Results for “trust and betrayal”

Songs

How Can I Be Sure of You (Previously unreleased)

Harry Nilsson

A small argument about the color of the sun spirals into a meditation on epistemic vertigo -- how do you trust anything,…

epistemological doubt trust and betrayal perception vs. reality

Matty Groves

Fairport Convention

This is the Fairport Convention electric-folk arrangement of the ancient English/Scottish ballad about adultery, betrayal, and…

class inequality adultery and its consequences honor and vengeance

Unite

Burial

This is a track built almost entirely from a single vocal fragment looped and pitched into a kind of emotional smear, more mood…

betrayal emotional numbness isolation

Please Take

Wire

A blunt, almost domestic-scale confrontation song built around one sustained image of betrayal-as-stabbing, delivered with a…

betrayal complicity disgust with manipulation

Show Me Love

Robyn

A teenage Robyn's breakout single is a straightforward Eurodance declaration of romantic surrender, built around a repeated plea…

romantic vulnerability independence versus surrender demand for reciprocity

Poncho & Lefty

Townes Van Zandt

A weathered ballad about a Mexican bandit and the friend who may have betrayed him, told with the flat, elliptical tone of a…

betrayal and guilt myth-making and unreliable legend exile and diminishment

Pancho and Lefty

Townes Van Zandt

A ballad about a legendary Mexican bandit and the friend widely suspected of betraying him, told with the flattened affect of a…

betrayal and complicity myth-making versus truth exile and displacement

May You Never Be Alone Like Me

Hank Williams

A plainspoken country waltz of heartbreak in which the narrator, abandoned by a lover after sacrificing everything for her,…

betrayal loneliness sacrifice for love

Blindness

The Fall

This is a plainspoken cautionary tale about romantic self-deception: a man ignores his own instincts, falls hard for a woman who…

self-deception romantic ruin pride and consequence

Devil's Gonna Git You

Bessie Smith

A blues warning delivered as a curse: the narrator threatens a philandering partner with damnation, using the devil as a…

infidelity and betrayal moral reckoning female assertiveness

A Change Is Gonna Come

Sam Cooke

A first-person testimony of endurance under racial oppression, built around a single hope that refuses to die even as evidence…

racial injustice endurance faith and doubt

Moment of Truth

Gang Starr

Gang Starr's title track is a meditation on accountability and betrayal dressed as street philosophy, moving from meditative…

betrayal and loyalty accountability/karma paranoia at success

The Stranger

Billy Joel

Billy Joel builds a meditation on the hidden selves everyone conceals from lovers, using the whistled melody and shifting moods…

hidden identity betrayal in relationships self-deception

Doin' Time

Lana Del Rey

This is Lana Del Rey's faithful, lightly reworked cover of Sublime's 1996 track, itself a reggae-inflected reimagining of the…

betrayal and possessiveness local pride and belonging romantic disillusionment

Perfidia

Nat King Cole

A jilted lover appeals past his unfaithful partner to God and the sea as witnesses to his grief, then trails off into…

betrayal in love unanswered devotion isolation and distance

Forever On My Mind

Son House

A Delta blues lament built on the classic AAB stanza form, this song traces a man's attempt to reconcile betrayal with lingering…

betrayal and abandonment obsessive longing wounded pride

Father Figure

George Michael

A slow-building declaration of total devotion that reaches for every available role — lover, parent, teacher, priest — to…

all-consuming devotion protection vs. control roleplay and identity fusion

I Don't Want to Know

Gladys Knight

Gladys Knight delivers a hard-edged breakup address to a partner who is leaving for someone else, refusing to grant him the…

betrayal and infidelity emotional exhaustion self-respect after sacrifice

Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?

