The Gary Jules cover of Mad World, for the Donnie Darko soundtrack.
Similarly, the original song by Tears for Fears sounds really upbeat and happy, but you’d never know it was a sad song unless you paid attention to the lyrics. I love both versions!
That is such a great cover.
Nine Inch Nails - “Leaving Hope” and “And All That Could Have Been”
Sad to me a lot of times means stuff about time passing and getting older or things changing, so most of these are along that line. Some of the ones I think of first:
Time, Fat Old Sun, and High Hopes by Pink Floyd
In My Life by The Beatles (also Ozzy)
Hurt by Johnny Cash (orginally NiN)
Preaching the End of the World by Chris Cornell
There Was a Light Here by Demon Hunter
“Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way…”
The night we met - Lord Huron
Arms of an Angel, Sarah McLaughlan
Youth of the Nation - POD (kind of like Adam’s Song).
World at Large - Modest Mouse
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel (based on Anne Franke).
To Build a Home - Cinematic Orchestra
There were some others already mentioned. Very powerful.
- Big Rude Jake – The Diner
- Reverend Beat-Man – Today Is A Beautiful Day
- The Dead Brothers – Everything’s Dead
- Steam Powered Giraffe - Honeybee
- The Violent Femmes – Johnny
- Dwight Yokum – I Sang Dixie
- Leonard Cohen – Joan of Arc
- The Cranberries – Zombie
- The Tragically Hip – 38 Years Old
- Blue Rodeo – Bad Timing
- Blue Rodeo - Hasn’t Hit Me Yet
Goddamn it, OP, you’ve destroyed me. Thank you for listening to my mix tape.
Hurt by Johnny Cash.
As much as I admire and respect Johnny Cash, I prefer the original bij Nine Inch Nails . Paging /c/unpopularopinion
Emmylou Harris wrote two of my tearjerker songs. Both amazing and so sad.
Red Dirt Girl, and Boulder to Birmingham.
Amanda Palmer’s The Bed Song (YT link)
Lately I get got by Rise Against’s People Live Here (YT link)
Had a pretty rough year last year. Dear Agony - Breaking Benjamin was my sad song of choice.
Mad World - specifically the Gary Jules version. Even Tears For Fears like what he did with it.
The Living Years - Mike + The Mechanics
As I get older, it gets harder to listen to it.
The National - About Today
Radiohead - Pyramid Song
Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell (album)
Deference for Darkness - Halo 3 ODST Soundtrack
I Am The Antichrist To You by Kishi Bashi. My first time listening to it was in the Rick and Morty Episode with Planetina. I loved it and looked it up afterwards. Love the video too, still gets me a little sad every time.
