Results for “desire versus control”

Songs

Under Control

The Strokes

A slow-burning breakup song built almost entirely from negations and reggae-tinged restraint, where the narrator's insistence on…

emotional detachment as self-protection loss of control disguised as calm fading youth

She's Lost Control

Joy Division

A stark, clinical account of watching someone lose command of their own body and mind, built around a mechanical repeated…

loss of control epilepsy/illness powerlessness of the observer

Y Control

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

A hazy, incantatory track that trades narrative clarity for mood and repetition, circling around loss, jealousy, and a loss of…

loss of control jealousy and betrayal naivety/self-deception

Self Control

Frank Ocean

A wistful, fragmented account of a fading summer romance that never quite resolved into anything permanent, sung from the…

unrequited or asymmetrical desire nostalgia for a shared past that never fully existed self-restraint and its collapse

Lose Control

Missy Elliott

This is a call-and-response club track built almost entirely as choreography instructions and hype-man ad-libs, with the thesis…

surrender to rhythm bodily confidence collective release

On Hold

The xx

A breakup song built on the gap between assumed permanence and sudden loss, where the narrator realizes too late that…

complacency in love loss of control desire versus resentment

Devil's Spoke

Laura Marling

A folk incantation that reads like a spell against dread, moving from natural imagery of isolation into a defiant, almost ritual…

control versus surrender fear personified self-possession

Till I Gain Control Again

Emmylou Harris

A quiet confession of dependence disguised as a love song: the speaker admits to instability and asks a steady partner to be an…

dependence and vulnerability emotional instability steadfastness vs. wandering

'till I Gain Control Again

Rodney Crowell

A wandering traveler's confession set as a plea for steady love, this song uses natural imagery — sun, road, sea, lighthouse —…

itinerancy and homecoming emotional instability dependence on a steady partner

Machinist

Japanese Breakfast

A love song addressed to an emotionally shut-off partner rendered as a machine, where intimacy is described in the vocabulary of…

emotional unavailability desire versus control dehumanization of a lover

Steam

Peter Gabriel

A funk-driven track built around a slippery central image—steam as heat, pressure, arousal, and creative combustion all at once.…

desire and arousal pressure and release perception versus performance

Just Like Water

Lauryn Hill

Performed live and introduced almost as an experiment in vulnerability after the confrontational 'Rebel', this song builds an…

surrender spiritual longing conflated with romantic desire purification

Water Curses

Animal Collective

A dreamlike wish-song built around water as an image of fluidity, ease, and self-erasure, drifting through loosely connected…

desire for formlessness/transformation mortality and impermanence creativity and artistic longing

Oh My God

Adele

A woman recently out of a long relationship narrates the giddy, guilty rush of falling into a new attraction she knows is…

post-divorce self-reinvention guilt versus desire loss of control

You Should Probably Leave

Chris Stapleton

A late-night seduction song built on reverse psychology, where the narrator repeats a warning to leave while doing everything…

temptation and self-denial desire versus restraint vulnerability disguised as control

Faith

George Michael

A dance-pop declaration of self-preservation dressed up as a love song: the narrator is attracted to someone but refuses to hand…

romantic self-protection distrust of surface attraction patience versus desire

I Won't Dance

Frank Sinatra

A comic protest song in which the singer refuses to dance not out of reluctance but because dancing with this particular woman…

comic denial as flirtation physical desire disguised as reluctance control versus surrender

You Can Leave Your Hat On

Randy Newman

A slow-building striptease monologue delivered as a series of clipped stage directions, in which the speaker's controlling…

desire and control objectification voyeurism

Love Is Like a Heat Wave

The Supremes

A woman tries to name an overwhelming physical sensation of desire and cannot settle on whether it is bliss or affliction, so…

overwhelming desire loss of control bodily sensation as metaphor for emotion

Bad Habits (Uncut)

