Pain demands to be felt. I read this line in ‘The Fault In Our Stars’ by John Greene. And I related instantly. It’s just like with our bodies. We ignore any signs of sickness until and unless the pain sets in. Then, it becomes so unbearable we can’t even stand it for a minute. But, that’s the physical aspect of pain. The emotional one is slightly different. You can always feel it—right from the tiniest prick you feel in the mid section of your gut to the heavy and shooting pain that makes you want to curl up and cry yourself to sleep. And while sleep and pain are very much alike—you see, both come without forewarning—they are both of them, inversely proportional to each other. You can never have one while the other persists. This is just something you learn over time, pain and sleepless nights that combine time and pain. Physical wounds are easy to heal. Emotional wounds can last you a lifetime and hurt, just when you thought you healed.  

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Music is the tiny little thread that’s holding all of this together—pain, time, hurt, emotion; the whole thing. Music can make the pain seem slightly easier to bear. It’s like a relieving gel. It mutes the pain and makes room for sleep. Then, again, sometimes, it mutes the sleep and heightens the pain. Because, sometimes, you need to feel the pain, just so you know you still feel. And that’s why I put together these 20 songs for you—for the days when you need to feel the pain. 

1. The Night We Met – Lord Huron  2. Slow Dancing In A Burning Room – John Mayer  3. All I Want – Kodaline  4. With Or Without You – U2  5. Sky Blue And Black –  Jackson Browne  6. Would You Wait For Me – Brett Young  7. Two Ghosts – Harry Styles   8. This Town – Niall Horan  9. You – Switchfoot  10. Broken – Lifehouse  11. From Where You Are – Lifehouse 12. Look What You’ve Done – Jet  13. The Reason – Hoobastank  14 The Scientist – Coldplay  15. Photograph – Ed Sheeran  16. Here Without You – 3 Doors Down  17. Hurt – Johnny Cash  18. One Last Breath – Creed  19. Everything – Lifehouse  20. Everybody Hurts – REM