Love Will Work It Out

Album: Private Space (2021)
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Songfacts®:

  • "Love Will Work It Out" finds Durand Jones reflecting on the state of America in 2020. It was a nightmarish time when coupled with the raging pandemic ("folks overtaken by disease"), there was a sharp increase in unarmed people of color being brutalized by the police ("modern day lynchings in the streets that I called home").
  • The police killings of Breonna Taylor and death of George Floyd resonated around the world, sparking global protests and demonstrations. The atrocities silenced Jones. "I don't want to write a song, I don't want to talk on social media," he told Mojo magazine. "I can't do anything but breathe right now. I need to keep my soul and my sanity intact. How much more do we have to take? How many more people have to die by the hands of police for us to truly receive justice?"

    Jones took a step back from everything until the universe told him it was time for him to make art again. In November 2020, he got that call. "I wrote this poem, about everything that happened in 2020," he said, "and that's where the song came from."
  • Ultimately, the song's message is one of optimism, as Jones declares on the chorus that "love will work it out."

    "That comes from my grandmother, who raised me and really believed in what Dr. King stood for," he told Mojo. "She's long gone now, but after George Floyd died, and I was feeling despair and doubt, I'd think about things that she would say. And that song is the sort of thing she would tell me, like, it's hard right now, but don't give up."

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