10 More Happy Songs That Are Insanely Dark
5. River - Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
With heart-shattering songs like Cover Me Up, If We Were Vampires and Dreamsicle, the Alabama-born troubadour Jason Isbell knows a thing or two about top-tier songwriting.
Though his 2020 album Reunions is packed with wonderful wordplay, his proficiency in the field is most on display with the song River, which at surface level is a lovely piano-heavy piece that brings out the best in Isbell's massively underrated voice. However, repeat listens will reveal just how fooled you were by the the tasteful piano keys and yearning slide guitar. The somewhat cryptic story is about a person who unjustifiably uses the river to hide murder weapons and victims.
Layered into the poetic lyrics about the innocence of the river are sharp statements about dumping bodies and orphaning children, so the tone of the song seems inconsistent until the listener pieces together the full story.
Isbell simply has a way with descriptive wording, acknowledging the tiny details and accentuating them to create a wonderful atmosphere for his songs. With River, he takes that very same principle and uses it to conjure a glum series of fictional events, deceptively hidden by a happy tune.