3 Downer One-Hit Wonders From the 1990s That Might Just Turn Your Smile Upside Down

Music is a diverse art form. For every song that can bring you up and get those endorphins running wild in your brain, there are songs that can bring you down. Mellow you out. Somber the mood. Or even get you to feel all those sad feelings you may have been avoiding.

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Here below, we wanted to explore three of those types of songs. More specifically, we wanted to take a look at three one-hit wonders that may just affect your mood in major ways. A trio of tracks whose authors never quite had the same type of chart success afterwards. Indeed, these are three one-hit wonders from the 1990s that might just turn your smile upside down.

[RELATED: 3 Energetic One-Hit Wonders That Are Perfect To Dance Along To]

“Loser” by Beck from Mellow Gold (1993)

Nothing quite like being called a loser to get your mood on a downward turn. And here in this song that’s exactly what the young upstart Beck is singing about. In the early 1990s, slacker culture was everywhere. Grunge crystalized it with its affected vibe and unwashed ripped jeans. But Beck took it a step further and called a spade a spade. He elucidates what it means to embody that feeling, that culture, that personhood. He’s a loser, baby. Better get used to it.

“Criminal” by Fiona Apple from Tidal (1997)

There’s something about this song that makes it seem more like an opiate than a piece of entertainment. On it, the mysterious and beautiful Fiona Apple sings about how she’s manipulated another person thanks to the power of her feminine wiles. She feels so bad about it now that she feels like a criminal. So, she’s going to search him out again and try to make up for her transgressions. But that doesn’t feel like it’s going to end well either. That’s the thing about drugs—you may feel good for a little while but in the end, it’s all downhill.

“Torn” by Natalie Imbruglia from Left of the Middle (1997)

This song is upbeat enough on the face of it, but if you dig a little deeper, it’s a bummer. A cover of a track released earlier in the decade, the Australian-born Natalie Imbruglia sings over and over about how she’s been gutted—torn—after a breakup. She’s cold and shamed, she sings. It’s a neat trick of a track. To bring bright music to a depressing scene. By the end of it, the singer is writhing naked on the floor, gutted at what she’s lost. While the song wants to enliven you, the story weighs you down.

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