Abbey Lincoln

Abbey Lincoln's 1991 reading of the Depression-era standard strips the song back to its bare, bitter arithmetic: a man who built…

economic betrayal labor and disposability war and its aftermath

You

Bill Withers

A confrontational, deeply personal song in which Bill Withers turns the tables on someone who has been trying to convince him…

gaslighting and psychological manipulation hypocrisy infidelity and betrayal

Green Light

Lorde

A breakup song built around the gap between wanting to move on and actually being able to. The verses sketch the disorientation…

emotional limbo self-deception vs. clarity urban restlessness

Suzanne

Leonard Cohen

A meditation on grace and surrender disguised as a portrait of a woman by a river, Cohen's song moves from intimate seduction…

spiritual longing disguised as romance the sacred in the everyday trust and surrender

Hate to Lose Your Lovin'

Little Feat

A wry breakup narrative that keeps undercutting its own heartbreak with comic self-interest. The narrator confronts a cheating…

infidelity and betrayal performed heartbreak vs. real indifference serial romance

The Message

Nas

Nas stitches together two dense verses of violent, luxury-drenched bravado and a grim first-person shooting narrative, unified…

vigilance and mortality street violence and retaliation loyalty and betrayal

Blackwaterside

Sandy Denny

This is a traditional British/Irish folk ballad given a spare, haunting reading by Sandy Denny, in which a woman recounts…

seduction and betrayal female shame and defiance broken promises

Archangel

Burial

Built almost entirely from pitch-shifted vocal samples looping a handful of phrases, this track uses repetition and vocal…

isolation longing for belonging fragile intimacy

Shelter from the Storm

Bob Dylan

A wandering, half-mythic narrator recalls a woman who offered him refuge from a hostile, almost apocalyptic world, then traces…

displacement and exile refuge and its loss betrayal and gratitude

Dead Flowers

Townes Van Zandt

This is a Rolling Stones cover (Jagger/Richards) performed live by Townes Van Zandt on Roadsongs, and in his hands the song's…

class resentment addiction and self-destruction romantic betrayal

Lost Your Head Blues

Bessie Smith

Bessie Smith delivers a blues complaint about a lover who has gotten money and forgotten who stood by him when he had none. It's…

betrayal after success female self-respect economic power shifting a relationship

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

Hold Ya Head

The Notorious B.I.G.

This is Biggie's bleakest first-person confession, a suicidal monologue framed by a mournful sample of a mother grieving her…

suicidal ideation self-loathing street violence and its aftermath

Forgot About Dre

Dr. Dre

A comeback statement disguised as a diss track: Dr. Dre rebuts claims that he'd gone soft or fallen off, leaning on his…

legacy and reputation industry skepticism loyalty and betrayal

Distant Lover

Marvin Gaye

A slow-burning soul lament built almost entirely on repetition and vocal ad-lib, in which the narrator addresses a lover who has…

longing and absence romantic betrayal memory versus present loss

Automatic Stop

The Strokes

A brisk breakup song built around a love triangle, where the narrator's dismissiveness curdles into something closer to guilt…

romantic betrayal denial emotional detachment

Rolling in the Deep

Adele

A breakup anthem that transforms grief into a threat, built on gospel-inflected repetition and a rising, percussive arrangement.…

betrayal and revenge transformation of pain into power lost potential

Gold Digger

Kanye West Tribute Band

A Ray Charles sample and a party-ready hook frame a much darker set of verses about money, sex, race, and resentment between men…

gender and money distrust and betrayal black masculinity and provider anxiety

Somebody Already Broke My Heart

Sade

A wary plea from someone entering a new relationship while still bruised from the last one. The song works less as a love song…

emotional guardedness vulnerability in new love fear of repetition

Where Did You Sleep Last Night? (Black Girl)

Lead Belly

An old Southern folk ballad, filtered through Lead Belly's version, that turns a simple question about infidelity into something…

betrayal and suspicion death and unexplained violence isolation/exile

Squonk

Genesis

Genesis take the folkloric Squonk—a creature of Pennsylvania legend so ashamed of its own ugliness that it weeps constantly and…

shame and self-loathing the cruelty of pursuit despair and self-destruction

The Thrill Is Gone

B.B. King

B.B. King turns a breakup into a slow, dignified reckoning, using a repeated confession -- the thrill is gone -- as both wound…

disillusionment in love emotional resignation reclaiming dignity after betrayal