The following list of songs consist of some that are great to sing along to whether you’re alone, or out at a karaoke bar with friends.  Belting these tunes out in the comfort of your shower or car or just lying in bed.

There’s a few songs for all sorts of breakup situations. Of course the angry songs are probably the ones that are more fun to sing, but there’s ones about longing, complications, and residual feelings.

Songs with videos after the jump.

Air Supply – All Out Of Love

Ne-Yo – So Sick

Destiny’s Child – Survivor

Gloria Gaynor – I Will Survive

Marilyn Manson – Tainted Love

Originally recorded by Gloria Jones and then made famous by Soft Cel, the rendition by Marilyn Manson is probably more on par with the fun of singing karaoke after a break up. Scream it.

Billy Ray Cyrus – Achy Breaky Heart

Limp Bizkit – Break Stuff

The Cranberries – Linger

Christina Aguilera – Fighter

No Doubt – Don’t Speak

Wave – Don’t Say Sarah

Chicago – Hard To Say I’m Sorry

Blu Cantrell – Hit ‘Em Up Style

Linken Park – In The End

A little screaming never hurt. By the time you’re done singing this song in that smokey karaoke bar who knows, maybe you’ll have that ever so appealing scratchy voice.

Rihanna & Ne-Yo – Hate That I Love You

Breakups are sometimes a little more complicated than making a clean break. There’s residual feelings and all sorts of other emotional ties.

Lara Fabian – I Will Love Again

Focusing on the future can often help in the process.

Fugees – Killing Me Softly

The Fugees rendition or the original Roberta Flack are both easy to sing along to not to mention they’re the songs that’ll have everyone who’s with you singing along with you.

Craig David Ft Guru – Don’t Love You No More

Caught in a situation where the other person is in utter denial? It doesn’t get clearer than this.

4 P.M. – Sukiyaki

Natalie Imbruglia – Torn

Despite how happy you may be or sad you may be, the sound of a sad or melancholy love song is unmistakable. Some enjoy it for it’s pacing and others for the vocal styling. Whatever your reasons may be. Here are 20 songs in no particular order.

Mariah Carey – Don’t Forget About Us
Mariah’s lengthy career means you can practically pick any of her albums and find at least 2 or 3 sad or melancholy love songs. Here’s a popular one.

One Republic – Apologize
Thanks to Timbaland’s “remixing”, this band’s excellent song got a lot of exposure here in North America

Keane – This Is The Last Time

Hawksley Workman – On The Highway Tonight (There’s No Reason To Cry Out Your Eyes
Marion Cotillard stars in this music video crying in her car. That in itself is melancholy enough.

Something Corporate – Konstantine

Jimmy Eat World – Hear You Me

Nelly Furtado – All Good Things (Come To An End)

Seether ft. Amy Lee – Broken

Howie Day – Collide

Alicia Keys – If I Ain’t Got You

Five For Fighting – One More For Love
Excuse the sappy fan video.

Nelly & Tim McGraw

Justin Timberlake – (Another Song) All Over Again

Usher & Alicia Keys – My Boo

3 Doors Down – Here Without You

Kid Rock ft. Sheryl Crow – Picture

Oasis – Wonderwall

Sarah McLachlan – I Will Remember You

Daniel Bedingfield – If You’re Not The One

Jennifer Lopez ft. LL Cool J – All I Have

N*Sync – Gone
…and here’s a little guilty pleasure as a bonus.

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If she purely only did instrumentals it would have been 100 times better, and apparently I wasn’t the only one who felt the same. From the few people I conversed with I heard people describing her as a “wailing wombat” Ouch. Fujiya & Miyagi were definitely far better received with their electro pop and addictive beats.

Peter Bjorn and John definitely brought the house down with their impressive set. They played songs from as far back as when they were just a meager little band in High School. Of course they also played their wildly addictive Young Folks which is what’s below:

Enjoy!

Some people simply enjoy the sound, others are actually going through the emotions, and yet others are contemplating it. Here is a small selection. Please keep in mind some of these songs have explicit lyrics, so turn off your speakers if you’re at work.

For the next list, I’ll be going with songs with a positive message.

These are in no particular order.

Ben Folds Five – Song for the Dumped
Well this one is straight up a breakup song. GIVE ME BACK MY STUFF!

Kelly Clarkson – Since You’ve Been Gone
This is the “I’m better off now without you…but first I’m tearing your place apart” song

Green Day – Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)
It’s funny how this song can be used in the context of great times and bad times. Good Riddance is right.

Eamon – Fuck It (I Don’t Want You Back)
An extremely immature highschool type of song with plenty of F-Bombs for good measure, hey sometimes it is just plain immature.

