Sometimes relationships don’t work out. Unfortunately, in most cases, one partner falls out of love long before the other, leaving both of you confused, conflicted, and unsure of what to do. It’s a lonely kind of love when you love someone who isn’t sure about their feelings toward you. Will they stay? Will they go? In the end, it depends. But in this article, we’ll go over 23 of the best songs to listen to about falling out of love and the chaotic energy surrounding those interactions.
1. Hold Me While You Wait – Lewis Capaldi
According to Lewis Capaldi, Hold Me While You Wait was written about the uncertainty of being in a relationship with someone who doesn’t know what they want. The song is a beautiful piano ballad that really gets across the fear and hopelessness of the situation when your partner is the one that’s unsure about you and serves as a painful and relatable single that details that kind of situation.
Hold Me While You Wait was incredibly successful for Capaldi, debuting at the top of the Irish and Scottish charts while slotting in at number four on the UK Singles chart, where it spent 34 weeks in total. It also made him the first artist since Ed Sheeran to have two songs simultaneously in the top five of the UK charts while he also held number one and two on the Scottish charts simultaneously.
Next: Songs about forbidden or secret love
2. Colors – Halsey
Halsey developed Colors from a poem she wrote at the age of 17. According to her, the song is about watching the energy leak out of your partner in a relationship and wishing you had the version of them that you started out with. In a way, it plays both sides of the falling out of love saga, as you could have your feelings diminish as the person is drained, or their feelings could change as their perspective shifts.
While beautiful, the electropop ballad is still upbeat in its tempo and style, making it somehow also great for dance parties. The song topped out at number eight on the Billboard Bubbling Under Top 100 chart but broke the top 25 of the Dance Club Songs chart and went on to be certified double platinum by the RIAA.
Next: Songs for breakups (going through a breakup tracks)
3. I Don’t Love You – My Chemical Romance
You can expect anything released from My Chemical Romance’s album, The Black Parade, to be good, but you probably wouldn’t expect this song to be so emotional. I Don’t Love You was MCR’s first power ballad and one that would touch the hearts of fans in a new way.
It describes falling out of love with someone and mainly focuses on telling the partner that they can go away whenever they want, and they may be waiting for them to come back, or they might not. He’s almost daring his partner to say they don’t love him anymore, but it’s also pretty clear that he’s feeling the exact same way at that point. The song charted well in Europe, rising to number three on the Scottish charts and number 13 on the UK Singles.
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4. Circles – Post Malone
Relationships always go through cycles of highs and lows, but sometimes the lows just never rise back up again. Post Malone’s Circles details that cycle beautifully with lines like, “Seasons change and our love went cold, Feed the flame ’cause we can’t let it go, Run away, but we’re running in circles.”
Trying to rekindle a relationship that you’re no longer invested in truly does feel like going in circles with no end or way to get back to the way things used to be. Circles rose to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 and held that spot for three weeks, becoming Post Malone’s fourth number-one single. It was an international hit, breaking into the top ten of more than twenty different countries. At the 2021 Grammy Awards, Circles was nominated for Record of the Year and Song of the Year.
5. A Change Of Heart – The 1975
A Change of Heart is a classic The 1975 song, a massive electropop power ballad with all the trimmings you could ever want. That being said, the song isn’t particularly a happy one. It describes the end of a relationship as one partner falls out of love with the other and the black and white style of the music video only adds to the ominous ambiance that reflects those melancholy lyrics. The song topped out at number 47 on the US Hot Rock and Alternative Songs chart from Billboard.
6. Resentment – Kesha
No matter how hard you try in a relationship, it might just not work out. The sad part is that many people resent the fact that they spent so much time and energy on a person, resulting in some negative feelings. Combine that with the confusing nature of falling out of love in general, and you get Kesha’s Resentment. Lines like “Don’t know how to leave or stay” highlight the conflicted feelings that come with knowing it’s over but not knowing how to leave.
