Well if you’re already into Brel… I can confidently give you Brassens. I consider him to have been the greatest poet. It’s difficult to convey just how beautifully he told mundane things (les copains d’abord, l’orage…), how he made life and death sweet (le testament, la prière…), how he brought the humblest people under the limelight (la complainte des filles de joie, l’auvergnat…), and elevated already beautiful works of poetry (Paul Fort, Victor Hugo) into musical classics (Gastibelza, le petit cheval…).

I call random customer service phone lines and wait in line and then hang up after 30 seconds of listening to the saddest person on earth asking if I’m there or if I can hear them.

Johnny Cash’s version of “Hurt”

My go to when I’m suicidal is the Downward Spiral by Nine Inch Nails. It’s the perfect album when I need to feel okay with not being okay. Also gives my depression a name and a face that I can insult and yell at when my brain is being mean to me.

There is a bunch of melancholic songs but what that always comes to mind and I enjoy since I was a teenager is this 3 songs by Moby:

• Porcelain, the video clip is nothing special, just abstract.
• In this world, this is the saddest clip, the poor cute aliens.
• Why does my heart feel so bad?, The clip is cute and kinda sad.

Portishead - Roads ( live version from the CD plz ) Carla Morrison - Dime Mentiras Sasha Sloan - The Only ( Two Lanes Remix )

Anything acoustic by Chris Cornell.

I don’t , it’ll just make me cry harder and longer and that’s exhausting

To tune out and reset my mental and emotional state: Most anything by Paleowolf

To restore hope and interest in seeking good things from life:

• Rainbow Connection by Kermit the Frog
• Glorious Dawn by Melodysheep
• Nightswimming by R.E.M. (This one can be risky though, sometimes it makes me feel even more nostalgia-sad.)

The goofy answer: https://alvinisemo.ytmnd.com/

I reserve some wordless music for when my sadness gets critical. That way, they always sound bittersweet without me listening them to death.

• Lourié’s 5 Préludes Fragiles. Makes me feel aware of how easy I am to break at the moment, but also how pretty survivalism through fragility can be.
• Ravel’s Pavane for a Dead Princess. It’s not about a dead princess, just one in the past, but it makes me feel like I’m that princess, rich and sad and stepping around in a bright, cream-beige ballroom. Instead of just solely sad.
• Debussy’s Images. II. Hommage à Rameau. A quiet plaintiveness with occasionally rising energy helps me tend closer to neutrality.
• Stanchinsky’s Prelude in the Lydian Mode. As the n-tuplets get desperate, I get desperate to fix everything. But then the curses stop and we return to a pretty but occasionally sickly quiet. The nonsenses are pinpricks in its floral thoughts.
• Glinka/Balakirev’s The Lark. Reminds me that I’m fluttering, not just floundering.

In any order, but I usually start with the Fragile Preludes (especially the middle few of the set). Lyrical songs are usually for higher energy/mood to me

I like to listen to dodie sometimes

Sigur Ros.

Little girl blue, the version of Janis Joplin. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yYHJ_A8qnXw

Alan Walker has some bangers. Personal favourites are On My Way, Not You, and End of Time

Alec Benjamin is also amazing. Favourites are If I Killed Someone For You and Boy in the Bubble

Also Pokemon Mystery Dungeon has some of the best instrumental-only pieces IMO. Don’t Ever Forget from PMD Explorers is my all time favourite sad song (partly because of the context around when that song played in game but it stands just as well on its own).

Chon or Strawberry Girls. They are both upbeat, neat and will turn your teardrops sweet.