50 Best Rock Songs About Guilt
Rock Tracks That Carry the Weight of Guilt
There’s a certain sting that creeps in when guilt lingers a bit too long. Not the loud, world-ending kind, but the quiet one that seeps through late nights or empty car rides when the noise fades. The right song can make that feeling breathe again, in the worst and best ways. The guitar lines sound like someone pacing a room, the lyrics circle around the thing that went wrong but never name it. Some of these tracks were meant to be confessions. Others fell into that territory by accident, the emotion leaking through anyway.
Rock has always had space for regret. It’s in the strained vocals, the rough edges of a riff that almost breaks, the way a chorus catches on a single word. Sometimes it’s wrapped in distortion, sometimes in a whisper that barely lands. You can hear it in the cracks of The National’s restraint or the blunt punch of Foo Fighters’ mid-tempo heartbreaks. Not every track spells it out, but the mood hits the same place guilt lives. These could’ve been written for anyone who’s tried to make peace with a past version of themselves and failed halfway through.
Not all of these tracks stick to one genre either. There’s crossover in pop, rock, country, and R&B songs that graze the same raw edge, each finding a different language for the same heaviness. Some weren’t made with guilt in mind, but they still sit there, right in that strange in-between where regret meets acceptance. These are the ones that feel like a confession turned into sound. Here are the best rock songs that wrestle with guilt and get stuck in your head anyway.
Top 10 Guilt-Themed Rock Songs
1. 'Bohemian Rhapsody' by Queen
2. 'All Apologies' by Nirvana
3. 'Hurt' by Nine Inch Nails
4. 'Guilty' by Nazareth
5. 'The War Criminal Rises and Speaks' by Okkervil River
6. '18 and Life' by Skid Row
7. 'Guilt' by Marianne Faithfull
8. 'Change (In the House of Flies)' by Deftones
9. 'Guilty Partner' by New Order
10. 'Shame Shame' by Foo Fighters
Rock and Metal Songs Exploring Personal Guilt #11 to 20
11. 'Black' by Pearl Jam
12. 'Careless Whisper' by George Michael
13. 'Running Dry (Requiem for the Rockets)' by Neil Young
14. 'Don't Speak' by No Doubt
15. 'I Apologize' by Hüsker Dü
16. 'Shame' by Eurythmics
17. 'Liar' by Title Fight
18. 'Guilty Conscience' by Charlie & The Church
19. 'Crimson and Clover' by Tommy James and the Shondells
20. 'It's a Sin' by Pet Shop Boys
Songs About Regret and Self-Blame in Rock Music #21 to 30
21. 'Guilt Trip' by PUP
22. 'Delilah' by Tom Jones
23. 'Criminal' by Fiona Apple
24. 'Cryin' Shame' by Gregg Allman
25. 'Save Yourself' by Stabbing Westward
26. 'I Threw It All Away' by Bob Dylan
27. 'If I Could Turn Back Time' by Cher
28. 'Somebody That I Used to Know' by Gotye featuring Kimbra
29. 'Guilt Is a Useless Emotion' by New Order
30. 'Shame on the Night' by Dio
The Theme of Guilt in Alternative Rock #31 to 40
31. 'I Shot the Sheriff' by Eric Clapton
32. 'Don't Try' by HEALTH
33. 'Where Do I Put Her Memory' by Charley Pride
34. 'Was I Right or Wrong?' by Lynyrd Skynyrd
35. 'The Rest of My Life' by Less Than Jake
36. 'The Ballad of Danny Bailey (1909–34)' by Elton John
37. 'Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap' by AC/DC
38. 'November Rain' by Guns N' Roses
39. 'My Shame Is True' by Alkaline Trio
40. 'Guilty' by Gravity Kills
Rock Songs About Conscience and Apology #41 to 50
41. 'Guilty' by Ella Fitzgerald
42. 'Hello Darlin'' by Conway Twitty
43. 'It's A Plain Shame' by Peter Frampton
44. 'Shame On You' by Aerosmith
45. 'Suffer Through' by Movements
46. 'I'm Sorry' by Brenda Lee
47. 'When the Party's Over' by Billie Eilish
48. 'Polly' by Nirvana
49. 'She Used To Love Me A Lot' by Johnny Cash
50. 'Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)' by Phil Collins
© 2025 Carson McQueen
