Crying Music

Do any songs move you to tears?

Not like tears of pure pain that might be shed during Muskrat Love or Whoomp! There It Is.

But tears resulting from powerful emotions triggered by the richness, the complexity, the sheer beauty of the music – and often powered by the memories the music evokes.

I can only think of a handful of songs that have that impact on me.

Point of clarification: These songs don’t make me weepy when I hear them while driving or at the gym (although, admittedly, that last scenario would be more than slightly awkward -- and pretty funny).

But when the circumstances are “right,” when the emotional triggers are in place, the following songs resonate very deeply with me – and have moved me to tears.

Red Sea by Asobi Seksu
Beautiful soaring vocals explode in a fuzzed out, reverb bliss at the song’s halfway mark. The transition between the two is the emotional high point for me. And as I was returning from my grandfather’s funeral last month, sitting on the plane with my iPod, I was thoroughly swept up in that moment – and in the sonic wall of sound that follows (for a glorious three and a half minutes). The tears that silently flowed were of utter joy and remembrance.

Lower Your Eyelids To Die With The Sun by M83
A sweeping, cinematic-style, 11-minute instrumental epic.

A Kissed Out Red Floatboat and Cico Buff by Cocteau Twins
The inimitable melodies of the Cocteau Twins strike a deep chord with me.

When Peace Like A River
The most beautiful, anguished, and hopeful hymn I know.

Those are the songs that move me.

So . . . what songs move you?