Everybody’s been down in the dumps at some point in their lives. Sometimes, it’s best to cry all of that sadness out so you feel better later. This playlist is guaranteed to bring out the waterworks.

Some artists put their own haunted spins on a song that manages to completely outclass the original version. Michael Andrews and Gary Jules’ 2001 “Mad World” (a cover of the 1982 song by Tears For Fears). While Tears And Fears’ original version is more upbeat, the Andrews and Jules version is more stripped back and emotional, giving added emphasis to the powerful lyrics to the point where it’s hard to imagine it wasn’t written specifically for them.

Moving along to another song that manages to completely outshine the version of the song it’s covering, Johnny Cash’s shocking 2002 hit “Hurt,” is actually a cover of a song Nine Inch Nails recorded in 1995. At the time of the cover’s release, Cash was 72, and his broken delivery chooses to accept and embrace this fact rather than run away from it. It’s a song that screams of exhaustion, and Cash’s death the year after the song’s release only makes the cover that much more emotional.

1939 single “Strange Fruit” by Billie Holiday, by all accounts, isn’t a tear-jerking song at first listen. However, it’s not the sound that will bring you to tears; it’s the lyrics, or perhaps the underlining tones and messages hidden in the lyrics.

Strange Fruit is a song about black people being hanged. The strange fruit being referred to? Those are the southern black people who were hanged during the Jim Crow era.

Undoubtedly, this song is able to hit home for numerous African Americans and is able to make people of other races extremely uncomfortable, and for good reason.

“You Know I’m No Good” is a single off of Amy Winehouse’s 2006 album, “Back To Black”. In this song, Winehouse addresses how she’s truly not good for the partner she’s currently with.

Again, the song in itself isn’t particularly sad. However, it can bring tears to a listener’s because of the quality of the music added with the knowledge of Winehouse’s untimely death at the age of 27.

Music is often attached to our emotions. We listen to music when we’re happy, when we’re angry, when we’re in love. But no emotion is attached more to the music that we listen to than sadness.