This quirky and original British singer/songwriter has some very moving songs.
- "Wuthering Heights" is quite haunting, especially if you've read the source material.
- "Mother Stands for Comfort", while one could say has a positive undertone, is performed in a very somber tone and could bring up some Manly Tears for the subject matter alone.
- The Hounds of Love-era B-side "Under the Ivy" can be this, purely through sheer unadulterated romantic cuteness.
- "This Woman's Work" is a tearjerker in and of itself, but the video can especially reduce one to tears upon seeing it. Especially the ending, which doesn't tell you whether the woman dies or not.
- "Breathing", about the slow death of a foetus in the womb after a nuclear war. It doesn't help that the song's overall tone and sound was influenced by Pink Floyd's The Wall. The final lines are filled with so much pain and desperation, seemingly representing the unborn baby desperately trying to survive before succumbing to the radiation:(What are we going to do without...?) Ooh, please!
(What are we going to do without...?) Let me breathe!
(What are we going to do without...?) Ooh, quick!
(We are all going to die without...) Breathe in deep!
(What are we going to do without...?) Oh, leave me something to breathe!
(We are all going to die without...) Oh, leave me something to breathe!
(What are we going to do without...?) Oh, God, please leave us something to breathe!
(We are all going to die without...) Oh, life is... - "Cloudbusting", both the song itself and the video.
- The title track from The Kick Inside, in which a woman becomes pregnant as a result of Brother–Sister Incest. Not wanting to bring shame to her family, the woman commits suicide. The subject matter is sad enough, but Kate's haunting vocals add greatly to the melancholy atmosphere.
- Similarly, "The Wedding List" tells the story of couple who are about to get married until some guy shoots the groom. The bride-to-be hunts the killer down, then kills herself. As devastating as the whole thing is, it becomes even worse when it is revealed that she was unknowingly pregnant, which means that four people were killed.
- "Moments of Pleasure", in which Bush remembers various friends and family members of hers who have died, including filmmaker Michael Powell, lighting technician Bill Duffield (see below), guitarist Alan Murphy, and others. The artist wrote the chorus "to those we love, to those who will survive" for her mother, who was dying of an illness at the time of recording.
- "You're the One", which is about being reluctant to leave a former lover who, to her, is irreplaceable. She reminisces about the good times they've had, finally shrieking "Just forget it, all right?!"
- "Army Dreamers", about a mother grieving the loss of her son in wartime.
- "Oh England My Lionheart" is sung from the point of view of a dying RAF pilot, reminiscing on his beloved country in his final moments. As with "The Kick Inside", the vocals contribute greatly to the sadness.
- "Waking the Witch" isn't particularly a tear jerker and would much more qualify as Nightmare Fuel as a whole, but the "wake up" part at the beginning can be soul-wrenching, especially with the knowledge that most of the voices heard in that part are actually from (mostly beloved) people in Kate Bush's life back then:"My mother's in there, my father, my brothers Paddy and John, Brian Tench - the guy that mixed the album with us - is in there, Del is in there, Robbie Coltrane does one of the voices."
- "And Dream of Sheep" is heart wrenchingly sad just because of how hopeless it is as the song is sang from the perspective of a woman lost at sea, drifting in freezing waters in a life jacket. It becomes clear that the woman is slowly dying as she mentions wishing she had her radio so she could stay awake. The music is also just painfully sad to listen to as Kate's vocals get weaker.Let me be weak
Let me sleep
And dream of sheep... - The title song
from her album The Dreaming is about the exploitation of Aboriginal Australians, including the destruction of their land to harvest weapons-grade uranium. - "Wow" tells the story of an actor who, despite having some degree of talent, just never makes it big. While there's the implication that it's because he's "too busy" with a gay, party lifestyle to put in as much of his time and effort into his career as he should, the lines that describe how he'll never be anything more than an unknown, unappreciated stage actor is still sad.
- "Deeper Understanding" is this, as a scarily prescient song about someone feeling so alienated and lonely from other people that they become addicted to their technology, expecting their computers to fulfil their emotional needs. It describes the narrator neglecting themselves physically until their family stages an intervention - but despite that, they feel "So lost without my little black box", implying that they're going to relapse. The music video plays this straight and is a Tear Jerker to the max before delving into Nightmare Fuel territory.
- The song "Blow Away" which was dedicated to the memory of Bill Duffield, a lighting technician who died in a freak accident during Bush's 1979 Tour of Life.note Mentioning him and a number of deceased musicians, it's about the transient nature of life and how music provides a sort of immortality.
- "A Coral Room" a meditation on the passing of time and the memories we hold about our loved ones. In the case of this song, it's about the death of Kate's mother and the transient nature of human life. Centering it on a brown jug her mother carried leaves a strong emotional impact compounded with the simple piano tune she conjured for the song. It's considered one of her most tear jerking pieces ever recorded.
