25 songs to console the deepest part of you

We all go through times when we're grasping for solace and relief. These are some of my favorite go-to's when I'm needing that myself.

Photo by Cason Asher on Unsplash

Sometimes music reaches me in a way that words alone just never can. Can you relate? These are the songs that have soothed my heart in some of my own darker and heavier moments. I hope they can provide some solace for you too.

Christian Contemporary Comfort

For Latter-day Saints, wherever truth, goodness and beauty exist, that’s we feel called to embrace (an excitingly expansive view taught both Brigham Young and Joseph Smith, as well as the Apostle Paul). Over the years, I’ve really found so many songs by diverse artists comforting my heart in powerful ways.

1. Broken Together

I want to start with an uplifting song for marriages that are hurting right now - Casting Crowns’ “Broken Together”:

We’ve always loved “The Voice of Truth” by this same band, along with “Praise You In this Storm.” In the same genre, this is one of the best songs for a believing father trying to get his bearings and find more strength to be there for his wife and children, “Lead Me” by Sanctus Real:

2. Worn

When you’re feeling completely worn out, this song by Tenth Avenue North may be just right for you:

“By your side” by the same band is another touching ballad -

Why are you looking for love? Why are you still searching…As if I'm not enough? To where will you go child Tell me where will you run. To where will you run?

Also, check out Sanctus Real’s “Whatever You’re Doing”

It's time for healing, time to move on
It's time to fix what's been broken too long
Time to make right what has been wrong
It's time to find my way to where I belong
There's a wave that's crashing over me
And all I can do is surrender

Whatever You're doing inside of me
It feels like chaos but somehow there's peace
It's hard to surrender to what I can't see
But I'm giving in to something Heavenly

3. Savior, Redeemer of My Soul

No one creates sacred music quite like Rob Gardner - a veritable Latter-day Saint Handel. None of his songs has impacted me like this one, though:

So many others have performed this song so well (the original sung by Sharon Hopkins is also hauntingly beautiful), but this recording by Dallyn Bayles and Jenny Oaks Baker is pure magic.

If you liked this one, please set aside an hour where you can get quiet to watch The Lamb of God, which I’ve been showing to our family. Just incredible. Also, give a listen to “My Kindness Shall Not Depart From Me.”

4. Be Still, My Soul

Can anyone find a more moving version of this profoundly beautiful song than this rendition by William Joseph & Zack Clark?

By the way, this tune originally came from Jean Sibelius’s Finlandia (if you listen closely, you can hear the melody near the end). When paired with these words below, it’s hard to find a more powerful witness of God’s power to comfort us.

Be still my soul the Lord is on thy side
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain
Leave to thy God to order and provide
In every change He faithful will remain

Be still my soul thy best, thy heavenly friend
Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end

Be still, my soul, thy God doth undertake
To guide the future as He has the past
Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake
All now mysterious shall be bright at last

Be still, my soul, the waves and winds still know
His voice who ruled them while He dwelt below

5. Adagio for Strings

As long as we’re talking classical, this 1936 orchestral arrangement by Samuel Barber is one of the most moving things I’ve ever heard. It’s often been played during times of mourning (at the funerals Einstein, FDR and John F. Kennedy, who loved the song).

More than any other song, this music helps me imagine Gethsemane. (The composer himself wrote a liturgical choral version of this same song called Agnes Dei - meaning, “Lamb of God”).

Hauser’s Morricone is also pretty incredible, especially the iconic tune in those first few minutes.

6. Where Can I Turn for Peace?

The words to this song always hit me hard. This rendition by Evie Clair and Kirra Abplanalp is a nice new version out there.

Where can I turn for peace? Where is my solace? When other sources cease to make me whole? When with a wounded heart, anger, or malice I draw myself apart searching my soul?

Where, when my aching grows … Where, when I languish … Where, in my need to know, where can I run? Where is the quiet hand to calm my anguish? Who, who can understand? He, only One

He answers privately … Rеaches my reaching … In my Gethsеmane, Savior and Friend. Gentle the peace He finds for my beseeching, Constant He is and kind, Love without end.

