liv | Music meme: day 27 of 30 (Reply)

Almost there! Today, A song that breaks your heart. I'm going to cut all of this, not just the video, because the source of heartbreak is upsetting things.

There's a concept album by Tindersticks which is about the suicide of the sister of one of the band members (I think – I vaguely picked up this knowledge in the 90s and never really got the story completely straight). I was listening to Tiny Tears on repeat while I was grieving a suicide, but on reflection I don't think it's the song that broke my heart, it's the loss of someone I cared about and the song happens to remind me of that.

So I'm going to go for Misguided Angel by Cowboy Junkies. I've always interpreted the song to be about partner abuse, though it's not completely explicit, so maybe that is just in my head. What I think it's about is the situation where the singer actually genuinely loves her abuser and he has many good qualities, and she can't "just leave" because he's some kind of melodramatic villain. And it's musically absolutely beautiful, but the lyrics are incredibly painful: