100 Best Songs About Being Burnt Out
Best Songs When You Feel Emotionally Drained and Done With Everything
There’s a specific kind of tired that sleep won’t fix. It’s the kind where your brain won’t shut up but your body’s already checked out. You show up anyway, sip cold coffee like it’s going to change anything, scroll through emails or texts you don’t want to answer, nod along while someone explains something you stopped caring about two meetings ago. You’re technically functioning. But it’s hollow. You feel it when you close the door behind you and realize you haven’t taken a deep breath in days. These songs hit that strange place. Not sad exactly. Not angry either. Just over it in a way that sits heavy in your bones.
There’s always that moment when burnout stops being dramatic and starts feeling quiet. Nobody throws a fit. Nobody cries on the kitchen floor. You’re doing laundry at 11 PM again or sitting in a car that won’t start and realizing the only thing you’ve had today is a granola bar and half a thought. The music that lands here doesn't try to rescue you from it. It leans into the flatness, the fog. Maybe it’s Mitski sounding worn down but still singing. Maybe it’s Zach Bryan trying to hold it together through a cracked voice. Maybe it’s old-school Mary J. giving shape to the kind of exhaustion that sticks in your chest.
Not every breakdown feels loud. Sometimes it slips in quietly, masked by routine, until you start flinching at your own notifications. And when you’re sitting in that mood, too done to talk and too wired to sleep, music finds its way in. These pop, rock, country, and R&B songs don’t fix anything. They sit next to you in the mess and let the moment stay broken. Here’s a playlist that gets it.
Top 10 Burnout Songs
1. 'Unsteady'—X Ambassadors
2. 'Everybody Hurts'—R.E.M.
3. 'I'm So Tired'—Fugazi
4. 'Numb Little Bug'—Em Beihold
5. 'Sky Full of Song'—Florence + The Machine
6. 'Asleep'—The Smiths
7. 'Landslide'—Fleetwood Mac
8. 'Vienna'—Billy Joel
9. 'Stressed Out'—Twenty One Pilots
10. 'Under Pressure'—Queen & David Bowie
Songs for When You're Feeling Overwhelmed #11—30
11. 'i'm so tired...'—Lauv & Troye Sivan
12. 'Breathe Me'—Sia
13. 'Hurt'—Johnny Cash
14. 'Fade to Black'—Metallica
15. 'Paint it Black'—The Rolling Stones
16. 'Unwell'—Matchbox Twenty
17. 'Never Let Me Go'—Florence + The Machine
18. 'Be OK'—Ingrid Michaelson
19. 'Adam's Song'—Blink-182
20. 'I Feel Like Dying'—Lil Wayne
21. 'Chandelier'—Sia
22. 'Already Gone'—Kelly Clarkson
23. 'You Found Me'—The Fray
24. 'Summertime Sadness'—Lana Del Rey
25. 'Lithium'—Evanescence
26. 'Welcome to the Black Parade'—My Chemical Romance
27. 'Fell on Black Days'—Soundgarden
28. 'Champagne Problems'—Taylor Swift
29. 'Say Something'—A Great Big World & Christina Aguilera
30. 'Black Eyed Dog'—Nick Drake
Dealing with Emotional Fatigue Songs #31—50
31. 'Motion Picture Soundtrack'—Radiohead
32. 'True Love Waits'—Radiohead
33. 'Sentimental'—Porcupine Tree
34. 'Way Out of Here'—Porcupine Tree
35. 'What Happens When The Heart Just Stops'—The Frames
36. 'Pariah'—Steven Wilson
37. 'Blank Tapes'—Steven Wilson
38. 'On the Beach'—Neil Young
39. 'Borrowed Tune'—Neil Young
40. 'Look So Tired'—Landon Pigg
41. 'Your Best American Girl'—Mitski
42. 'First Love/Late Spring'—Mitski
43. 'Thursday Girl'—Mitski
44. 'Francis Forever'—Mitski
45. 'I Bet on Losing Dogs'—Mitski
46. 'Happy'—Mitski
47. 'Batter Up'—Brand New
48. 'I'm So Tired'—Say Hi
49. 'Touch'—Sleeping at Last
50. 'Already Gone'—Sleeping at Last
Recovering from Burnout Songs #51—75
51. 'Smoking Section'—St. Vincent
52. 'Don't Follow'—Alice in Chains
53. 'People Talk'—Wintersleep
54. 'Indifference'—Pearl Jam
55. 'Utilities'—The Weakerthans
56. 'In a Bar'—Tango with Lions
57. 'Lemonworld'—The National
58. 'Afraid of Everyone'—The National
59. 'Conversation 16'—The National
60. 'Don't Swallow The Cap'—The National
61. 'Fireproof'—The National
62. 'Graceless'—The National
63. 'Humiliation'—The National
64. 'All Out of Love'—Air Supply
65. 'Tachycardia'—Conor Oberst
66. 'what have they done to you now'—Daniel Knox
67. 'You Had Time'—Ani DiFranco
68. 'Us Ones In Between'—Sunset Rubdown
69. 'Fire Rides'—MØ
70. 'Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space'—Spiritualized
71. 'Temporal Suspension'—Vogue Dots
72. 'Get Me Away From Here I'm Dying'—Belle & Sebastian
73. 'Roads'—Portishead
74. 'Numb'—Portishead
75. 'This Is Yesterday'—Manic Street Preachers
Exhaustion and Overwhelm Songs #76—100
76. 'Up The Down Escalator'—The Chameleons
77. 'I Do Not Want This'—Nine Inch Nails
78. 'Washer'—Slint
79. 'Isolation'—Joy Division
80. 'Believe'—Hollywood Undead
81. 'Bullet'—Hollywood Undead
82. 'How True You Are'—Cage The Elephant
83. 'Sick and Tired'—Pasadena
84. 'Rock Bottom'—Pasadena
85. 'What's Wrong'—PVRIS
86. 'Away From The Sun'—3 Doors Down
87. 'Missing You'—All Time Low
88. 'Yung and Writhing'—Rew
89. 'I Think I'm Okay'—Machine Gun Kelly
90. 'Hope Survives'—Cristabel Braden
91. 'I Am Not OK'—Jelly Roll
92. 'Lonely'—Nathan Wagner
93. 'You Don't Know'—Katelyn Tarver
94. 'I'm Not Okay'—Citizen Soldier
95. 'Life Left to Go'—SafetySuit
96. 'Tired of the Day'—Mono Inc.
97. 'Overwhelmed'—Rosa
98. 'Practice Makes Worseness'—Andy Koufax
99. 'Mad World'—Michael Andrews
100. 'You Know You're Right'—Nirvana
© 2025 Carson McQueen
