Day 04 - A Song that Makes You Sad

This entry a part of the 30 Day Song Challenge

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Breathe Me
Sia
Colour the Small One
(Released January 2006) 

Thinking of “a song that makes you sad” is quite challenging as I am not one to listen to music to get depressed. Sure, there’s music that’s perfect company for the miserable but don’t you think it’s rather masochistic to purposely listen to music to “make you sad?”

I remember when I was a kid, unsuccessfully trying to learn how to play the organ, I would always play Ave Maria, a built-in recording on my Yamaha. But my mum would make me turn it off; she said it was too depressing. This remark seems to have been instilled in me until now — whenever I hear Ave Maria I experience this wave of sadness for no concrete reason.

Another sad song that comes to mind is Sarah McLachlan’s Hold On, which I first heard on her live compilation, Mirrorball. I didn’t pay attention to the lyrics at first but then my second cousin (who loaned me her copy of Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, the album where it’s originally from) pointed out to me that the song was about one’s spouse who was dying of AIDS/cancer.

If you asked me about the one thing that scares me the most, it’s probably death. And no song makes me think about death as much as Sia’s Breathe Me. After all, it was the song played during the last scenes of the brilliant TV series Six Feet Under. Of the several series I’ve watched from start to finish, this has got to be the one with the most compelling ending. Take a look:

What a way to end a TV series about death than by showing the chronological demise of the remaining living characters! I thought the song was a perfect complement to the ending; I remember downloading it right after watching it. It’s a hauntingly beautiful song but I can’t listen to it without thinking of the Six Feet Under ending, and consequently, death, so I would just skip to the next track. Such combination of music and imagery effectively makes this a song that saddens and sends chills to the bone.

Additionally, I’m sure it’s a track that makes Six Feet Under fans sad because it will always be associated with the last few minutes of the show, and what an exceptional series this was.

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