1. “I Found a Boy”, Adele
The History: Well, there isn’t much of a history. The song is one of the tracks on Adele’s 21 Album, but never made it as a single.
Why it’s Great: Out of all of Adele’s singles, “Rolling in the Deep” would fit this list the best, but this song is better. This is the Adele song you don’t know but should. This is the song to show you have survived. The ultimate sign of moving on is to find someone else, but to find someone that you love even more than your last partner is the best karma you can find and Adele wrote the perfect song for it. What ever grip they had on you before and all the begging they do to get you back doesn’t matter, you won’t “crumble to your knees” because you know you have someone a thousand times better. The lyrics are powerful on their own, but Adele’s phenomenal voice puts this song over the top and brings the lyrics to life.
So, what do you guys think? Is there any song that helped you with a break up?
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11 Comments
Song for the Dumped, by Ben Folds Five would easily be near the top of my list.
Totally agree with Song for the Dumped, which is funny considering how utterly depressing Ben Folds’ Brick is. He really runs the gamut.
Depressing song, after youve broken up, Here with me – the Killers
Just reading the titles of many of those songs has put me in a good mood.
FUN FACT – I will survive is actually about a break with a manager, not a partner. That it’s become a breakup classic is a great testament to the fact that, once it’s been released, a song belongs to the listener. It can be about whatever you want.
I remember reading somewhere that she was happily married at the time this song came out, which makes it even more ironic that most people view it as a break up song.
Ironic, certainly. But that’s one of my favourite things about music. Different people can hear different things.
It’s like Perfect Day by Lou Reed. That song really is just about a perfect day at the zoo. But people want it to be a drug song, so it becomes a drug song.
It says more about the people who apply such meanings than about the songs itself, but in the case of I Will Survive, I think it’s beautiful. People hear something that sounds inspirational so it becomes inspirational. The “true” meaning of the song does nothing to diminish their response.
I cannot believe Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone” or “Stronger” (more like the former, really) did not make it anywhere on this list.
There were multiple versions of the list, which ultimately boiled down to what you see here. I wanted to have variety and didn’t want the list to just representative of the past 10-20 years, which would be be very easy to do considering how many pop songs are “moving on” break up songs. In my opinion, there are better songs than those two. However, I still think that Miss Clarkson is talented.
No Children by The Mountain Goats is just fantastic. A sincere, venom laced breakup song.
Quite disappointing that there is not a single song by The Cure. Songs like ‘Cut’, ‘How beautiful you are’ and loads of others are powerful and more emotional than some of the songs on this list.
My fav is “another me” by The Cab. Basically the lyrics are … I gave you everything u ever wanted. U gave me nothing but grief, well good luck finding another me. Also, “live and let die” by Wings.