Theme
Songs about grief
Interpretations from our editorial team that explore this theme.
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Ariana Grande
thank u, next
A breakup song that skips the bitterness, treating each former partner as a lesson and the singer herself as the relationship worth keeping
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Kendrick Lamar
Money Trees (Feat. Jay Rock)
A teenage daydream of escape through robbery and rap, set inside a Compton afternoon where money is the only shade from a relentless sun
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YoungBoy Never Broke Again
Kacey Talk
A flex record shadowed by grief, where every brag about cars, houses and chains keeps returning to a dead brother and the streets that took him
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Whiskey Myers
Broken Window Serenade
A Southern elegy for a childhood love who chased Hollywood, ended up dancing in a Texas strip club, and died of meth addiction
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Drake
2 Hard 4 The Radio
A Bay Area victory lap and shot-fired flex where Drake stages himself as too uncompromising for pop radio while name-checking enemies, lost friends, and his West Coast loyalties
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Taylor Swift
my tears ricochet
A funeral song sung by the ghost of a business partnership, where the betrayer mourns the very person they buried
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Big Thief
Not
A song that tries to name an unnameable feeling by listing everything it isn't, circling a center that language can't reach