4 Songs That Are Surprisingly Upbeat for Their Subject Matter

Some upbeat songs are just upbeat, lyrically and musically, while others hide dark lyrics behind a catchy sonic experience. Those tend to be the most interesting songs, exploring tragic themes with a veneer of upbeat sunshine. Here are just four examples of songs that are surprisingly catchy and danceable, even as they deal with subjects that are disturbing and dark.

[RELATED: The Surprisingly Tragic Inspiration Behind “Dancing in the Moonlight” by King Harvest]

“See You In Hell” — Monster Magnet

Appearing on Monster Magnet’s 1998 album Powertrip, “See You In Hell” is a relatively upbeat song with a quick tempo and steady drums even as it’s full of frontman Dave Wyndorf’s agonized screaming. There’s also a guitar solo that keeps with the rolling style of the bass lick but chops it up a little bit, adding a little edge to the otherwise tight sonic experience. The lyrics, however, are incredibly dark. If it sonically matched the edgy lyrics, then it would be too much to listen to. There’s something to be said for the juxtaposition of dark lyrics with upbeat melodies. Additionally, the song was inspired by a true story Wyndorf heard while on a bus.

“I was riding on a bus from New York City back to New Jersey, and this aging hippie guy just started talking,” Wyndorf told Kerrang at the time. “He told me about how him and his wife used to do a lot of drugs, and had a baby that they didn’t know what to do with. He told me that they killed the baby and buried it under the kitchen. What do you do with something like that? Do I call the cops? It must have happened 40 years earlier. I was walking around with its stuck in my frontal lobe, so I wrote it down. It took me a while to shake that off.”

“Ansel” — Modest Mouse

“Ansel” was part of Modest Mouse’s 2015 album Strangers to Ourselves, and lyrically it deals with the death of frontman Isaac Brock’s brother Ansel Vizcaya. He was killed in an avalanche on Mt. Rainier in 2004, and the song addresses the last time Brock saw his brother as opposed to his actual death.

“About a year before he died, me, my dad, and Ansel met up in Puerto Vallarta [Mexico],” Brock told Buzzfeed in 2015. Brock and his brother were doing drugs in a couple of different cities, but when Ansel called it a night, Brock didn’t. He stayed in a drug-induced paranoia for three days.

“I remember looking out the peephole and I could see these three f—ing guys in skull masks,” said Brock. “Basically, I thought the town was rolling in to kill me. My dad was surprisingly cool about the whole thing, but I could tell Ansel was really bothered. That was the last time I saw the guy, was on that trip, and I always assumed there’d be a point in time where it’d be water under the f—ing bridge. I didn’t realize that the bridge was collapsing.”

“Evil” — Interpol

Released on Interpol’s 2004 album Antics, “Evil” is about the incarceration of Fred and Rosemary West, who killed nine girls from 1971 to 1987. While Fred killed himself in prison in 1995, Rosemary remains incarcerated on a life sentence. “Evil” is a conversation between Rosemary and Fred, most likely from Fred’s point of view. Musically, it’s a relatively upbeat song with a driving bassline and bouncy, staccato vocals.

Lyrically, it touches on dark themes while staying a relatively upbeat song, but there’s an edge of darkness that lingers. As the song alludes to, Fred admitted that he committed the crimes, while Rosemary denied any involvement. The lines in the chorus Sensitive to fate, not / Denial / But hey, who’s on trial? could be a reference to Rosemary’s continued denial of the events. Rosemary was put on trial, while Fred killed himself instead.

“Dancing in the Moonlight” — King Harvest

Here’s one that might be a bit of a surprise—the story behind King Harvest’s 1970 hit “Dancing in the Moonlight” is incredibly dark and tragic. Sherman Kelly wrote the song after he and his girlfriend experienced a violent attack on a beach in St. Croix. According to Kelly, they were camping out on the beach when a group of men beat them with bats and attempted to sexually assault his girlfriend. Kelly protected his girlfriend and chased the group away, but not before he sustained serious injuries.

Kelly wrote the surprisingly upbeat song while he recovered in the hospital. “Dancing in the Moonlight” reached the Top 20 on the Billboard charts and went multi-platinum in the U.K. when Toploader covered it. “I felt that I was rewarded for taking this horrible bummer and getting it up onto higher ground—celebrating the positive,” Kelly once explained. “I think the universe enjoyed my response.”

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