3 Emotional Ballads From the 1990s for When You Need a Good Cry

Often, when you’re feeling unhappy, you just need a good cry. You know what I’m talking about. The way we all allow ourselves to wallow in grief. It’s difficult to resist the urge, and with so many emotional ballads within reach to exercise the sadness demons. We are talking about the 1990s, and music was very sad then. So allow these ballads to moisten the eyes. You’ll feel better soon.

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“Winter” by Tori Amos

There’s a period in childhood when the sense of magic and wonder begins to disappear. Whittled away by experience, knowledge, or cynical adults. “Winter” is about the place where dreams meet reality. This often marks the end of the dream. In a heartbreaking verse, Tori Amos describes how she begins noticing the boys. It brings about competition, like flowers fighting for the sun. Yet, she’s left behind, “Withering where some snowman was.” One of her most brutal and gorgeous ballads.

“Lover, You Should’ve Come Over” by Jeff Buckley

“Lover, You Should’ve Come Over” feels to me like the song you write if the events of Leonard Cohen’s drunken hymn “Hallelujah” had never happened. Or maybe it’s exactly what you’d write if they had. Jeff Buckley sings about how easily one destroys a good romance. Attracted to the lights of uncertainty, only to get burned by their chaos. It’s one of my favorite vocal performances on Grace, which is saying something. It’s Buckley, the soul singer, the philosopher, the rambling bad boy. Wrecking one relationship after the other. “Too deaf, dumb, and blind to see the damage I’ve done.”  

“The Tourist” by Radiohead

If you live in a city with lots of tourists, like Nashville, it’s easy to become annoyed with them. Until you recall all the time you spend in other cities, rushing from one place to the next. But “The Tourist” is really about speeding through life. Perhaps it’s the need to take it all in while we can. There’s always the sense of time running out. Only so much time to see the sights. Only so many years before we’re too old to travel, or worse. However, the saddest part of “The Tourist” remains the thought of humans scurrying around like mice. Looking for joy as a critter would search a maze for stinking cheese. We can sense it, but sometimes it’s impossible to find. “Idiot, slow down. Slow down.”

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