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Deceptively Upbeat Songs

Mamono101

生きることは痛みを知ること。
Staff member
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Location
The Makai
One thing that I've always found intriguing is when a song with an upbeat tempo has really dark lyrics paired with it.

Some of my favourite examples of this are the songs "Bullet" by Hollywood Undead and "Better Off Dead" by Elton John (though the latter is probably open to interpretation):

Hollywood Undead - Bullet


Elton John - Better Off Dead


What are some of your favourite depressing songs that are deceptively upbeat?
 
Upbeat as in, like, fast-paced? Hm... a handful of Blood Stain Child's songs from their second and third albums--Mystic Your Heart and Idolator respectively--come to mind. It's hard to actually make out their older songs' lyrics without looking them up. It's not the screaming, but the fact that it's screaming on top of engrish. So, I'm gonna paste the lyrics under the videos, lol.

Here's two examples:


Do you believe in God?
The end of hundred people is in dependence on God
The symbol of cowards and the weak

Suicide, drug addiction
How many people rely on them now?
They are no more than a loop hole

God doesn't give anything and save
The saving grace of God
It's just wish in your side
Find your true way that you must go on
Open up a new vista of your life

Dont nestle to and rely on others!
Own everything means much to man
In your hour of need, yourself is one

God doesn't give anything and save
The saving grace of God
It's just wish in your side
Find your true way that you must go on
Open up a new vista of your life


I'll sing for you...

I don't know how
To touch you in the
Voiceless, sensless
Blind world.

The whole place is
Black and white
Landscape.
I live the same world
As you
Do in the eternal time.

I wish for the end of time
I wish for the end...
I wish for the end...
I'll sing for you...
I'll sing for you...

Love me...
Save me...
Hold me...
I won't leave your side.
Lead me...
Bring me...
Take me...
Close to your heart.

Love me...
Save me...
Hold me...
I won't leave your side.
Lead me...
Bring me...
Take me...
Close to your heart.


The same sky, earth, air, I feel them as
Still, I'm apt to be controlled by loneliness
I try to break a wall
There isn't what we must not break
It is created thing all what we can see

Love me...
Save me...
Hold me...
I won't leave your side
Lead me...
Bring me...
Take me...
Close to your heart

Love me...
Save me...
Hold me...
I won't leave your side
Lead me, bring me, take me,
Close to your heart
I wish for the end of time...

I wish for the end...

Fallen love...
Fallen love...


Dunno if all of these can be considered "upbeat" but here's a few others whose collective sound doesn't really match their meaning:


It's caving in around me
What I thought was solid ground
I tried to look the other way
But I couldn't turn around
It's OK for you to hate me
For all the things I've done
I've made a few mistakes
But I'm not the only one

Step away from the ledge
I'm coming down

I could never be
What you want me to
You pull me under
To save yourself
(Save yourself)
You will never see
What's inside of me
I pull you under just to save myself

Was there ever any question
On how much I could take?
You kept feeding me your bull****
Hoping I would break
Is there anybody out there?
Is there anyone who cares?
Is there anybody listening?
Will they hear my final prayers?

Step away from the ledge
I'm coming down

I could never be
What you want me to
You pull me under
To save yourself
(Save yourself)
You will never see
What's inside of me
I pull you under just to save myself
(Save myself)

It's caving in around me
(Caving in)
It's tearing me apart
(Tearing me)
It's all coming down around me
(Coming down)
Does anyone
Anyone
Care at all?

I will never be
What you want me to
You pull me under
I pull you under

I could never be
What you want me to
You pull me under
To save yourself
(Save yourself)
You will never see
What's inside of me
I pull you under just to save myself


My mind's a kaleidoscope, it thinks too fast
Blurs all the colors 'til I can't see past
The last mistake, the choice I made
Staring in the mirror with myself to blame
Sometimes I'm afraid of the thoughts inside
Nowhere to hide inside my mind
I'm scared that you'll compare and I'll look a lifetime past repair
I second guess myself to death, I re-solicit every step
What if my words are meaningless? What if my heart's misleading this?
I try to capture every moment as it comes to me
Bottle up the memories and let them keep me company

When the hope of morning starts to fade in me
I don't dare let darkness have its way with me
And the hope of morning makes me worth the fight
I will not be giving in tonight

