Ask Lemmy

No Sunlight - Death Cab for Cutie

When I was young
Lying in the grass
I felt so safe
In a warming bath
Of sunlight, of sunlight
The vast open sky
Could do no harm
Like an embrace
Of a mother's arms
In sunlight, in sunlight
In sunlight, in sunlight
With every year
That came to pass
More clouds appeared
'Til the sky went black
And there was no sunlight, no sunlight
And there was no sunlight, no sunlight anymore
And it disappeared at the same speed
As the idealistic things I believed
When the optimist died inside of me
No sunlight, no sunlight
No sunlight, no sunlight
It disappeared at the same speed
As the idealistic things I believed
When the optimist died inside of me
No sunlight, no sunlight
No sunlight, no sunlight
No sunlight, no sunlight
No sunlight, no sunlight
No sunlight anymore

Paul Thorn - Bull Mountain Bridge

Jonathan Coulton - Shop-Vac®

Last Kiss by Wayne Cochran. You kids probably remember the Pearl Jam version, which was a bit more subdued. But the 1964 hit by J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers is very upbeat and cheerful sounding. It’s about a boy who gets his girlfriend killed in a car accident while on a date and holding her as she dies. He’s consumed with guilt and can only think about dying so he can see her again in heaven.

Flo by Smash Mouth

Straw Hat and Old Dirty Hank by Barenaked Ladies is about the real stalking of a Canadian celebrity by a mentally unstable man who thought she was in love with him.

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1981/12/31/A-love-sick-farmer-who-has-pursued-singer-Anne-Murray/8301378622800/

Twisting In The Wind - David Byrne

In fact, the whole album's full of dark yet upbeat songs.

Sad lyrics and fast tempo :
Kazim Koyuncu - Narino
Bagpipe song with the lyrics "I lost my sanity", "I sat down and cried", and "I wish someone knew my pain" especially. Can find longer versions on youtube.

French Gal - Poupèe de cire
Lyrics are about feeling more like a doll than human. TRIGGER WARNING FOR FRENCH LANGUAGE

Kazim Koyuncu - Fadime
Kemençe song with lyrics along same lines. Takes a bit before beat changes.

Sad lyrics and happy music/tone :
Danny Gonzales - Downhill
Song argues with a young adult on how rest of their life will suck.

Istanbul12 Orkestrasi - Bile Bile
Song about being unable to accept rejection.

Ayase/YAOSABI - Into the night
I am 70% sure "upbeat sounding song about suicide" is a genre in Japanese music.

Radiohead - No Surprises

HEALTH - everything from the band is banger after banger but with lyrics that'll leave you feeling a certain type of sad

most of the after laughter album by paramore

also hey ya by outkast is often played at weddings while being about a relationship failing

Blackest Eyes by Porcupine Tree

Passion Pit - Sleepyhead

The Muffin Song

Happier - by Bastille and Marshmello. It might depend on the listener tho.

Aint it fun - Paramore

Honestly, i don't like that a lot of radio music is so sad. I have to look to real oldies to find a happy song.

My boyfriend said he thought about me when we listen to Saturday Night by the Misfits. I'm like.... do you want to murder me?...

The lyrics always sounded very murdery to me. I think they did an amazing job of making it sound romantic but bf read through the lyrics after that and hugged me when I got home and said he definitely didn't want to murder me.

Edit: Ok this one is purely personal but I just got done with work and it came out on the playlist, Achilles Come Down by Gangs of Youth.

I learned this song from my daughter. I let her control the music when we'd drive to school and back but I immediately loved this song because unlike me, she has an amazing voice. This is one I only ever heard underneath her crystalline soprano while she sang along.

It was always so beautiful that I didn't focus on the song so much as her. She made a haunting, sad song a beautiful, pleasant memory for me because now she's had her license for a while, she's doing her thing being an ambitious senior. I don't get to listen to her sing anymore between my work and her school/social schedule.

I miss the days when I stayed up after a 12 hour shift to take her to school because I miss listening to her sing. I brain was fuzzy and that morning sun seared my eyeballs but I cherish every morning now because I don't have many left. I acutally miss everything about my kids needing me now that one has been independent for quite a few years and the other two are almost independent. I'm listening right now and all I can hear is her voice.

Fuck that shit hits hard. Im going to be an empty nester soon. Fucking FUCK. Fuck does it hit hard. I should be proud. I am! Jesus am I. I don't know how I was blessed with these people, bio and adopted, that's how vlessed I am, but I don't want to look the gift horse in the mouth. Fucking wow, am I proud. But really I'm sad, too.

/soliloquy

I didn't see wake up boo by the boo radleys in here.

It's about suicide

Komm Süsser Tod from The End Of Evangelion.

Mack the Knife https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ0OOHLWo4w

I think Enola Gay by Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark is a perfect example.

It sounds upbeat and fun but it's about the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

Some of the lyrics are incredibly powerful and I still get chills when I hear it.

It's a little more than kind of depressing but Bullet by Hollywood Undead comes to mind.

Ye, Renew the Plaintiff by Of Montreal

May I introduce you to The Smiths. Rusholme Ruffians and There is a Light That Never Goes Out are great examples, but really it describes most of their catalogue.

The Antlers - Bear https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnHCQe-Y0nw

The entirety of hissing fauna are you the destroyer by of Montreal

I always thought Free Four by Pink Floyd fit that category well.

That's like Paul Simon's entire schtick. Alongside downbeat songs with uplifting lyrics.

Little Foot Big Foot - Childish Gambino

All Thats Left of Me is You by Vulfpeck

Someone else mentioned this too, but if anyone is into Japanese songs: I think there are probably more songs (especially Vocaloid ones) with extremely messed-up (and convoluted) lyrics than those that do not... I don't think most of them are well-known outside anime/vocaloid circles though. Trying to think about the more "cute and depressing" ones I could find:

Lots of great choices here - I'll throw in Moon Over Marin by Dead Kennedys.

Sounds like a bop, but is actually about the destruction of the environment.

On the documentary 'shifty' they claimed that 'the land of make believe' by bucks fizz was written about Margaret Thatcher/Thatcherism. Really puts a depressing spin on it.