7. He Hears Me

I shared this song by Hilary Weeks with my boys recently, telling them that few songs capture the felt experience of prayer better than this one. (There’s a special power in the original too , along with a video of her singing it).

I hope Catholic and Evangelical friends will likewise give some Latter-day Saint singers and choruses a chance (How sad it would be if people of different philosophies and faiths say “I can’t and won’t listen to it because it was made by a member of that group!”)

I had a chance the other day to thank Hilary Weeks personally for her music which has touched me for years. In addition to this song above, check out this one below, which got me through a difficult time years ago:

8. Stay with Me

This unique song by Michael McClean was a real comfort to my father and our whole family after Sam and Mom died:

I still think his earlier song “You’re Not Alone” is one of the sweetest, most classic witnesses of prayer anywhere.

9. Amazing Grace

I’ve never found another version of John Newton’s most popular of all Christian songs that I love more than this from Chris Tomlin:

Chris Tomlin’s “How Great is Our God” is also a Sunday regular for us - one of my all time favorite praise songs. I especially love singing with these opening lyrics:

The splendor of a King, clothed in majesty
Let all the Earth rejoice
All the Earth rejoice

He wraps himself in light
And darkness tries to hide
And trembles at His voice
Trembles at His voice

10. Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

I still remember feeling shocked at the beauty and power of the original BYU combined choir and orchestra rendition of this song. It feels like it changes me every time I hear it still today, including this version combining the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square:

11. Abide with Me

Although the talented Audrey Assad no longer identifies as Christian, she recorded this poignant rendition when she was a believer. It’s by far my favorite version of the song:

(Gentri’s version is lovely too).

12. It is Well with My Soul

Assad’s version of this also fills me whenever I need it on a hard moment:

If you want to appreciate the moving backstory of the song, this recording from the Tabernacle Christmas concert has some narration from Hugh Bonneville that really packs a punch:

Christmas comfort

This is a good time to admit - without apology - at enjoying some Christmas music throughout the year (no, not Mariah Carey or Grinch) …. especially when my heart needs a lift. Although not transcendent in the same way as other songs below, few songs capture the feeling of Christmas than “The Christmas Song.” I like pretty much every version of this magical tune, but especially Karen Carpenter’s and this from Nat King Cole:

13. Silent Night

Like Assad, David Archuleta has chosen to move in a different direction as well. While that has been sad for many of us to witness (and not inevitable for someone in his circumstance), this song is still I think the best version of Silent Night ever, hands down:

Tommee Profitt’s version with Fleurie is also touching in a mysterious way.

14. The First Noel

IMHO, this version by Bryson & Tierra Jones is also the best version of this classic.

If you read the comments in the original posting of the song, you’ll see I’m not alone: “It’s has been 3 years, and this is still the most beautiful thing I have ever heard.”

“Of all the millions and millions of content that get plastered on digital/social outlets on a daily basis,” another said, “I think I can say with 100% surety, that this... THIS SONG! is the the most powerful moving force that's been posted in a long time, on this and on all platforms!”

15. O Holy Night

I dare anyone to find a better version of this epic Christmas song than Tommee Profitt’s arrangement, featuring Tauren Wells and SVRINCA. It’s my favorite version by a long shot. Give it a listen before summer is over! (: Stops me in my tracks every time I hear it:

Tommee Profitt is so fun to listen to and his Christmas concert, “Birth of a King” is phenomenal overall, along with his version of “Mary Did You Know” featuring Jordan Smith:

16. O Come, O Come Emmanuel

Although Profitt’s version of O Come, O Come Emmanuel is also fun, the Piano Guy’s version is still my favorite:

This song has had special meaning for our family during Emma’s life and since her death. Especially these words, teaching that we don’t have to wait to feel the joy the Lord promises to those who follow Him:

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here,
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Dayspring, from on high,
And cheer us by Thy drawing nigh;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death's dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

17. Angels from the Realms of Glory

This always leaves me more or less speechless:

The comfort of a brighter Millenial day

Like many Christians, we believe there will be a thousand years of peace after Jesus Christ returns to the earth for good. However nice that is to anticipate in the abstract, it’s even better when you come to understand that we can “rejoice [now!] as if he had already come among [us],” as the angel teaches King Benjamin.

