5. Richard and Linda Thompson, Shoot Out the Lights (1982)

Stringing Linda Thompson's delicate vocals over Richard's subtly virtuosic guitar work, Shoot Out the Lights is a wonderful swirl of emotions: dignity, regret, resignation. Though the songs had been written when the pair's marriage was intact, by the time of the album's release, the Thompsons would split. There's a steeliness to songs like "Don't Renege on Our Love," but the best moments are the most quietly devastating: it's hard to listen to "Walking on a Wire" after learning its context without choking up a little.

4. Bruce Springsteen, Tunnel of Love (1987)

Springsteen followed Born in the U.S.A. with this fiercely anti-commercial cycle of songs about the birth and death of a relationship. After his first marriage to actress Julianne Phillips and his relationship with the E Street Band fell apart, Springsteen turned inward, recording songs largely by himself. The result is the wounded Boss on Tunnel of Love, with its crushing standout "Brilliant Disguise." The song asks the essential question any partner wonders in the aftermath of a broken relationship: "So tell me what I see when I look in your eyes / Is that you, baby, or just a brilliant disguise?"

3. Fleetwood Mac, Rumours (1977)

Chuck Klosterman tells it best: "Nearly every song on Rumours is about breaking up with people, as it was written and recorded while (a) guitarist-songwriter Lindsey Buckingham ended a lengthy romance with shawl-clad singer Stevie Nicks, (b) bassist John McVie divorced singer-keyboardist Christine McVie, and (c) drummer Mick Fleetwood began mentally preparing himself to nail Stevie." Rarely has such a horrible band dynamic yielded such powerful (and high-selling) results.

2. Marvin Gaye, Here My Dear (1978)

Here, My Dear has quite the backstory: a judge decreed that half the royalties Gaye earned from his next project would go to his first wife Anna Gordy for alimony and child support. Gaye fully intended to half-ass the project, but found himself making a deep, lacerating chronicle of his failed marriage, seemingly against his own wishes. The album flopped when it came out, but has since been hailed as a classic: as David Ritz notes, "Soul music doesn't get any deep, darker, or more personal than this."

1. Bob Dylan, Blood on the Tracks (1975)

Not much can be said about Blood on the Tracks that hasn't already been said. Dylan famously remarked of this chronicle of his divorce from Sara Lowndes: "A lot of people tell me they enjoy that album. It’s hard for me to relate to that. I mean, you know, people enjoying that kind of pain?" Well, he shouldn't have made it so damn good.