may be dating myself here, but I have vivid memories of sitting in my room as a kid, boombox in front of me, blank cassette tape loaded and ready, finger hovering over the record button. I was waiting. Waiting for my favorite song to come on the radio. The moment the DJ’s voice lifted in that tell-tale introduction, the adrenaline would surge and I’d slam down on record with the focus of someone defusing a bomb. Yes. Got it.

And if the DJ cut the song off early with some cute anecdote? The fury was real.

I have always been a music person. I think music reaches into places that words alone sometimes cannot. It bypasses the part of us that wants to explain and rationalize and goes straight to the part that just feels. Others find that same portal through visual art, or movement, or being out in nature, but for me, it has always been song.

Maybe you know what I mean. Maybe there is a song that comes on and, before you even realize it, you are crying in your car. Or singing at full volume with a kind of joy that surprises you. Or feeling something you have been carrying around for weeks finally loosen just a little.

Why Music Works: The Science of Emotional Release

There is a clinical concept behind this experience. You might hear it called cathartic release or emotional catharsis. The idea that emotions held in the body need somewhere to go, and that certain experiences can help us move them through and out. Research in music therapy and affective neuroscience supports what many of us have known intuitively: music activates the limbic system, the brain’s emotional center, and can trigger genuine physiological responses, goosebumps, tears, elevated heart rate, a felt sense of relief.

This is not trivial. In a world that often asks us to manage, suppress, or push through our feelings, having a safe and accessible outlet for emotional release matters. Your playlist might be doing more therapeutic work than you realize.

Songs for When You Need to Feel It

These are not love songs. These are songs for the harder, more complicated emotions, grief, longing, the weight of things unspoken. Here are four that have earned a permanent spot on my emotional release playlist:

Gravity — Sara Bareilles

I have a small claim to early fandom here. I first heard this song in college, before Sara Bareilles was a household name. She had written and arranged it for her collegiate a cappella group at UCLA, and she sang the solo. There was something about hearing it in that context- stripped of production, just voices, that made the emotional weight of the song land with full force. A voice like that, singing about the exhausting pull of something you cannot quite let go of. I was a fan from that moment, and I have followed her work ever since.

Of course, the rest of the world caught up eventually. But there is something quietly special about having loved a song before it belonged to everyone.

Leader of the Ban — Dan Fogelberg

Grief, gratitude, and the particular ache of realizing you did not fully appreciate someone until later. It gets me every time.

How Could I Ever Know? — Rebecca Luker & Mandy Patinkin, The Secret Garden (Original Broadway Cast)

I’ll be honest- this one may be unfair to include, because I was fortunate enough to see this production live, and that experience is woven into every listen. But I include it anyway, because I have never encountered a more honest depiction of grief in song. The way it holds rage and sadness in the same breath. The way grief can freeze you in place. When Rebecca Luker’s character, a woman who has died- turns to her husband and asks “Forgive me, can you forgive me, and hold me in your heart, and find some new way to love me- now that we’re apart?” I have never once made it through dry-eyed. I don’t expect to start now.

It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday — Boyz II Men

There is something about the simplicity of this one. Harmonies that feel like a hand on your shoulder.

Winter — Tori Amos

Quietly one of the most emotionally complex songs ever written about a parent-child relationship. It rewards close listening.

Songs for When You Need to Move Through It

Emotional release does not always look like tears. Sometimes it looks like dancing alone in your kitchen, or singing so loudly in the car that you arrive somewhere feeling lighter than when you left. Uplifting, energizing music serves a real purpose too, it can help regulate your nervous system, shift your physical state, and remind you that joy is still accessible even in hard seasons.

Here are five that reliably do that for me:

What the Rest of the Office Is Listening To

Of course, I’m aware my taste runs toward a certain era. So I did what any curious therapist would do, I went around the office and asked. Here is what some of the other clinicians at Good Company are reaching for when they need a musical reset:

Natalie is building her catharsis playlist around Florence + the Machine’s Shake It Out, three Beyoncé tracks (Don’t Hurt Yourself, Irreplaceable, and All Night), and Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit, a range that suggests she contains multitudes.

Emma L. offered a single, considered answer: Growing Sideways by Noah Kahan. If you know, you know.

Bernita reaches for Unstoppable by Sia, Growing Pains by Alessia Cara, and, in her words, pretty much anything by Kendrick Lamar.

Julia turns to It’s Not Right But It’s Okay by Whitney Houston and I’ll Never Love Again by Lady Gaga. Both are devastatingly good choices.

Maddison’s list is perhaps the most eclectic of the group: Just Life by Jaguar Dreams, Shake Off the Rain by The Paper Kites, Vienna by Billy Joel, and, making a strong case for her, War Pigs by Black Sabbath.

Car submitted: Samson by Regina Spektor, Beautiful Things by Benson Boone, a cover of I Wanna Dance with Somebody by Easy Freak, Godspeed by Frank Ocean, and Glimpse of Us by Joji. An emotionally sophisticated and quietly heartbreaking lineup.

Here’s the full playlist of the songs on our Good Company Therapy Group playlist, no DJ, no cassette tape required:

Build Your Own Emotional Release Playlist

The songs on your list will not look like mine, and they should not. What matters is that somewhere in your life, you have music that helps you feel what needs to be felt, and music that helps you remember that you are still capable of joy.

If you find yourself consistently numb, unable to access emotions even through music or other outlets, or overwhelmed in ways that feel unmanageable, that is worth paying attention to. Emotional release is healthy and natural, but sometimes we need more than a good playlist. Sometimes we need support.

You Don’t Have to Process This Alone

If you’re feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or disconnected from your emotions, therapy can help you safely process what’s underneath and build tools for lasting regulation.

At Good Company Therapy, we’re here to support you in moving through—not just managing—what you’re carrying.

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