Has there ever been a track that has perfectly encapsulated the course of existence quite like ‘Baby Shark’? The one-and-a-half minute track captured the coming-of-age experience with more finesse than Richard Linklater’s Boyhood. It only makes sense that someone has reimagined the perfect pop ditty as an existential emo jam.

Youtube musician David Sikabwe has given the beloved children’s song an essential emo makeover. The sheer level of angst on display makes Bright Eyes discography sound as joyous as a cut from the Despicable Me soundtrack.

Sikabwe has taken the signature chorus of the track and amalgamated it with his own deeply personal, sombre lyricism.

I didn’t think that I would die today /

They smelled my bleeding wounds a mile away /

It won’t be long /

They keep a steady pace /

The ocean floor will be my resting place /

Now I can faintly hear those sirens sing /

My life is hanging from the thinnest string, the thinnest string /

They move in packs /

Now they’ve surrounded me /

Not one or two; it’s a whole family

Listen to the track below.

Watch: ‘Baby Shark’ but it’s dark and emo

Truly poignant stuff.

This is well and truly the golden era of emo covers. Last month, emo stalwarts Hawthorne Heights covered dark pop prodigy Billie Eilish and our yeehaw queen Kacey Musgraves.

The mini-record, appropriately titled Dads of Sad offered an angst-ridden interpretation of ‘8’ by Billie Eilish and ‘Butterflies’ by Kacey Musgraves.

“Both of these are very talented artists, who represent the most current side of pop music. Both sound nothing like what we are used to writing. We thought it was a great exercise in trying to make their happy pop songs sound like sad emo songs,” the band explained at the time.