When I'm old and grey, or thirty, or whatever happens first,
I'll need you to reassure me I didn't waste a verse
Or worse, what if my life's work is reduced to just myself
Like never let you get a word in, while I dissect my mental health
Or lack thereof, whatever, there's too many things to track
I really can't remember if I'm insane or insomniac
Now days, all the kids want crazy, wanna diagnose themselves
Trade up made up epidemics, pass around prescription pills
But my disorder can't be cured by a bottle, blade, or dose
Self-disgust and selfishness tend to hold me awfully close
But I don't wanna let you see that, I don't want my friends to know
Self-disgust and selfishness take me everywhere I go

When the hope of morning starts to fade in me
I don't dare let darkness have its way with me
And the hope of morning makes me worth the fight
I will not be giving in tonight

Try as I might to keep it together
Why is recovery taking forever
Fool the whole world, just until I get better
I'm terrified I'll be faking forever
On and on I wonder what went wrong inside my head
I don't have to have the answers, but tonight I wish I did
All the pain I can't explain away won't fade
All the the secrets silenced by the shame
Don't make me say it [x7]

When the hope of morning starts to fade in me
I don't dare let darkness have its way with me
And the hope of morning makes me worth the fight
I will not be giving in tonight


I cut you into pieces
Searching for your imperfections
I had plans to make you whole
But all my threads couldn't stop the bleeding
There's nothing left, but I'm not leaving
When all I know is you

I've been looking for a way
To bring you back to life
And if I could find a way,
Then I would bring you back tonight
I'd make you look, I'd make you lie
I'd take the coldness from your eyes
But you told me, if you love me
Let it die

Your eyes stare right through me
Ignoring my failed attempts to
Breathe back life into your veins
But I can't start your cold heart beating
You're so far gone, but I'm not leaving
When all I know is you

I've been looking for a way
To bring you back to life
And if I could find a way,
I would bring you back tonight
I'd make you look, I'd make you lie
I'd take the coldness from your eyes
But you told me, if you love me
Let it die

And you left me more dead
Than you'll ever know
When you left me alone

I've been looking for a way
To bring you back to life
And if I could find a way,
I would bring you back tonight
I'd make you look, I'd make you lie
I'd take the coldness from your eyes
But you told me, if you love me
Let it die

Let it die

Let it die

Let it die
 
Last edited:

selicyc

i never knew daylight could be so violent.
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a mystery inside of an enigma wrapped in a soft fuzzy blanket of I don't even know what
The Weakerthans have quite a few deceptively upbeat songs. There's A Plea from a Cat Named Virtute, which is sung from the perspective of a man's cat whose fed up with his owner's sad sack behavior. Tournament of Hearts is about a man who loves curling so much that he uses it to avoid his crumbling marriage. Civil Twilight is about a Winnipeg bus driver remembering his former relationship. Another one is Exiles Among You. Defeat has never sounded so sweet.

The Mountain Goats and two of his albums, We Shall All Be Healed and The Sunset Tree. Two folksy albums that are deceptively cheerful because the latter talks about his childhood, the people he lived with and his abusive stepfather while the former featured his struggle with meth abuse as a teenager. No Children is pretty deceptive, too, though it comes from another album of his and most remember this song from Morel Orel.
 

snakeoiltanker

Wake Up!
Joined
Nov 13, 2012
Location
Ohio
A lot of older Coheed and Cambria songs are like that. Almost everything they used to release was really upbeat sounding but the lyrics are all about a sort of Sci-Fi space opera.



Actually now that I think about it this whole album is pretty upbeat, but every song has some of the most twisted lyrics. But you know.... thats Coheed for ya!
 

Hanyou

didn't build that
Most songs by They Might Be Giants. My favorite among their dark-happy songs is "Don't Let's Start."



For example, here are a few lines:

D, world destruction
Over and overture
N, do I need
Apostrophe T, need this torture?

Don't don't don't let's start
This is the worst part
Could believe for all the world
That you're my precious little girl
But don't don't don't let's start
I've got a weak heart
And I don't get around how you get around

No one in the world ever gets what they want and that is beautiful
Everybody dies frustrated and sad and that is beautiful
 
Joined
Apr 5, 2015
I know quite a few songs in Japanese that are depressing yet fast-paced.






Most of them tend to be about breaking up.
 

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