Twisting In The Wind - David Byrne
In fact, the whole album's full of dark yet upbeat songs.
this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2025
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Komm Süsser Tod from The End Of Evangelion.
I didn't see wake up boo by the boo radleys in here.
It's about suicide
I always found The Scientist by Coldplay to be a pretty upbeat song about the death of a loved one. And Viva la Vida upbeat, and all about the fall from grace.
It's a little more than kind of depressing but Bullet by Hollywood Undead comes to mind.
I wish that I could fly!
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.
Radiohead - No Surprises
Ring around the rosey
And
Fuzzy wuzzy was a bear
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.
HEALTH - everything from the band is banger after banger but with lyrics that'll leave you feeling a certain type of sad
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
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.
I know that there are probably a lot that I'm forgetting but here are the ones I remember:
No more crying by Sound Holic (lyrics)
Border of my life by Sound Holic (lyrics)
THE END by A-One
IT IS SO by A-One
U.N. Owen Was Her? by A-One
The entirety of hissing fauna are you the destroyer by of Montreal
Hey Jealousy by The Gin Blossoms comes to mind.
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.
Bullet by Hollywood undead.
Singing about killing himself in a super upbeat song, even has kids at the end going "I wish that I could fly, way up in the sky", the part where he was singing about jumping off a skyscraper.
Fast Car
Pumped Up Kicks
Flowers on the Wall
Brown Sugar
A lot of that album was pretty subversive but hidden behind upbeat rock. The olds didn't realize what the kids were listening to because they just heard pop rock.