this incredible range that allows for that classic hair metal screech, aka, the kind of voice you imitate in the shower to the dismay of everyone within a mile radius of you. Seriously, though, if you find yourself getting repeatedly led on by folks that just don’t know what they want from you or for themselves, this is your song. 

Miss Mystery by Black N’ Blue

We all have that one person you saw in passing and couldn’t stop thinking of. “Miss Mystery”captures that hopeless yearning feeling to a tee. In fact, this song sums up a few different feelings, depending on how you’d like to interpret it, sort of like “Hard Luck Woman.”Speaking of KISS, you might not know Black N’ Blue by name, but you might recognize their guitarist, Tommy Thayer, who eventually went on to become the last Spaceman in the KISS lineup. In fact, he plays a real sultry guitar intro to get you into that wishy-washy, dreamy mood that captures the song’s whole theme. Sometimes, I listen to this tune and think of beautiful people I’ve spoken to once and never saw again. Other times, I think of the concept of a “hallway crush”: that one person you see a lot, but only from afar. Don’t get yourself down over this person, though, because, perhaps you’re someone else’s “Miss Mystery.”

Go Easy by Alien

Alien is a Swedish rock band that I can guarantee you’ve never heard of. I’m so determined to change that. Go Easy sounds like a typical upbeat Night Rangerish tune, but listen closely. The lyrics sum up that big bad word that I absolutely hate but this generation has coined to sum up the previously mentioned commitment problem: a situationship. These lyrics are incredibly nuanced and well thought-out. The second I heard the line “I wanted more, you took my love and kept your freedom,” I had to bring out the big guns (my journal). I know we like to come up with trendy words for things, but in reality, this whole “situationship” thing has existed for a long time, just not as frequently. That line alone sums up that sting we feel when someone uses us for self indulgence while refusing to commit. This whole tune is full of great lyrics about that feeling, as well as a head bopping-beat and raw, emotionally-driven vocals.

In essence, I highly recommend taking a look at these songs and beyond, because the rock and metal genre is crawling with great heartbreak songs and meaningful lyrics that are often dismissed due to the stereotype of rock ballads being cheesy, inauthentic and worthy of mockery. So grab your hairspray and spandex, a pint of ice cream and a box of tissues, and blast these songs on full volume. Even if you don’t always rock with rock, I hope at least one of these tunes will make you feel seen.