Time is Running Out

Prompt: Name three songs to help you get over a breakup.

Breaking-up is never easy. At least Music is always my girlfriend...

I cannot possibly choose just three songs that help me get over breakups. It's just not going to happen. What I can do is pick the first three that come to mind from each stage of a breakup. I think I'll go in reverse order...

Good Life by Francis Dunnery

First is the moving on, since generally this is the last step:

Francis Dunnery has perfectly captured what it means to loose what feels like love at the time and then still feel good about it. The song walks through the breakdown of a relationship, the feeling of loss, and ultimately concedes that it just wasn't meant to be and that there is someone else out there. The lyrics conclude that everyone deserves to be happy, even if that sentiment isn't achieved with the person you thought you would end up with.

The Wrong Girl by Belle & Sebastian

If the last step is moving on, the second step must be accepting that the breakup happened with good reason:

This songs title says it all. While you thought you found her, it was simply "the wrong girl, the wrong kind, the wrong hand to be holding". And at the end of a break-up, don't we sometimes need reassurance that it was, in fact, the wrong person?

Left and Leaving by The Weakerthans

The first step of any breakup is clearly the actual leaving and being left. The most painful part of the process:

This song deviates a bit from my other two. Instead of focusing on moving on, this one focuses on the pain and loneliness that we all go through in a post-breakup phase. It reminds us that someone has felt this way before and someone will feel this way again. A clear indicator that our emotions are distinct but not unique and that if the singers can get through it, so can we.

"Wait for the year to drown.
Spring forward, fall back down.
I'm trying not to wonder where you are."

This song captures that perfectly and amplifies that human connection that music serves. It also reminds us that time is the ultimate factor in getting over it.