The Avett Brothers / Emotionalism (Bonus Track Version) / 2007
The Ballad of Love and Hate
tender but anxious, building toward a bruised, uneasy resolution
The song stages an allegorical confrontation between Love and Hate as two characters moving through a single day, culminating in a reunion that reads as reconciliation, forgiveness, or possibly resignation. It builds its drama through parallel editing rather than argument, cutting between the two figures until their paths converge.
love versus hate as personified forces forgiveness and unconditional commitment self-destruction and recklessness patience and waiting reconciliation after harm
Who's speaking
a third-person narrator observing both characters with equal attention, functioning almost like a fable-teller; the narrator doesn't editorialize, letting the parallel scenes and the closing dialogue carry the judgment
What happens
The song opens with a letter from Love to Hate that Hate dismisses with contempt, establishing the emotional gap between them. From there the narrative alternates between Love's gentle, luminous journey home and Hate's isolated, self-destructive wandering through the night. Love waits faithfully; Hate drinks and spirals until he barely survives the night. The song ends with Hate stumbling home to apologize, and Love's unconditional acceptance closing the distance between them.
How it's built
The song is built on strict alternation -- each verse pairs a Love stanza with a Hate stanza, reinforcing the structural conceit that these are two forces moving in parallel tracks. There's no traditional chorus; instead a brief mantra-like repetition of a single word functions as a hinge before the final verses, marking a shift from parallel movement to convergence. The ending breaks the alternating pattern entirely, letting the two figures finally occupy the same scene, which signals the song's structural resolution.
Section by section
Opening exchange
“I barely even noticed that you were away”
The letter exchange sets the emotional asymmetry: Love is open and affectionate, Hate is defensive and dismissive, establishing him as emotionally unavailable or wounded rather than simply villainous.
Parallel verses (Love's journey)
Love's imagery is airborne and radiant, suggesting she is the presence people are instinctively drawn to; the description of her arrival emphasizes nurturing qualities like trust and care, reinforcing her as more abstraction than literal character.
Parallel verses (Hate's journey)
“lazily killing the last of a jar”
Hate's verses trace a decline into isolation and self-medication, described with weary, almost sympathetic detail rather than condemnation -- the song seems more interested in his loneliness than his malice.
Taxi verse
The young driver's mixed reaction to Love -- hope followed by grief at her imminent departure -- introduces a minor character who stands in for anyone who has loved and feared losing her, widening the allegory beyond just the Hate relationship.
Chant interlude
The single repeated word functions as a structural pause, embodying the theme of waiting itself rather than describing it, which lets the listener feel the duration Love endures.
Closing reunion
“I'm yours and that's it, whatever”
Hate's apology is met not with explanation or conditions but flat acceptance, and the final repeated vow of permanence closes the song on an assertion of commitment that could read as either grace or troubling self-erasure, depending on how much agency one grants Love in the exchange.
Craft
- personification
- Love and Hate are rendered as literal characters with bodies, habits, and emotional lives, which lets abstract moral forces behave like estranged lovers or siblings.
- parallel structure
- The verse-by-verse alternation between the two figures' actions creates a rhythmic contrast between flight and descent, warmth and numbness, without needing direct commentary.
- symbolic imagery
- Love is associated with sky, flight, and arrival; Hate with cars, streets, and alcohol -- a consistent visual vocabulary that reinforces their opposed natures.
- repetition as refrain
- The brief chant of a single word functions like a held breath in the structure, slowing the song down right before the narrative tension peaks.
Reading it
The most persuasive reading treats this as an allegory for how love endures alongside self-destructive or cruel impulses within a single person or relationship -- Hate isn't an external villain so much as the wounded, reckless side of someone Love has chosen to stay with. The unconditional nature of the closing vow can be read as romantic devotion, but it also invites a more uneasy reading: the repeated insistence on permanence regardless of behavior edges toward depicting a loyalty that doesn't ask Hate to change, which some listeners may find less like grace and more like a troubling pattern of accepting harm without conditions.
Context
This track appears on Emotionalism (2007), an album often cited as a turning point where the Avett Brothers' early punk-folk energy gave way to more composed, emotionally direct songwriting. I don't have reliable specific biographical or production details about this song's writing process, so I'm working from the text itself.
Listen for
- the alternating pacing between Love's and Hate's verses and how the music likely shifts in tone to match
- the lone repeated word functioning as a structural breath before the final verses
- the shift from third-person narration to direct dialogue in the closing verse
- the specific, mundane detail used for each character (a drink, a clock, a taxi) versus the more abstract treatment of Love
About The Avett Brothers
The Avett Brothers are an American folk rock band from Concord, North Carolina. The band is made up of two brothers, Scott Avett and Seth Avett along with Bob Crawford and Joe Kwon.
2000 - present / United States
Full biography and catalogue