This is based on opinion. Please don't list it on a work's trope example list.
The band:
Though most of their songs by this indie rock band are pretty upbeat, there are a few here and there that can
trigger the tears.
- "Goodnight, Travel Well" is a notable example, in that the lead guitarist recorded it after his mother died of cancer. And then, over a year after the album came out, the songwriter Brandon Flower's mother died of brain cancer as well.
"Everything you loved, and every time you try,
Everybody's watching, everybody cry.
Stay, don't leave me, the stars can wait for your sign, don't signal now."
- "A Dustland Fairytale" definitely counts, since Brandon Flowers wrote it for his mother after learning of her diagnosis. Even though it's about his parents and the early years of their romance, the first half of the last verse especially hit hard:
"Now Cinderella, don't you go to sleep,
It's such a bitter form of refuge,
Now don't you know the kingdom's under siege,
And everybody needs you?"
- "Read My Mind" is very powerful, and is Brandon's favorite song that he's made.
- One might tear up upon hearing "Mr. Brightside", which is pretty angsty in itself — especially upon listening to the song after saying many sad goodbyes to a bunch of really good friends who are graduating high school.
- Especially when you consider that Brandon wrote the lyrics during a deep depression after finding out that his girlfriend was cheating on him. He's even said that this song is what saved him.
- The music video for "A Dustland Fairytale
" is both a tearjerker AND a CMOA for The Killers. As is the song itself. - Then there is their rendition on Dire Straits' "Romeo and Juliet". See under Dire Straits in TearJerker.Rock Music for more info.
- "Tidal Wave" is a tearjerker of heartwarming variety.
- "Why Do I Keep Counting?" is all about a suicidal man begging for help. The ending lyrics are especially rough for anyone who's suffered from severe mental illness.
If I only knew the answer
If I change my way of living
And if I pave my streets with good times
Will the mountain keep on giving?
And if all of our days are numbered
Then why do I keep counting?
- The climax and coda of "Andy You're A Star" with the chorus singing in the background is such an uplifting feeling from the rough and rugged guitar lick repeated during the first two verses. You can't help but feel moved and teary-eyed at that moment.
- "Believe Me Natalie", anyone?
- "Human", despite having a very upbeat... beat, can be pretty depressing at times.
"Give my respects to grace and virtue,
Give my condolences to good"
- "Battle Born" somehow manages to turn Determinator and Dare to Be Badass - two of the most epic tropes in history - into a tearjerker thanks to Flowers' impassioned voice:
Up against the wall
There's something dying on the street
When you get knocked down
You're gonna get back on your feet
- "You're gonna get back on your feet." The song is pretty much about a character who has had all of the idealism beaten out of them. The narrator tells them that recovering from this is not a case of "if" they gather their resolve and push forward toward their dreams, but when.
- The Abbey Road version of Sam's Town. An originally upbeat and energetic song is turned into something far more melancholy and more than vaguely reminiscent of failure.
- "Spaceman". Despite being an upbeat song, the lyrics can be interpreted as the condition of a suicidal depressed person.
- "Everything Will Be Alright" is a spacey and almost whimsical tune that closes out Hot Fuss, but the combined emotion of Brandon Flowers' voice and the precious lyrics are a heartwarming affirmation of love... or maybe they're about being willing to let someone you love go? Either way, my eyes are a bit moist.
- "The Ballad of Michael Valentine" is a confounding amalgam of friendly adventures and heartbreaking goodbyes.
So I broke to the right and I caught your eye
Shut your mouth and wave goodbye
Tonight, I won't let you rain on this parade
- These lyrics of Smile Like You Mean It can have a bold impact on people who have left others behind or have been left behind.
And someone is calling my name
From the back of the restaurant
And someone is playing a game
In the house that I grew up in
And someone will drive her around
Down the same streets that I did
Down the same streets that I did
- Runaways, the second track from Battle Born, has a driving, upbeat rhythm and some soaring lyrics... until you listen to the words and realize the song is about a young couple who ran away to get married when the girl got pregnant ("We got engaged on a Friday night/I swore on the head of our unborn child/that I could take care of the three of us/But I got the tendency to slip when the nights get wild") only for things to fall apart until the singer constantly fights with his wife ("We used to laugh, now we only fight"), barely sees his daughter ("At night I come home after they go to sleep/Like a stumbling ghost, I haunt these halls/There's a picture of us on our wedding day/I recognize the girl but I can't settle in these walls") and is contemplating running away again and abandoning his family. It's profoundly sad, magnified by the Lyrical Dissonance.
