June’s Best Top 40 Song of the Month: ‘Love Runs Out’ by OneRepublic

Just when you’re about to give up on Top 40 songs, a song like OneRepublic’s “Love Runs Out” comes along. It’s a powerful gospel-rock song that offers encouragement, spiritual direction and a search for what motivates us. (Photo courtesy Interscope Records)

OneRepublic‘s “Love Runs Out” is in the minority of Top 40 songs that can be called inspiring — both musically and lyrically.

Lyrically, the song goes through three movements. Each verse takes on a different theme.

Three verses, three spiritual themes

The first movement is about encouragement.  The singer promises that something will work out — that there’s a power stronger than doubt. Is he singing it to himself as an affirmation? Or is he singing it to someone he’s in a relationship with? Or someone he cares about? Or is he saying what he believes a higher force would be telling him?

“I’ll be your light, your match, your burning sun,
I’ll be the bright, in black, that’s making you run.”

Singer Ryan Tedder delivers a powerful gospel-like vocal in OneRepublic’s song “Love Runs Out.” It isn’t like anything else in the Top 40 — either lyrically or musically. (Photo courtesy Interscope Records)

In the second movement, the singer faces a “maniac” of some kind. So he confronts what seems like a spiritual crossroads he must navigate:

“Got an angel on my shoulder, and Mephistopheles,
But mama raised me good, Mama raised me right.
Mama said ‘do what you want, say prayers at night’
And I’m saying them, ’cause I’m so devout.
Til the love runs out.”

He sees an important decision as a choice between good and evil. But his mother, his prayer life, and his devotion are his inspiration. That’s what will get him through. Say what? You don’t even hear this kind of spiritual stuff in country music anymore.

In the third movement in the third verse, the singer looks at what motivates people. What are they running (living) for?

“We all run for something.
Run for God, for fate,
For love, for hate,
For gold, for rust,
For diamonds, for dust.”

Add up the three movements, and it’s a song about encouragement, devotion to a higher power, and realizing that we all have an inner motivation that drives us — anything from God to money to hate to love.

Running for love, running for life

The song’s title seems to be synonymous with life running out. Love is the fuel for live. When it’s gone, we’re gone.

The music video is somewhat surreal but visually effective. And in some ways it reinforces what’s said in the song. At one point singer Ryan Tedder is standing in a swirling ocean. And in a switch from the convention of most music videos, an older woman plays a piano as Tedder sings behind her. Aging, surviving storms, and a team of cosmic dancers are just some of the imagery that’s used with a changing array of landscapes. The constantly altering backgrounds are really compelling — it seems to reflect the transitory quality of life.

What’s not to like about this song? Send more of these, please.

Here’s the music video for “Love Runs Out”: