ChordEvery feeling › Longing

Songs for longing

The ache for someone or somewhere that isn't here. These songs don't resolve it. They give it somewhere to go.

Chosen from 26,755 songs in Chord's library that carry longing. Every description below is written about that specific recording.

Songs to sit with it

No rushing. These stay at the weight you're already at.

  1. Yard Of Blonde Girls
    Jeff Buckley

    Unfinished masterpiece. Buckley's voice hovers over ghostly guitar harmonics, lyrics fragment into abstraction, the silence between notes heavier than the sung lines. Haunting in its incompleteness.

    1998 · sparse · vocal-forward · acoustic · descending arc
  2. Tere Bina Zindagi Se
    Lata Mangeshkar, Kishore Kumar

    A masterclass in vocal sorrow. Lata and Kishore trade verses over a minimal string arrangement, each phrase stretched to breaking. The silence between notes carries as much weight as the melody.

    1975 · vocal-forward · orchestral · sparse · descending arc
  3. Join Me In Death
    HIM

    Gothic rock ballad with Ville Valo's baritone soaring over chiming guitars and dramatic dynamics. A romanticized surrender to darkness that feels like a velvet-draped funeral procession.

    1999 · guitar-driven · vocal-forward · dense · descending arc
  4. With Or Without You - Live
    U2

    The Edge's infinite sustain guitar and Bono's raw vocal delivery transform this live rendition into a slow-burning confession of codependent love, peaking in spiritual exhaustion.

    1987 · guitar-driven · sparse · vocal-forward · ascending arc
  5. Come Talk to Me
    Peter Gabriel

    Hushed, spacious plea for connection. Gabriel's intimate vocal floats over minimal piano, subtle textures, and a distant choir. Raw vulnerability dressed in cathedral silence.

    1992 · sparse · orchestral · vocal-forward · descending arc
  6. Wuthering Heights - 2018 Remaster
    Kate Bush

    An operatic, emotionally overwhelming masterpiece of gothic pop with soaring vocals and driving rhythms that sweeps the listener into a vortex of tragic passion.

    1978 · orchestral · vocal-forward · ascending arc

Songs to move through it

These don't leave you where they found you.

  1. Cowgirl in the Sand - 2009 Remaster
    Neil Young, Crazy Horse

    Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere centerpiece. Ten minutes of Young's lyrical guitar explorations over a hypnotic Crazy Horse groove, building from folk intimacy to a soaring, feedback-kissed climax that feels like spiritual searching.

    1969 · guitar-driven · dense · distorted · ascending arc
  2. Take Me Back to Eden
    Sleep Token

    Seven-minute opus. Begins with solo piano and Vessel's intimate croon, gradually swallowing the listener in layers of strings, choir, djent riffs, and electronic textures. A spiritual homecoming that feels like drowning in light.

    2023 · orchestral · synth-heavy · vocal-forward · ascending arc
  3. Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)
    Kate Bush

    Fairlight CMI textures pulse like a heartbeat. Bush's vocal ascends in register and intensity, negotiating with divinity. Art-pop alchemy that turns metaphysical bargaining into visceral catharsis.

    1985 · synth-heavy · electronic · dense · ascending arc
  4. Isis
    Bob Dylan

    Epic seven-minute narrative driven by Scarlet Rivera's weeping violin and Dylan's most vivid storytelling. A marital dissolution framed as mythic journey, each verse a chapter in a private odyssey.

    1976 · acoustic · sparse · vocal-forward · ascending arc
  5. Cowgirl in the Sand - 2017 Remaster
    Neil Young, Crazy Horse

    Likely a 1977 live version (Rust Never Sleeps era). Same epic architecture but rawer, heavier, with Young's guitar more aggressive and the band locked into a darker, more muscular groove.

    1977 · guitar-driven · dense · distorted · ascending arc
  6. Falling
    Julee Cruise

    The definitive Twin Peaks vocal. Cruise's voice floats above a shimmering, reverb-drenched arrangement. Lyrics dissolve into pure feeling, the sound of falling forever.

    1990 · synth-heavy · vocal-forward · ambient · ascending arc

Songs to steady yourself

Familiar footing when everything else is moving.

  1. Your Voice (Adam Port Remix)
    Caiiro & AWEN

    A hypnotic deep house journey featuring driving hypnotic percussion and haunting, echoing vocal hooks that slowly build intensity.

    2022 · electronic · groove-forward · synth-heavy · ascending arc
  2. To The Ends Of The Earth
    Stan Getz

    Stan's tenor at its most lyrical. Cool, floating, each note placed with deliberate grace over a whisper-quiet rhythm section. The sound of a master balladeer turning a standard into a meditation on distance and devotion.

    1957 · acoustic · sparse · vocal-forward · flat arc
  3. wherever u r (ft. V of BTS)
    UMI

    UMI and V's voices intertwine over gentle guitar. A transcontinental lullaby about distance and devotion, minimal production letting the emotional weight of 'wherever you are, I'll be there' land softly.

    2024 · acoustic · sparse · vocal-forward · flat arc
  4. 海嶼你
    馬也_Crabbit & Cole先生

    Taiwanese indie folk. Fingerpicked guitar, soft male-female harmonies, seaside imagery. Warm lo-fi production feels like a voice note from a distant shore. Steady, comforting, no surprises.