- "Miss Atomic Bomb" qualifies because it expresses the anguish and feelings that the singer still has for the subject of "Mr. Brightside"
- The videoclip implies that the cheating was really just in Mr. Brightside's head, meaning that he let the love of his life go because of unfounded jealousy. Even worse, the ending suggests that he never saw her again and had to live with the regret of his decision for many years.
- Despite "Don't Shoot Me Santa" being an awesome and goofy Christmas song, it's still sad due to Brandon's pleading vocals towards Santa begging him not to shoot him.
- What's worse is this line: "just look the other way and I'll disappear forever"
- "Just Another Girl." A song that perfectly encapsulates the feeling of not being able to move on from a breakup- or just wanting to grieve for someone a little while longer.
Well, maybe all of my friends should confront
The fact that I don’t want
Another girl
- "Land of the Free (2020 edition)" retells the death of George Floyd which occurred earlier that year.
And how many killings must one man watch in his home
'Til he sees the price on the tag?
Eight measured minutes and 46 seconds
Another boy in the bag, another stain on the flag
Father in heaven, hear our plea
Father in heaven, help us see
How to lose our hatred and find your favor
How to break these cycles and change our nature
That we may walk underneath your banner
In the land of the free
- "Blowback" discusses Tana Flower's life before she married Brandon, and it implies some of the dark events that happened in her youth which lead to her PTSD as an adult.
She's reaching for her backpack
Puts out a cigarette and gets on the bus
She's sittin' on a secret
She didn't ask for, no girl ever did
But there's a whisper in her heartbeat
And she can hear it just enough to keep her alive
When she's breathing in the blowback
There's nothing you can offer she ain't already tried
- "Lightning Fields" has the narrator seeing his deceased wife in a dream, and in the dream she comforts him by saying this about their life together. Presumably the song is about Brandon Flower's father and mother.
Late at night, I lay in bed and
Think about things left unsaid and
All the things that I'd do different
If I just had the chance
Don't beat yourself up
You laid good ground
Look at 'em walk from scratch to sundown
You put the work in and then some
Where is all this coming from?
- "Quiet Town" talks about Flowers' hometown of Nephi, Utah, which is framed in the first verse through the deaths of two of his high school classmates.
A couple of kids got hit by a Union Pacific train
Carrying sheet metal and household appliances through the pouring rain
They were planning on getting married after graduation
Had a little baby girl
Trouble came and shut it down
Things like that ain't supposed to happen...
In this quiet town
Families are tight
Good people
They still don't deadbolt their doors at night
In this quiet town
- The second verse, which talks about the opioid epidemic's effect on families in Nephi, is even more heartbreaking.
When we first heard opioid stories, they were always in whispering tones
Now banners of sorrow mark the front steps of childhood homes
Parents wept through daddy's girl eulogies and merit badge milestones
With their daughters and sons laying there lifeless in their suits and gowns
Somebody's been keeping secrets...
In this quiet town
They know how to live
Good people who lean on Jesus
They're quick to forgive
In this quiet town
- "Terrible Thing," written from the perspective of a gay teenager alone in his room contemplating suicide while much of his small town is at the local rodeo.
Around here, we all take up our cross and hang on His holy name
But the cards that I was dealt will get you thrown out of the game
Hey momma, can't you see your boy is wrapped up in the strangle silk
Of this cobweb town where culture is king?
I'm in my bedroom on the verge of a terrible thing
- "The Car Outside" is already a hard hitting song about a struggling marriage, but the modified lyrics sometimes used in live shows packed with a Precision F-Strike emphasize that further (modified lyrics from live shows in italics).
I'm in the car, I just needed to clear my head
She's in the house with the baby cryin' on the bed
She's got this thing where she puts up the walls so fucking high
It doesn't matter how much I love
It doesn't matter how hard I try
