I Revisited My Emo Playlist From a Decade Ago... and She's Still THAT Girl
- Yette
- Jul 17, 2025
- 6 min read
Sunday, May 17, 2015
Peek At My Picks: my top "emo-songs" list
I grew up to the sound of my dad's made-up lullabies & my mom's vibrato singing voice. Life events are more memorable for me when associated with certain songs. Yup, I'm a self-confessed softie & the kind of emotional trainwreck that comes complete with cinematographic background music & theme songs galore!
At a time when our senses are so used to multi-tasking, music makes everything come together better! You gotta agree with me that the difference between having a good & a great bath experience is one mean concert in the shower! A heartbreak crying session is always more satisfying when accompanied with a nice cheesy break-up song, right? Imagine bawling your heart out to the tune of "It must have been love, but it's over now..." --- so much better than having your tears fall to the sound of silence, isn't it?
My song preferences are not quite mainstream. Except for the ones I hear from my kids' playlist when they get their airtime privilege in the car, my only other exposure to the latest billboard hits are on the short bursts of radio time when I'm driving. I'm not super picky with my music choices either, I'm genre neutral. I can go from Classic to head-banging rock & I am known to enjoy Sinatra melodies followed by an Ariana Grande piece. My artists of choice are absolutely dependent only on my song choice except for the love-of-my-music-life, Adam Levine, who forever holds the key to my accoustic heartstrings.
I do have a list of favorites that manages its way into my playlist & thru the come-hell-or-high-water-barrage of the latest ipod,iphone.tablet or gadgets, never gets purged because I never tire of it.
This set of songs are my "senti-list". Depending on the mood I'm in or what the state of my emotions are, these are the songs that enhance, inspire, complete, evoke, remind & forever commit to memory each and every joyful or excruciating detail, delightful & aching moment, threshold crossed, bridge burned, relationship forged or broken, milestone reached in my life... I hope they touch the seat of your deepest thoughts & emotions as they always do mine and give you a glimpse of who I am just by listening to them.
1.Feels like home - Chantal Kreviazuk
This song can both be a happy & sad song for me. It doesn't matter how many times or how long I've been listening to it with my beat-up cassette tape of the Dawson's Creek Album before where I heard this song for the first & a million times after that, till now that it's been remade & sung by different people, this song is the hymn by which my heart follows to go home...
2 Chasing Cars - Snow Patrol
Something about stopping, dropping & letting go of everything else just to be with THE ONE makes me always heave a sigh when this song is played.
3 Fix you - Coldplay
We all have & will be broken at one time or another in our lives, this is my royal theme song of hope that somehow, everything will turn out fine.
4 Send Me The Moon - Sara Bareilles
Oh, always my song of hope. I just love the sunset & how it says I've earned the time to just stop, rest & see something beautiful no matter how bad the day has been...& because the sunset always ushers in the moon, it brings with it the feeling that I've earned my day's respite & another chance at life when I awake...I know it's just a song but it's hope dressed up in sublime melody for me...Deep huh?:)
5 The Light - Sara Bareilles
Nothing is more sentimental, sad & tear jerking but also hopeful, feel-good & blessed than this song. This is the only song that conjures so many extreme emotions, it leaves me weak & alive at the same time. Each time you hear it is a different experience depending on what you're going through. Just listen to it & you'll know what I mean...
6 Edge of Desire - John Mayer
If you listen to the live version you'll hear John Mayer say a few things before he sings the song & you'll know why women fall for this music geek... I forget my name just listening to him sing this song!
7 If Only - Dave Mathews Band
The relaxed feel of this song doesn't take away the deep emotions it speaks of... Loss, regret, If only's. It's a nice "mauy" song without the usual heavy drama that leaves you dead haha.
8 Madness - Muse
Electrifying, downcast, moving. This song leaves me breathless... Just watch the video, will ya?:)
9 I Could Not Ask For More - Edwin McCain. http://youtu.be/ZPXRJkla7fI
Of ll the things that surely makes me feel so grateful & blessed, it's listening to this song... It's my favorite senti-pick-me-upper during those times when an upbeat song just won't do the job.
10 A Thousand Years - Christina Perri
This is just about the most mainstream as my song choices can get & usually when it gets that way, I don't love a song as much. BUT, until now, everytime, as in every single time, my heart can't help but swoon over the kind of never-ending love this song talks about. The hopeless-romantic in me wishes we actually can live forever if only to find & have a love like this...
11 When Did You Fall - Chris Rice
This is the coolest love song you'll hear. Laid back & yet it says the whole story. It's not pretentious, no big attempts to be deep, just honest-to-goodness conversation weaved with unassuming melody...
12 214 - Bamboo
This is by far one of the best Filipino love songs ever written! OPM is rich with countless others but this one just tugs at my heart... Both melody & lyrics are perfectly written...
13 I Won't Give Up - Jason Mraz
There was a time when this song got its hefty share of airtime everywhere, but it never got old for me. Aside from the obvious-that it's a beautiful song, maybe its message is close to a lot of our hearts that it never fails to touch a nerve or two when it's played. I'll be listening to this song till I'm old and gray & I'll have to keep telling myself not to give up, even if it's just going up the stairs that I'm talking about hahaha
14 With You ( from Ghost, The Musical)
In my last trip to New York a couple of years back, I got the chance to watch on Broadway the Musical, Ghost. For you people who belong to my generation, this is the stage play version of that famous similarly titled movie we chopped all our hair off for when Demi Moore did & had Unchained Melody playing like crazy on the radio 24/7! But this song which was done for the play is THE most beautiful sad song ever, no kidding!
15 If I Keep My Heart Out of Sight - James Taylor
Listening to this song simply sung with a guitar will make me stop and listen anytime. The part where "I Love You" is sung over and over is, to me, how it should be said to someone...simple, honest & stripped off all the frills...it feels so real & raw, I can never help but close my eyes...
16 You're the best thing-style council
This song will never sound outdated to me considering this was released when I was still in Grade School! It's a pretty cool & easy going way to say I Love You!
17 Always Something There to Remind Me - Naked Eyes
This song was released in the early 80's . More than 30years later, I have yet to find a song that captures the same place it has taken in my playlist.
18 Wildflower - skylark
"She's faced the hardest times you could imagine
And many times her eyes fought back the tears
And when her youthful world was about to fall in
Each time her slender shoulders bore the weight of all her fears
And a sorrow no one hears still rings in midnight silence, in her ears"
If I wasn't the big drama queen that I am who thinks my life is one big telenovela, you wouldn't understand why I so identify myself with this song...
Need I say more? ....
That's a peek at my fave Emo-List! If it doesn't tell you how impassioned my "emo" days are & how sentimental I could be, I don't know what would! Tell me how your Emo-Playlist sounds like. Let's see who trumps who in the melodrama category:)
Happy, or should I say, heavy listening, everyone!
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