Pop music has the magic ability to take you through every step of a relationship. Here are a few synth pop songs from the 80s that sound like falling out of love.
“Say Hello, Wave Goodbye” by Soft Cell
“Say Hello, Wave Goodbye” by Soft Cell is a brutally honest song about relationships, if I’ve ever heard one. The first verse paints a picture of a relationship that probably should have never happened in the first place.
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“Standin’ in the door of the Pink Flamingo cryin’ in the rain / It was a kind of so-so love / And I’m gonna make sure it never happens again / You and I, it had to be the standing joke of the year / You were a sleep-around, a lost and found and not for me, I feel.”
“Love Will Tear Us Apart” by Joy Division
This song might be a vibe, but it’s equally just as tragic as it is groovy. Ian Curtis, who wrote this one, was inspired by his own failing marriage. His bandmate, Stephen Morris, didn’t realize that the song was inspired by real circumstances until later.
“I just thought ‘Yeah, this is a good song,’ someone might like it,” he told NME. “It was a great period for the band, but Ian’s personal life – that was all going badly. In retrospect, when you listen to it in light of what happened, it seems bloody obvious. I honestly didn’t realize that he was writing about himself…”
“Tainted Love” by Soft Cell
In “Tainted Love”, the narrator sings about wanting to run away from a relationship, even after giving it their all. Ed Cobb, who wrote the song, actually wrote it from the perspective of someone he was with at some point.
“I had a lover for whom you could say wasn’t a good individual,” he explained. “I tried to go into her head and write a song from her standpoint. Once the word ‘tainted’ had popped into my head, the song was written very quickly, probably 15 minutes.”
“Who Needs Love Like That” by Erasure
“Who Needs Love Like That” by Erasure has a synth-pop danceability that will get anyone on their feet. However, don’t let this song’s catchiness fool you. “Who Needs Love Like That” implies that the singer is dealing with a relatively toxic relationship where “things aren’t the way they ought to be.”
Although it’s slightly unclear exactly what the conflict is that’s causing frustration in this relationship, in “Who Needs Love Like That”, the singer comes to the conclusion, at least, that perhaps it’s not quite worth it anymore.
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