7. Out of Love – Alessia Cara
A few songs on this list deal more with finding out your partner no longer loves you than just your love for someone slowly slipping away. Out Of Love by Alessia Cara is one of those, dealing with the massive amount of pain that comes from realizing your partner no longer has the same feelings about you. In the song, she seems to accept that nothing she can do will make them love her again. It’s heartbreaking, and the imagery of crying at someone’s feet in vain cuts deeply.
8. Slide Away – Miley Cyrus
In Slide Away, Miley is letting go of an old relationship, telling her partner they’re right about everything feeling like it changed. Instead of trying to find that old love again, she’s asking them to move on the way she plans to. Even if you still have a little love for an ex, it’s best to leave those fires doused. If you’re feeling real down about the end of a relationship, this is an awesome song to listen to to help you begin the healing process.
9. I Hate This Part – The Pussycat Dolls
In this one, Nicole is ready to get out of her current relationship because she’s felt the love between them slipping away. Unfortunately, to end a relationship, you have to have hard conversations with a person you, in some way, still care about. She’s struggling to find a way to say goodbye because she’s tired of trying to no avail. I Hate This Part refers to the point where you have to sit down and tell someone that it just isn’t working for you anymore because even if it’s for the best, it still isn’t an easy thing to do.
10. Let It Go – James Bay
Losing feelings isn’t always a slow process; sometimes, it comes with just one realization. Let It Go by James Bay tackles a relationship where one partner realizes everything isn’t as great as they thought. Instead of being good together, you’re just hurting each other, and it’s better if you just end things. Of course, it will hurt, but the only way it can work out is if you go your separate ways and feel good about yourself. “When we’re becoming something else, I think it’s time to walk away.”
11. Secrets – The Weeknd
The Weeknd has plenty of hauntingly beautiful songs about love and addiction, but Secrets delves into his partner’s infidelity rather than any of his own. In it, Abel’s partner is constantly lying to him and saying she loves him, though she’s in love with a different man and is unfaithful to Abel despite the fact that they are together. It’s one of the most painful songs on his 2016 Starboy album and gives you a bit of a look inside The Weeknd’s vulnerable side.
12. Broken Strings – James Morrison feat. nelly furtado
One of the hardest things to do in a relationship is to be honest with yourself about how it’s going and how much you’re putting into it. Broken Strings takes that head one, detailing how sometimes, a relationship is just too far gone to save. For you to keep going would be dishonest and you’ll never get back to the way things were. While you want to save it and get the love back, sometimes you have to accept that it’s too late.
13. Say Something – A Great Big World feat. christina aguilera
Oh, man. Say Something is one of the most desperate, pleading, and sad songs you’ll probably ever hear. The point of view in the song is pleading for the other person to give you a reason to stay and making it feel like both of you have started to give up on the relationship.
Despite knowing his feelings are fading, he still loves his partner and wants them to, at the bare minimum, try to return some of those feelings. It even goes into how he wishes he could be enough for them and would have done anything for them. It’s a heartbreaking song that will have you crying into a pillow if you’re dealing with similar problems.
14. I’m Looking Through You – The Beatles
The Beatles had a knack for nailing down some pretty obscure and detailed emotions in their songs. I’m Looking Through You deals with being in love with someone who’s changed as your relationship progresses to the point that you hardly recognize them anymore. Those changes have made you not feel the same way about them, but they’re still the same person, and it’s hard to let go of the version of them you fell in love with.
Next: The greatest Beatles songs list
15. On Bended Knee – Boyz II Men
On Bended Knee captures the magic of earlier Boyz II Men singles, and its massive chart success shows that. The song itself is all about trying to revive a lost love. Along the way, something went wrong, and you can hear the pleading tones of the lyrics where they just want to do something to make it right and find their way back to the way it used to be.
