Because sometimes you just need to have an angry cry.

A little while ago I was out for an evening stroll and I saw something wonderful. Something that made me stop and think “yeah, human race, we’re not that different you and I.”

It was a woman in her mid-thirties, having a cry, alone in her Volvo station wagon. The lights were off, the windows were up and Kate Bush was pumping out of her speakers.

She wasn’t just crying either, she was yelling. Screaming out the words to “Running Up That Hill”.

I don’t know how she got there (drove, probably) or why she was so upset (people are jerks, mostly) but in that moment I felt connected to her.

“Fuck you, world!”, I thought.

Since I was a teenager, whenever I’m being an inconsolable sod I head to my local park. I squeeze my grown-up hips into the child-sized swing, put my headphones on and swing my little heart out to Third Eye Blind’s “Semi-Charmed Life”. I don’t know when it started. I don’t know why it’s that song. But if I’m feeling a little down you can be assured I’ll be taking it out my frustrations on the local play equipment.

A couple of years ago after having, admittedly, a few too many beers and a particularly cathartic session on the swing, I decided to tell Third Eye Blind just how much their terrible song meant to me and wrote them a letter (delivered with the aid of social media, obviously).

Remarkably, they replied. “This is amazing,” they said. And I felt like slightly less of a lunatic.

Lunacy aside, we all have our adult equivalent of yelling into our pillow — and that’s mine. Whether you’ve just broken up with someone, had a bust-up with your significant other or are just feeling inexplicably annoyed with the world, sometimes you just have to get it all out. The tears, the rage, all of it.

With that in mind, and a nod to High Fidelity, I reached out to my work colleagues and asked them:  What songs do you listen to when you just wanna have a big ol’ angry cry?

Thus, in no particular order, I present our list of the top 10 songs to wallow to (before picking ourselves up again):

1. Kate Bush – Running Up That Hill

Because if I only could, I’d make a deal with god and I’d get him to swap our places, my dear, sad, Volvo-driving friend.

2. Bonnie Tyler – Total Eclipse of the Heart

A classic suggestion from one of our senior editors.

3. No Doubt – Don’t Speak

You don’t need to, Gwen knows what you’re saying.

4. Alanis Morrisette – You Oughta Know

Jagged Little Pill was the first album I knew all the words to from beginning to end. I was six-years-old and my mum confiscated it because it carried the mature content warning. I still love you, Alanis.

5. Meredith Brooks – Bitch

“I hate the world today”… need I continue?

6. The Clash – Train In Vain

Sometimes I hope I get dumped, just so I can listen to this song on repeat.

7. Third Eye Blind – Semi Charmed Life

Yes, I know it’s an awful song.

8. The Corrs – Never Really Loved You Anyway

Yeah f*ck you, whoever you are.

9. Pat Benatar –  Hit Me With Your Best Shot

For when you’re tired of crying and you’re ready to get back out there.

10. Taylor Swift – Shake It Off

There was one song the whole Mamamia team agreed on and it was by Taylor Swift, obviously.

So next time you feel like shutting yourself in your car and screaming at your windscreen, I say, do it. Because having a self-indulgent wallow isn’t just healthy, it’s actually kind of amazing.

This is by no means the definitive list. What song do you listen to when you need to get all your feels out?

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