Maxwell

Maxwell casts desire as an addiction that the singer both craves and cannot escape, framing love as a compulsion with real costs…

addiction as metaphor for love loss of control guilt and self-awareness

Barely Legal

The Strokes

A slack, half-confessional monologue about a lopsided romance where guilt, desire, and self-sabotage tangle together without…

failed responsibility desire and control guilt and self-justification

Start Me Up

The Rolling Stones

A relentless riff-driven come-on built almost entirely from a single mechanical metaphor: sex as an engine or vehicle that needs…

sexual desire machinery/car imagery as metaphor loss of control

Because the Night

Patti Smith

A co-write between Patti Smith and Bruce Springsteen, this song turns nighttime into a sanctuary where desire overrides doubt…

desire as sustenance night as refuge doubt versus surrender

So Emotional

Whitney Houston

A dance-pop track built around uncontrollable physical attraction rather than romance in any tender sense. The narrator catalogs…

obsessive desire loss of self-control infatuation vs. commitment

Within You

David Bowie

Written for Bowie's Jareth character in Labyrinth, this is a confrontation disguised as a torch song: a possessive figure…

obsession and control power and powerlessness seduction versus manipulation

Black Maria

Todd Rundgren

A blues-drenched confession addressed to a personified nocturnal terror—likely obsessive desire or a destructive relationship…

obsession fear and desire intertwined loss of control

Gotta Get: Closer

Maxwell

A live, largely improvised jam built around a single desperate hook, this performance treats sexual desire as a kind of…

desire as compulsion sex and spiritual ecstasy merged call-and-response performance

Surgeon

St. Vincent

A woman narrates a summer of collapse—medication, isolation, avoidance of family and mail—while a chorus repeats a request to be…

depression and isolation medicalization of the self desire for external repair

Back Down Memory Lane

Minnie Riperton

A single found photograph pulls the narrator involuntarily into a past relationship she thought she'd buried. What starts as…

involuntary memory grief over lost love loss of control

Entangled

Genesis

A hazy meditation on sleep therapy and hypnosis that curdles into a quiet indictment of medical or psychological control.…

dependency and control the ambiguity of dreams versus reality institutional/medical authority

I Feel Like Breaking Up / Somebody's Home Tonight

Ann Peebles

A woman alone on a rainy night confesses to a desire strong enough to make her willing to wreck another relationship just to…

forbidden desire loneliness emotional compulsion versus morality

Wild Fire

Laura Marling

Laura Marling narrates from the outside of a relationship, watching a woman she's fascinated by perform for others while…

watching versus being seen inherited family damage artistic self-consciousness

You Can't Always Get What You Want

The Rolling Stones

A gospel-choir-backed anthem that stitches together disconnected scenes of desire, disillusionment, and death, all resolving…

disillusionment compromise the counterculture's limits

I Want Your Sex, Pts. 1 & 2

George Michael

George Michael turns a single, blunt demand into a sustained argument about desire, patience, and monogamy, dressing up a simple…

sexual desire and frustration persuasion and rhetoric monogamy versus promiscuity

It's Not Up to You

Björk

Björk works through the anxiety of trying to engineer a good day through sheer will, arriving at a kind of surrender: control…

control versus surrender anxiety and self-management chance and openness to surprise

This Is Love

PJ Harvey

A blunt, riff-driven declaration of desire that keeps colliding with the speaker's own disbelief at how simple and overwhelming…

desire versus complexity secrecy and shame repetition as devotion

Beethoven (I Love To Listen)

Eurythmics

A propulsive, largely nonsensical dance-pop chant built around the fetishized repetition of a single composer's name,…

obsessive repetition performance and artifice gendered desire and control

You Made Me Love You (I Didn't Want To Do It)

Patsy Cline

This is a classic Tin Pan Alley standard reworked through Patsy Cline's country-pop phrasing, built almost entirely around a…

reluctant surrender desire versus resistance emotional vulnerability

Gloria (Backstage & Dangerous: The Private Rehearsal)

The Doors

This is a live rehearsal-tape performance of the Van Morrison/Them garage-rock standard, stretched by Jim Morrison into a loose,…

adolescent sexual awakening performance and improvisation desire and impatience

Naomi

Neutral Milk Hotel

A distorted, obsessive love song that swings between tenderness and revulsion, built around the fixation of a narrator who both…

obsessive desire idealization vs. disgust possession and control