Songs about unpassionate, mediocre or just generally "meh" relationships

You know, the kind where people are just killing time, or have lowered their standards. I'll start:

"The One I Love" - REM
"Good Enough for Now" - Weird Al
"Two Out of Three Ain't Bad" - Meat Loaf

Simon and Garfunkel "the Dangling Conversation"

"You Stink (But I Love You)" Billy and the Boingers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDexIqkyqI8

Most of the Pet Shop Boys' oeuvre before 1993.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4vyA-hUuSc

The Waterboys - The Thrill Is Gone

Atlantic Rhythm Aces - Third Rate Romance

bob dylan - don't think twice, it's alright

Mazzy Star - i've been let down

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epXGSp9YZ1Q

ida - thank you

Huey Lewis - Stuck With You

rupert holmes - escape

Nina Simone - This year's kisses

you don't bring me flowers
the thrill is gone
he stopped loving her today

Squeeze - Letting Go

xpost

"He Stopped Loving Her Today" is about an insanely passionate relationship.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRP6egIEABk

"I am drowning
There is no sign of land
You are coming down with me
Hand in unlovable hand"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivcOMZTCUEQ

Don't matter anymore
Ain't no surprises, and we're too young
To come to that
Oh time has a way of lessening love
You know that's true...
Nothing at all

We spent last night like every night
Sitting and staring
I wish we could fight at least
That would be something
Time has a way of lessening love
You know that's true
So don't bother listening anymore darling
'Cause I'm writing my last song about you
Nothing at all
You don't say nothing
'Cause there ain't nothing at all

xpost

"He Stopped Loving Her Today" is about an insanely passionate relationship.

― Kevin John Bozelka, Wednesday, September 28, 2011 10:36 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

Seriously. Maybe George Jones should've added "(Because Today He Died)" so it wouldn't confuse people

somehow feel like no children doesn't qualify. the hatred is pretty passionate.

early bob dylan has tons of these - it ain't me babe, it's all over now, baby blue, all i really want to do, don't think twice

joanna newsom - does not suffice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2vdQhcB5P0

Maybe it's just spiteful??

Carry on carry on till the end till the end
Living hard in the sun for a better friend
Never die, never die as the years go by
Does life go on? yeah, life goes on

Oh la dah n dah dah n dahdah n day now
I don't want to love you but you got me anyway

given my life I should have several playlists full of these by now, how shameful that i don't...

"steal my kisses" - ben harper
"love is gone" - david guetta
"hovering" - beulah
"we just disagree" - dave mason
"let's pretend" - raspberries
nearly the entirety of Everything But The Girl's Eden, (i.e. Each & Every One, Tender Blue, Another Bridge, Frost & Fire)
"Monday Morning" - Fleetwood Mac
"Together" - Nilsson
"breaking us in 2" - joe jackson (at least in this one he sounds like he wants to patch things up some)
j lennon - i' losing you
stuck w/ you - h lewis
what about me? - moving pictures
up the junction - squeeze
breakdown - tp & the <3bs

forgot to undo my usual crypto-abbreviations at the bottom of that list.... tp & the <3bs = Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, etc.

Cleaners From Venus - i wasn't drinking (i was just tired)

7 years - The Impressions
(soul Thomas Hardy).

up the junction - squeeze

Don't really think that's about an unpleasant or mediocre relaysh as much as it is about one person fucking up and everything going sour. There's a difference, I think.

Squeeze wrote the ultimate song for this thread's remit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YD_z0O8Pm0

and then there's the song I want played at my wedding:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_oiTKtpmTc

Is That Love? - Squeeze
So Hard - Pet Shop Boys

The Cure - "It's Not You"
The Cure - "Play For Today"

I remember thinking this not sounding like the work of a happily married man when it first dropped...

Splitsville followed about a year later

Bruce Springsteen - "One Step Up"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkFQHScyti0&ob=av2e

Woke up this morning my house was cold
Checked out the furnace she wasn't burnin'
Went out and hopped in my old Ford
Hit the engine but she ain't turnin'
We've given each other some hard lessons lately
But we ain't learnin'
We're the same sad story that's a fact
One step up and two steps back

Bird on a wire outside my motel room
But he ain't singin'
Girl in white outside a church in June
But the church bells they ain't ringing
I'm sittin' here in this bar tonight
But all I'm thinkin' is
I'm the same old story same old act
One step up and two steps back

It's the same thing night on night
Who's wrong baby who's right
Another fight and I slam the door on
Another battle in our dirty little war
When I look at myself I don't see
The man I wanted to be
Somewhere along the line I slipped off track
I'm caught movin' one step up and two steps back

There's a girl across the bar
I get the message she's sendin'
Hmm, she ain't lookin' too married
And me, well honey I'm pretending...
Last night I dreamed I held you in my arms
The music was never-ending
We danced as the evening sky faded to black
One step up and two steps back

comet gain - a kind of loving