    2022 · acoustic · guitar-driven · lo-fi · flat arc
  5. January
    Disclosure,Jamie Woon

    UK garage-inflected deep house with Woon's soulful, aching vocals over shuffling 2-step rhythms and warm chords. Late-night, rain-slicked, quietly devastating.

    2021 · synth-heavy · electronic · vocal-forward · flat arc
  6. Leaving To Zion
    Black Uhuru

    Spiritual roots reggae featuring lush vocal interplay and driving percussion that lifts the spirit while maintaining a heavy, meditative dub groove.

    1981 · groove-forward · acoustic · ascending arc

Songs that lift

The turn upward, when you're ready for it.

  1. Dream House
    Deafheaven

    A soaring, emotionally devastating blackgaze epic blending tremolo-picked fury with shimmering, triumphant post-rock crescendos.

    2013 · guitar-driven · dense · orchestral · ascending arc
  2. Be Without You - Moto Blanco Vocal Mix
    Mary J. Blige, Bobby Blanco

    A high-energy club house remix that transforms Mary J. Blige's raw vocal anguish into a driving, dancefloor-ready catharsis.

    2006 · synth-heavy · electronic · groove-forward · ascending arc
  3. Kingdom (feat. North Downs)
    Maribou State

    Driving, anthemic electronic with soaring vocals and a powerful, building chorus that feels like an emotional breakthrough.

    2018 · electronic · synth-heavy · groove-forward · ascending arc
  4. Bad - Live
    U2

    An epic, soaring live rendition built on Edge's shimmering delay guitar and Bono's cathartic, emotional vocal release.

    1984 · guitar-driven · dense · ascending arc
  5. Wet Sand
    Red Hot Chili Peppers

    An epic alternative rock journey that starts introspective and explodes into a soaring, cathartic guitar climax.

    2006 · guitar-driven · dense · ascending arc
  6. Born to Run
    Bruce Springsteen

    Epic rock anthem with wall-of-sound production, poetic lyrics about escape, and a soaring saxophone climax.

    1975 · guitar-driven · orchestral · dense · ascending arc

Songs to celebrate

Full brightness, nothing held back.

  1. Somebody To Love - Live At Milton Keynes Bowl / June 1982
    Queen

    Legendary live version: Freddie turns the song into a call-and-response sermon, extending the vamp into pure communal joy. The band locks into a groove that feels like redemption, closing-set essential.

    1976 · piano-led · dense · vocal-forward · ascending arc
  2. In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3
    Coheed and Cambria

    The band's crowning epic. Nine minutes of shifting movements, singalong hooks, and mythic storytelling. Builds from intimate verses to a galaxy-sized chorus that refuses to let go.

    2003 · guitar-driven · dense · vocal-forward · ascending arc
  3. Cinnamon Girl - Live; 2016 Remaster
    Neil Young, Crazy Horse

    Live Rust version: looser, heavier, with the band locking into a ferocious groove. Neil's vocal more ragged, the solo exploding into feedback ecstasy. A peak-time anthem.

    1979 · guitar-driven · dense · vocal-forward · ascending arc
  4. Never Let Me Down Again - Live at Rose Bowl, Pasadena, CA, 18/6/1988
    Depeche Mode

    The definitive live version. 60,000 voices singing the chorus back to Gahan, that iconic bassline driving a euphoric communal release, transcendent and sweaty.

    1989 · synth-heavy · electronic · groove-forward · ascending arc
  5. Wish You Were Here - Live
    Pink Floyd

    Expansive live rendition with soaring audience singalong, extended guitar interplay, and a communal climax that transforms grief into shared transcendence.

    1995 · guitar-driven · dense · polished · ascending arc
  6. Last Dance - 12" Version
    Donna Summer, Marc Paul Simon, Bobby Guttadaro

    Epic disco anthem that transforms from an intimate slow ballad into an explosive peak-hour dancefloor rush.

    1979 · orchestral · groove-forward · electronic · ascending arc

Arcs that pass through longing

Chord's playlists move. These start or end here.

longing → gratitudeFrom aching for what's missing to noticing what's here.longing → peaceLetting the ache become something you can put down.

Feelings next to longing

Close enough that the same night often holds both.

Gratitude4,581 songsPeace9,272 songsHeartbreak9,324 songsMelancholy23,004 songsNostalgia12,840 songsLoneliness3,551 songs

Want this shaped around your own music?

Chord reads your own library and builds an arc that moves the way you need to move today.

Build a longing playlist

Questions

What songs are good for longing?

The 30 on this page, drawn from 26,755 in Chord's library that carry longing. They're grouped by what each is for, because the right song for sitting in a feeling is rarely the right song for leaving it.

How does Chord know a song is about longing?

Every song is read for emotional content: what it carries, how intensely, whether it rises or falls, and what it's useful for. That reading is what these pages are built from, not genre tags or chart position.

Can I get a playlist made from my own music?

Yes, free and with no account needed. Tell Chord how you feel in your own words, and it builds an arc from music you already love: a beginning, a turn, an arrival.