Four breakup songs that will get you through your grief

Let's be real. Breakups suck. Most times, maybe only one party of the relationship wants the deed done. The others - the rest of us - are left to our radical sadness.

How do we get through what feels like the end of everything? Friends might help, maybe even family. But we have to work through our own feelings, to be honest.

There is no better medicine in the world than music. We might not be ready to have someone sing our pain, but it helps. Music even helps us overcome.

Four breakup songs that will get you through your sadness

Prince - "Nothing Compares 2 U"

Forget the Sinead O'Connor cover, may she rest in peace. What she did with the song, at least she made it her own. That is so even though Prince did not care for O'Connor's version because she took the soul out of the track. The version that Prince recorded live with Rosie Gaines is leagues better than O'Connor's.

The reason is that Prince's version aches and has a large degree of sadness, but there is also a sliver of hope in the way it's sung and played. The flowers still die but there is an uplifting hint of hope at the end of it all. Even after a breakup, we need a little light, and Prince gives us that.

Alanis Morissette - "You Oughta Know"

On a completely different note, sometimes a little - OK, a lot - of rage is what one needs at the end of a wretched ending. We did not want the relationship to end, right? Maybe they left us, those fools! We deserve better and, well...you know what, we are not going to let them forget their mistake if we ever see them again.

Sure, that might not be the most adult way of going about things but where emotions are involved, logic goes out the window. Each day is a bit like recovering from a drug. It'll take us some time, but we will be stronger and better. Morissette helps give us that strength because she's lived what we have lived. She's pissed, so are we, and we both have that right.

Roy Orbison - "Crying"

A completely different take from Prince and Morissette, Orbison is going to let us cry our eyes out. We need to do that. There are probably like 10 stages of grief for a breakup. I can't be bothered to look that up because it is too sad. We have all been dumped, and it sucks. Doing research on our pain doesn't help; we need music for that.

This track will just rip your heart out. The lyrics are difficult enough but the way Orbison emotes forces us to believe in every painful word. He's brilliant, and so is the song. But this will get you through one stage of your grief.

Of Montreal - "The Past Is a Grotesque Animal"

There is no breakup song more brutally honest than this one. What makes this a tougher listen but also one we need is that over 12 minutes, Kevin Barnes tells us exactly how a relationship is ending and exactly how completely awful it is. There is anger, sympathy, love, and ultimately, sadness.

Questions are asked and no answers are found. This is how breakups go. We might never know the answers about why our life changed and we might not want to know them. We just know we started with happiness and watched it erode. By the end of this song, you will know you are not alone.

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