Results for “persistence and patience”

Songs

Almost Had to Start a Fight / In and Out of Patience

Parquet Courts

This is really two linked songs stitched into one track: an anxious, stuttering account of near-violence and existential…

urban anxiety exhaustion of patience alienation and numbness

Rome Wasn't Built In a Day

Nick Lowe

A patient seducer's pep talk to himself, dressed up as courtly persistence rather than creepy fixation. Nick Lowe uses the…

patience and persistence romantic pursuit self-delusion vs. sincerity

Neon Lights

Natasha Bedingfield

A glossy, upbeat love song that uses radio and electrical imagery to describe the effort of making a connection fully felt. It's…

communication and connection durability of love sensory/physical imagery of feeling

New York Comeback

Lucinda Williams

A defiant address to an audience already heading for the exits, built around the insistence that the performance—and the…

persistence late-career resilience performance and audience

It's Going to Take Some Time

Carole King

A quiet post-breakup meditation in which the narrator refuses easy resolution, choosing patience over self-pity. Carole King…

heartbreak recovery self-forgiveness patience

Nice & Slow

Usher

A late-90s R&B seduction track built almost entirely around anticipation: a phone call, a drive across town, and a promise that…

seduction and anticipation control and patience masculine bravado

Bucket

Carly Rae Jepsen

A lightweight beach-day scene becomes a small allegory for persistence and patience in a relationship, using the broken-bucket…

patience within imperfection small domestic/romantic devotion play and childhood as metaphor

Ain't Gonna Give It Up

Charles Bradley

A soul declaration of romantic stubbornness built on a single defiant refrain, Charles Bradley insists he won't let go of a…

romantic devotion self-assertion emotional confusion

Breaker

Deerhunter

Breaker is a survivor's song, written by Bradford Cox after a near-fatal car accident, that treats staying alive as an act of…

mortality and survival fate versus agency spiritual ambivalence

Run to Me

Dionne Warwick

A plainspoken offer of shelter to someone recovering from heartbreak, built almost entirely around a single repeated invitation.…

emotional availability rebound love self-doubt in courtship

Itsy Bitsy Spider

Carly Simon

Carly Simon splices the nursery rhyme about the persistent spider into the title track's refrain from her own 'Coming Around…

resilience cyclical hope romantic disappointment

Bagful of Boogie

Canned Heat

A talking-blues shuffle about a broke, hopeful musician who's landed in Hollywood with nothing but talent and determination.…

chasing the American dream poverty vs. ambition outsider in the big city

Sweet Time

REO Speedwagon

This is a mid-tempo love song built around patience as a romantic virtue, with a narrator talking himself into slowing down…

patience in love vulnerability and self-protection commitment

Conventional Wisdom

Built to Spill

A short, circling meditation on how received wisdom persists even when it no longer fits reality. Built to Spill uses plain,…

conformity vs. change epistemic humility the persistence of habit

Easy, Easy, Got to Take It Easy

Teddy Pendergrass

A slow-burning seduction ballad built almost entirely around a single piece of self-advice: don't rush. Teddy Pendergrass…

patience as desire vulnerability in intimacy self-restraint

I'm a Ram

Al Green

This is a lean, driving groove song built almost entirely around one animal metaphor: the singer as a ram, butting persistently…

persistence in desire masculine self-assertion obstacle and pursuit

Rock Me Baby

Big Mama Thornton

A direct, unhurried blues plea for physical and emotional satisfaction, built from the double meaning of "rock" as both comfort…

sexual desire bodily surrender patience and pacing

Take Our Time

TLC

This CrazySexyCool deep cut is a slow-burn seduction song built almost entirely on repetition, asking a partner to slow down and…

patience in intimacy trust between lovers sensuality

Shut Up Kiss Me

Angel Olsen

A driving, garage-pop declaration of romantic persistence, in which the narrator refuses to let a faltering relationship end…

romantic persistence refusal to quit desire versus communication

Write a List of Things to Look Forward To

Courtney Barnett

A short, spare meditation on persisting through existential dread, built around a single tether to hope: correspondence with…

climate anxiety interpersonal connection as survival futility and persistence

Waitin' On a Woman

Brad Paisley

A chance bench conversation at a shopping mall becomes a decades-spanning meditation on marriage, patience, and mortality. The…

marital patience intergenerational wisdom mortality and devotion

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

Waitin' On You

En Vogue

A woman sits alone past the hour her partner should have returned, cycling between desire, doubt, and the slow recognition that…

romantic neglect patience and its limits loneliness and longing

Kokomo, IN

Japanese Breakfast

A song written from the point of view of someone left behind by a person who's moved on to a bigger life, framed as a letter of…

unrequited devotion being left behind longing and patience

The Panties

Mos Def

A slow-burn seduction song built almost entirely on repetition and murmured reassurance rather than narrative incident. Mos Def…

seduction and patience presence over words physical intimacy as the only true communication

Thin Line Between Love and Hate

Annie Lennox

A domestic warning delivered as slow-burning soul: a woman absorbs quiet humiliation night after night until patience curdles…

repressed anger domestic betrayal the limits of patience

I Will Wait

Mumford & Sons

A penitent returns home and promises steadfastness to a partner he has wronged or disappointed, using the language of kneeling,…

penitence and forgiveness patience as devotion self-discipline over impulse

Waitin' for the Bus

ZZ Top

A sparse twelve-bar blues vignette about riding public transit home from work, delivered with the stoic patience of traditional…

working-class routine patience and endurance aspiration/upward mobility

Symmetry

Saba

"Symmetry" is a love song built around the idea of a soulmate as a mathematical match — two halves that complete a balanced…

soulmates and fate patience in love self-fulfillment

Another Believer

Rufus Wainwright

A buoyant, almost jingle-like pop song built around the simple hook of winning someone's trust back through persistence rather…

persuasion and persistence faith versus skepticism time and hesitation

Always

Daniel Caesar

A quietly devotional ballad about holding onto a relationship's residue after it's ended or drifted apart. The narrator insists…

unconditional devotion unresolved heartbreak nostalgia

Cool It Down

The Velvet Underground

A loose, easy-rolling shuffle about romantic patience versus urgency, dressed in vague hints of bureaucratic or criminal…

desire vs. patience urban anonymity casual detachment

Vienna

Billy Joel

A weary older voice counsels a driven young person to ease off the throttle, arguing that ambition pursued without patience…

ambition versus patience fear of mortality burnout

Tape Loop

Morcheeba

A hazy, low-tempo meditation on repetition and disillusionment, built around the image of a tape loop that keeps cycling without…

repetition and stagnation disillusionment patience vs. futility

One Step Too Far

Faithless

A spare, hypnotic track built around a duet between a weary addressee and a narrator who keeps circling back to the same stalled…

emotional exhaustion codependency unrequited devotion

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

Beautiful Boy

Ben Harper

This is Ben Harper's recorded cover of John Lennon's tender lullaby to his son, repurposed here for a benefit compilation…

parental love and protection innocence versus fear impermanence and time passing

If It Takes a Lifetime

Jason Isbell

A recovering man tallies the small, unglamorous work of staying sober and rebuilding a life, using a job anniversary as a rough…

recovery and sobriety patience versus instant redemption estrangement from home and self

I Got You

Train

A breezy, New Orleans-flavored pop-rock song about finally landing on the right person after a string of near-misses and bad…

serendipity vs. timing settling into love after chaos nostalgia and Americana imagery

Waiting In Vain

Annie Lennox

This is Annie Lennox's reading of the Bob Marley & the Wailers song, retooled from reggae original into a slower,…

unrequited devotion patience versus self-respect power imbalance in courtship