16. Selfish – Madison Beer
Sometimes falling out of love with someone is a little bit of a triumphant moment. They do something, or you realize something that makes you understand that they were never deserving of the love you gave them at all. It can be an empowering wake-up call in your life and can change everything. Madison Beer nails that entire concept in Selfish, calling out her partner as too selfish to have been worth the time.
17. Someone Like You – Adele
Someone Like You goes beyond the stage when you fall out of love and into the part where you’re looking at them with someone else long after you’ve separated. The song is directed at those who’ve moved on after falling out of love and leaving, oddly wishing them nothing but the best. It still has that gut-punching emotional feeling because you miss the person. The song just stands as an example where you’re happy for them despite still wanting them in some ways.
Next: Our picks for the best Adele songs ever
18. Lost Cause – Billie Eilish
We’ve already talked about how sometimes a relationship comes to a point where it’s just a lost cause. Sinking any more time and energy into it is just a waste of your energy, and Billie Eilish nails it with Lost Cause.
It’s all about how you can build up expectations of someone and picture what the future looks like between you, but sometimes the other person just doesn’t grow on the same path as you.
According to the song, falling out of love makes it much easier to say goodbye to someone who’s no longer the person you want to be with, making all of those diminished feelings into a tool you can use instead of just something you have to wallow in.
19. Tolerate It – Taylor Swift
It’s truly hard to find an artist that’s better than Taylor Swift at writing songs about heartache, relationships, and breakups. Tolerate it goes through the roller coaster drop of emotions that wash over you when you finally realize your love isn’t being reciprocated and the person you love doesn’t even deserve your time.
Going from making someone your personal temple to having to beg to be mentioned in their life is something that’s horrific to deal with. And nobody sings about it better than Taylor Swift can.
Next: Our picks for the greatest Taylor Swift songs ever
20. Too Good at Goodbyes – Sam Smith
Too Good at Goodbyes is one of the tearjerkers on this list (most of them could be if you’re going through some things yourself, but still). Even before the relationship officially ends, sometimes you just know it isn’t going to make it in the long run.
This is doubly true if you have a partner that hurts you, and it’s beautifully captured by Sam Smith in this song. Each time you get hurt, it hurts a little bit less. But that numbing of your feelings is also slowly eating away at how much you love the person until there is none left, and there’s no chance of salvaging the relationship anymore.
21. We’re Good – Dua Lipa
Once you’ve fallen out of love, leaving the relationship can feel like a breath of fresh air. You’re no longer feeling the pressure of the other person to be what they need, and you get to shed the suffocating effects of those expectations. Dua Lipa says it best in We’re Good, admitting that sometimes we’re better off alone than with someone we don’t love anymore.
In fact, being with someone you don’t love can be more lonely than actually being alone. Just wanting to be alone instead of with a person is also a clear sign that your relationship should end if it isn’t just about wanting a little personal time.
Next: The greatest songs about being lonely and loneliness
22. How You Gonna Act Like That – Tyrese
Yes, Tyrese did have a career outside of acting in the Fast and Furious franchise. With a chill beat for a background, Tyrese speaks to a relationship where you’re willing to do anything for your partner and the confusion that comes when you realize they lost feelings a long time ago. Trying to cope with that after being together for so long if terrible and he does a great job putting those feelings to music.
23. Scared To Be Lonely – Martin Garrix and Dua Lipa
Sometimes you get to the point in a relationship where neither of you are in love anymore, but staying together is better than being alone. The fear of isolation is what keeps you together instead of any mutual feelings. The relationship used to be great, but now it just sucks, and it’s draining you, but it’s still better than not having the person around. Honestly, it’s just a matter of time for the couple in Scared To be Lonely.
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As a contributing writer for Music Grotto, Dakotah writes and produces professional music/media content. He works closely with editorial staff to meet editorial standards and create
quality content for the Music Grotto website. Dakotah is passionate about music in a wide variety of genres, from hip-hop to country and lo-fi to metal, and he enjoys creating music pieces for Music Grotto.