Ask Lemmy

Little talks - of monsters and men
It sounds very chill and upbeat but it’s about the loss of a loved one

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.

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.

Plenty of ABBA songs... Maybe Chiquitita?

I think I have the best answer here: Gwar - Rock N Roll Never Felt So Good

Lyrics

The Science of Selling Yourself Short by Less Than Jake

Flo by Smash Mouth

Club America by The Cure

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.

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

Billy Idol - Dancing with Myself Loneliness masked as liberation.

Bulletproof - La Roux Emotional numbness disguised as empowerment

Some Linkin Park songs (Bleed it out, Up from the Bottom, etc.)

There's so many such songs...

Class A Team

Not entirely upbeat, but people always play Linger by the Cranberries like it’s a love song. Most definitely isn’t.

A good chunk of They Might Be Giants' discography.

Homeless Bleak Despair is about what's in the title.

Don't Let's Start "Everybody dies frustrated and sad and that is beautiful"

My Man is about being paralyzed.

That just scratches the surface.

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

Neutron Dance by the Pointer Sisters

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

Mmmmbop

Almost anything by Tom Lehrer.

Bullet by Hollywood undead

Surprised that people haven't mentioned Yoru ni Kakeru (Racing into the Night) by Yoasobi. It's a Japanese song about depression and commiting suicide.

Specifically, it follows a guy who falls in love with a depressed and suicidal girl. Over time, the guy himself becomes depressed and tired of life and they both decide to commit suicide together.

Living La Vida Loca and Macerena are both pretty dark.

• Eleanor Rigby by The Beatles
• Some Nights by Fun (and the music video really reinforces it)
• I Wanna Get Better by Bleachers
• a bunch of different songs by P!nk
• Weird Al's presidential debate autotune songs ("Bad Hombres, Nasty Women" from 2016, "WE'RE ALL DOOMED" from 2020, and "Deja Vu (But Worse)" from 2024)

Mark Knopfler has quite a few. Postcards from Paraguay. Quality Shoe. Romeo and Juliet. Boom Like That. It's a thing with him - contrasting the music with the theme.

A solid majority of Bastille's discography comes to mind, though not as outright depressing as Pumped Up Kicks or Youth of a Nation, most of their tracks tend to be very instrumentally upbeat and lively, with gorgeous vocals, but thematically darker lyrics / topics. Happier comes to mind as immediately fitting the prompt (and having enough radio play to be recognizable), but The Draw, Haunt, and Skulls also fit well (I'd also included their cover of City High's What Would You Do, also long as being a cover isn't a immediate disqualifier).

I feel like they're kind of slept on since they don't get a whole lot of radio play outside of a handful of songs, but all their other work is just so good. Personal top favorite artist, hands down.

for some reason there's a bunch of upbeat sounding Japanese songs that are actually disturbing if you look into the lyrics (for example racing into the night)

Polish Dancing Cow song is upbeat and catchy but the lyrics are about a man struggling with his cocaine addiction.