What are the most upbeat songs with kind of depressing lyrics?
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The two I can think of are:
- It's Not Unusual
- Escape (The Piña Colada Song)
the mountain goats - no children https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QS27S3mspjU
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Hey Ya by Outkast.
Also pretty much everything I have ever heard by Steely Dan.
Hey Ya is an excellent example.
Steely Dan seems more low key. And he hates on my alma mater lol. And he acted like kind of a dick when I saw him live. But I do love his sound, like warm tea with honey and a lil splash of bourbon.
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The two I can think of are:
- It's Not Unusual
- Escape (The Piña Colada Song)
Greenskeepers - Lotion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jm86I_kezVY
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The two I can think of are:
- It's Not Unusual
- Escape (The Piña Colada Song)
The Macarena I'd about a woman cheating on her BF getting drafted into the military with 2 other guys
Which is pretty intense for a song they taught to kids in grade school
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The two I can think of are:
- It's Not Unusual
- Escape (The Piña Colada Song)
I don't like Mondays by boomtown rats
https://open.spotify.com/track/7JFoeg0arawADjGcz9gBnq
Quite a chill and happy song about a school shooting
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The two I can think of are:
- It's Not Unusual
- Escape (The Piña Colada Song)
Polish Dancing Cow song is upbeat and catchy but the lyrics are about a man struggling with his cocaine addiction.
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I fucking love Richard Cheese, especially his cover of Closer.
wrote last edited by [email protected]Omg, this is a true pickmeup
The intro sounds like it's some Blues Brothers number and then...
I want to violate you -
Hey Ya is an excellent example.
Steely Dan seems more low key. And he hates on my alma mater lol. And he acted like kind of a dick when I saw him live. But I do love his sound, like warm tea with honey and a lil splash of bourbon.
Ok, maybe just the bourbon, honey optional.
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The two I can think of are:
- It's Not Unusual
- Escape (The Piña Colada Song)
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Pick any Smiths song
if a ten-ton truck 
killed the both of us -
The two I can think of are:
- It's Not Unusual
- Escape (The Piña Colada Song)
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.
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The two I can think of are:
- It's Not Unusual
- Escape (The Piña Colada Song)
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The two I can think of are:
- It's Not Unusual
- Escape (The Piña Colada Song)
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The two I can think of are:
- It's Not Unusual
- Escape (The Piña Colada Song)
Not entirely upbeat, but people always play Linger by the Cranberries like it’s a love song. Most definitely isn’t.
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The two I can think of are:
- It's Not Unusual
- Escape (The Piña Colada Song)
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.
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The two I can think of are:
- It's Not Unusual
- Escape (The Piña Colada Song)
The entirety of hissing fauna are you the destroyer by of Montreal
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Damn, I gotta go read those lyrics.
::: spoiler excerpt from the last verse
It's all over and I'm standin' pretty
In this dust that was a city
::: -
The two I can think of are:
- It's Not Unusual
- Escape (The Piña Colada Song)
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The two I can think of are:
- It's Not Unusual
- Escape (The Piña Colada Song)
wrote last edited by [email protected]- 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)
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The two I can think of are:
- It's Not Unusual
- Escape (The Piña Colada Song)
Ruru's suicide stream ? Would that one count ? Damn it's like all the songs flew out of my brain the moment I read this question ahahahh