Alicia Keys – Karma
The you dumped me – I had a hard time – Now I’m okay – Now you want me back – Too bad for you! Song. Karma sucks.

Third Eye Blind – How’s It Going To Be?
This one is for being right on the verge of stepping off that cliff. Contemplating what it’ll be like. Classic Third Eye Blind.

Beyonce – Irreplaceable
After Independent Woman, how can you not expect this? Beyonce being a class act.

Frankie J – Don’t Wanna Try
It’s funny how so many people think this is such a beautiful cheery song. Perhaps you should pay more attention to the lyrics.

The Killers – Mr Brightside
Don’t you just hate that? Pitfalls of optimism.

Michelle Branch – Are You Happy Now?
A miniature version of Alanis

Alanis Morrisette – You Oughta Know
Gives us a little too many details, but hey don’t piss a girl off.

Ne-Yo – So Sick
Maybe not so sick of the other person, but definitely sick of all the reminders.

Beck – Lost Cause
Scathing, in a down tempo kind of way.

Maroon 5 – Harder To Breathe
Pure rage driven lyrics.

Jimmy Eat World – Pain
Finally free…or are you?

Sum 41 – Pieces
Better of on your own.

No Doubt – Don’t Speak
I don’t need any of your explanations, reasons or anything else. Just shut up.

The Used – Taste of Ink
I’ve got the power to leave. I’m taking the opportunity. Goodbye!

John Legend – Used To Love U
Go look for your money elsewhere gold digger!

Avril Lavigne – My Happy Ending
Oops my bad.

BONUS: Justin Timberlake – Cry Me A River
What list is complete without this gem.

There’s so many artists that are so fixed up in the studio that they sound almost unrecognizable live. Hawksley is certainly not one of them. His sound stays true whether you heard him live first and checked out his records or vice versa. He has an extremely strong stage presence and is truly a showman. His chemistry with his band is definitely solid (especially with Mr Lonely on the keys). I must say this is truly one of the best shows I’ve seen in recent memory.

Being one not to disappoint he returned to the stage not once but twice for encore performances. Initially only performing songs from his older albums, upon his second encore he treated us to some tracks of his latest offering.

There was a dude with a straw hat and pinstripe blazer at the front blatantly bootlegging the entire concert to his minidisc recorder. So I’m sure some searching within the next few days will probably turn up some snippets of the live performance somewhere.

I’ve heard Viva Voce a few different times whilst exploring the depths of various husband & wife bands that were similar to No-Fi Soul Rebellion. You may have even seen a song or two of their’s featured on the sidebar of this blog. Well the recordings do them absolutely no justice live.

Viva Voce is composed of husband and wife duo Kevin & Anita Robinson. They rock a show like no others I’ve seen. They’re skilled and from what I’ve found in married duo bands are they always seem to infuse that same chemistry from their relationship into their music. It just absolutely flows melodic. I can only describe it as an aural delight. The music just hits you on such a deep visceral level.

Anita’s skill on the guitars that she rocks is a rarity and she plays with such finesse it’s extremely hypnotic to watch. It’s almost trance like the semi-sedated expression she posesses whilst she’s plucking insane screams and wails out of the guitar.

The opening act of Bella is as always with Bella…absolutely awesome. What the Georgia Straight readers once voted as Vancouver’s #1 Band still rains true in my heart for this band. There’s not many bands that are around that are on the cutting edge of a polished sound together whilst staying true to their roots and not selling out to the mainstream.

Unfortunately I don’t think I could say the same about Shapes & Sizes. I certainly just wasn’t feeling it with them that night. I wasn’t the only one to have that sentiment as the club quickly cleared out when it was their set. Luckily man came back for the main show Viva Voce. Shapes & Sizes has been getting quite a bit of press and exposure lately and perhaps I had hyped expectations of a good show. The band just seemed like they were all over the place with no cohesion between any of it’s members.

All in all however it certainly was an enjoyable show. I also had the chance to pick up the new Viva Voce CD – “Get Yr Blood Sucked Out” It’s worth picking up to hear some of their new songs. Next on my list of shows to attend, I’ll be going to the Hawskley Workman show at the Commodore tomorrow night.

In the meantime on the personal enjoyment side of things here’s some of the events I checked out.

The BC Lions vs Toronto Argonauts game. It’s been forever since I’ve been to a Lions game and it couldn’t be better with such exciting play the Lions put out Friday (Thanks Jordan for the tix & Melissa for the invite). Not to mention the exciting play by the horde of security guards and single policeman for escorting out a rowdy fan in our section.

