Here is the playlist on Spotify!

We’re back! In November, we asked students to send us their three favourite songs of any kind, which were combined into this incredible playlist. This time, we challenged them to pick their favourite sad songs, so that the playlist would have one coherent theme.

Altogether, the mixtape is over four hours long, with sixty-four tracks by fifty-five artists. Once you are mentally prepared for some strong emotions, you can listen to the playlist on Spotify using the link at the top of this article.

We used an online playlist analyzer to sort the songs by their “happiness score,” in descending order. That means they get more and more heart wrenching as you go through the list. Or, you can put it on shuffle and surprise yourself when the most tear-jerking melodies come on.

And although these songs are now united by one theme, there is still lots of variety among the artists and styles. We’re sure you’ll be introduced to something new and exciting, but you’ll also recognize some modern classics of the sad boy hour.

Here are some quick stats about the playlist:

Number of tracks: 66

Most common genre: Rock

Most common key: D

Number of artists: 55

Most common artist: Radiohead, followed by Billy Joel, Taylor Swift, and Death Grips.

Most common decade: 2010s

Newest Song: It’ll Be Okay by Shawn Mendes

Oldest Song: Piano Man by Billy Joel

Good things usually come in trilogies^{(citation needed)} so we would expect at least one more volume of the playlist before the end of the year. Things should be more upbeat in the future, so stay tuned for your chance to share more songs…