Now and then, I’ll pick out a random song that feels like it’s speaking to this future day far better than our time now. For instance, I listen to Rita Moreno’s touching rendition of Somewhere, from West Side Story, as anticipating a future day of wonderful peace so many of us long for.

18. Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus

I’ve loved this ever since singing it in Jean McGuire’s high school choir at a Christmas Concert. Over the years, as I paid more attention to the words, I came to realize this song didn’t fit right now. Specific lyrics (about the kingdoms of this world becoming His) didn’t quite make sense in our world’s current circumstances…not yet.

Then, in 2018, President Russell M. Nelson, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said this in a Christmas devotional right before the Tabernacle Choir sang the song:

In a coming day, in that Millenium for which we are now preparing, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ. And it won’t be just this magnificent Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square singing Hallelujah. Every person who has chosen to follow Jesus Christ will shout “Hallelujah, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth, for the Kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord. And of His Christ. And he shall reign forever and ever, king of kings and Lord of Lords.”

Five years later, in this most recent Christmas season, President Nelson expressed again his love for this song, before saying, “Words sung in this oratorio not only apply to the birth of the Lord but to His millennial reign.”

19. I Will Rise

This inspired song by Chris Tomlin bears witness of the resurrection to come so powerfully. Notice the chorus rising at the end, with a choir of angels accompanying the musical images of a grand family reunion we all can potentially look forward to!

Broadway Comfort

20. You'll Never Walk Alone.

From Carousel (my favorite broadway soundtrack), this version with Matthew Morrison & Laura Michelle Kelly is lovely:

21. Bring Him Home

Alfie Boe, Josh Groban and so many others have brought new dimensions to the song, but there’s a unique magic to hearing the original Jean Valjean, Colm Wilkinson, sing it:

22. One Day More

Something about this song always grabs me. Our family used to sing it around the piano together during difficult cancer years. There are so many different levels to the multi-voice melody for me - and so much hope and comfort it still brings today each time I hear it:

23. Tomorrow

Mom sent me the lyrics of this song in Illinois during graduate school when she was sick in the hospital going through cancer treatment. Ever since, it’s meant a lot to me - singing it to Emma and Olivia (and myself) in hard moments. I’ve never found a better version of it than this from Sydnie Christmas (starting 2 minutes in).

The version from the 2014 movie, Annie is also lovely. Christmas’s “Over the Rainbow” is brilliant and beautiful as well.

Pop Rock Comfort

Monique sometimes teases me about how often I put on slower ballads that are calm and smooth. My counter: why would anyone want to listen to music that SPIKES their anxiety?! (:

24. Let It Be

Say what you want about the Beatles lifestyles. Some of their music seems to be dropped from heaven, including this one:

Although not conveying the same wisdom as “Let It Be,” “Hey Jude” and “Yesterday” always bring a strange, nostalgic comfort to my heart (even if you don’t watch the movie, you need to check out this funny scene imagining a moment where everyone but one man playing “Yesterday” forgets who the Beatles are).

25. Some really good Bread

Dad played Bread during my childhood, and now I do the same for my (lucky!) children. Although they usually scatter when I put it on, I think you should give this gem-of-a-70’s band a chance if you haven’t yet. Especially their three best soothing classics: Everything I Own, Diary and If

Put these on when your heart needs a little down-shifting, and let David Gates’ soothing voice and the poetic lyrics stair-step you down (or up) to a better place.

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I’m going to keep this list updated as I find other songs that provide some wonderful comfort and peace. What are the songs that bring you unique comfort? I’d love to hear - please share in the comments below.