Saturday I managed to get a ton of work done in the morning which allowed me the novelty of checking out the Canada Day festivities and last few shows of the Jazz Festival down on Granville Island. The two shows I caught were at Performance Works which is a great location, since you can opt to sit outside on the grassy knoll and still get a good feel for the show. The first gig I caught was the Saul Berson Quintet which provided some great jazz beats and amazing accordian playing.

After Saul Berson was the Rumba Calzada. They’re a super popular local band and never disappoint. Playing a fusion mix of salsa, jazz, and Afro-Cuban rhythms they got everyone up on their feet and dancing. It was a totally kicking vibe. As such I left my laid back stargazing position on the grassy knoll to get in to the funktastic action.

The music was amazing and they had a special guest playing with them that night. I believe his name was Vincent Mah who’s from Edmonton and plays the trumpet. His solos were stellar! The music was a great mix for the warm night air and the Gastown amber ale from the brewery.

Sunday I went back to catch a few more shows seeing as it was the end of the Jazz Festival. I took my dog Kaila with me and we just hung out listening to the Jennifer Scott Quartet. Being surprisingly well behaved I took Kaila for a walk all around Granville Island and even checked out a few Buskers performing. I did have to leave however after one of the performers decided to don a superhero type costume with a whip. Kaila wasn’t too down with that and stole the show with her incessent barking.

C’est la vie.

Moodlogic’s problem was that it requires a download and essentially is only useful for making a mix CD and that’s about it. It could be more powerful, however it does not help you find new music.

What makes Pandora work is it is quick and accessible. It allows you to listen to music you do not own and provides great information on why it presents the music it does to you. If you want it even conveniently links you over to Amazon and iTunes for quick purchases.

Another plus with Pandora is it seems to be great at picking up on Indie artists as well, things from local garage bands to mainstream pop. It has it all. If you want to save your stations you’ll need to set up a user account, but even that is done right. It’s quick, pain free and doesn’t require jumping through your email to verify various things.

Music for the people, the way it should be.

Anyways I went primarily to check out my friend playing in his band Sister J. The band covers a lot of old-school funk, soul, R&B, and disco hits. They definitely worked the crowd like crazy. It drew a huge crowd I must say. I stayed after they finished to check out some of the other acts and talentwise they definitely had it all together (and I’m not just saying that because my friend is in the band). It’s cool how good groovy music draws a crowd of all ages with kids all the way up to seniors gyrating to the musical delight.

This is Sister J’s Soul Summit. From left to right: My buddy Chris “C-Note” Yip on the guitar & vocals, Paul “P-byte” Peterson on the drums & vocals, Joellel “Sister J” Lush-Tatem with the lead vocals, John “Soloflex” Scott on the bass & vocals, and finally Lincoln “the Oracle” Tatem on the keys and vocals as well.

Here’s Chip just going nutso on his axe breaking it down. Just as nutso (in a good way of course) when he starts doing the wailing “WOAHOHOH” vocals

As soon as they started the crowd just kept growing. I noticed numerous people crossing the street purposely to see what was going on. Many of whom ended up grabbing seats and sticking around for the entire set. This happy camper had a nice spot on dad’s shoulders.

Some more playing and wild vocals from everyone in the band and all the young and young at heart are feeling the beats.

Some people cleared out of the way in order to make room for those that wanted some more room to groove and move. The kids really liked it a ton and were just going dance crazy over a cover of ::wikipedia(Chaka Khan, Chaka Khan)::.

It was a totally fun vibe happening at Main and 28th with a ton of people just enjoying a Solly’s Bagel, and the live music throughout the day. I missed the first band that played before Sister J, however I did catch a few of the ones afterwards. Unfortunately I can’t remember all their names.

Unfortunately as you can see here, the crowd died down for the rest of the bands. This duo played predominantly country and folk and as a result lost the majority of the younger crowd. JRFM showed up however with their street squad and were handing out some JRFM bumper stickers, albeit not very many people were there to hand them to.

I was on my way down to the next block Main & 27th to check out the ::wikipedia(Capoeira, Capoeira):: demonstration when I bumped into this duo that was playing some really darn good folk music out the back of their old Chevy. Since they were playing midway between the two blocks they caused quite a congestion in front of the grocery store on the sidewalk.

The rest of the festival was very neat with much to see, eat and do. There was also a very dedicated and nice guy handing out leaflets about the upcoming Peace Walk happening in conjunction with the World Peace Forum in Vancouver on June 24th which I’ll be attending. It will be featuring Cindy Sheehan otherwise referred to as the “Peace Mom” and other speakers from all around the world. I remember seeing her on the news a little while back and it was quite moving.
You can find out some more info about the walk here at the World Peace Forum site or at Vancouver’s Anti-War Coalition site.