“Wasted Love” is one of our favorite songs by LP, and quite likely our favorite from outside the Lost On You album. And maybe even the most frequently played song of hers in our headphones. We love the live version recorded for the EP “Into The Wild: Live in EastWest Studios.” (Ah, we could go on and on about the way she sings “it wasn’t mine”…) But what really captivates us is the way LP composed the song, it is just so delightfully intelligent. You can  n e v e r  grow tired of it. Those bursts of energy in every chorus, those irresistible hooks and all those other playful treats hidden here and there – goddes, it’s all so good. And, of course, how the hell else, it’s a song of heartbreak (oh, how art loves the pain.)

Daydreaming a bit, we can’t stop imagining how wonderfully “Wasted Love” would complement the Forever For Now album. Actually, it was one of the very first songs LP wrote in the beginning of 2011, when she returned to writing for herself after a few years’ break. Around the time she wrote “Wasted Love,” she also wrote “Into The Wild” and “Someday.” Soon, her career would speed up and in less than a year she’d be signed to Warner Bros. In the meantime, Citibank would pick up her song for their TV commercial and so, in late 2011, the phrase “somebody left the gate open” was a daily treat for everybody in the US (As LP put it, “And then it started running and everybody I know was like, ‘Oh my god, I saw it five times today!’”). Things started happening. And, well, three years is a really long time, and this is what it took to release the Forever For Now album at Warner Bros., so no wonder some songs would get kicked out in order to make room for others, which were more relevant or meaningful, or more accurate in some way, especially if you write so much. In the end, “Wasted Love” didn’t make it to the record. But thankfully it did make it to the live EP!

“Wasted Love” is a somewhat dancey song, and so the idea of an acoustic arrangement for it is even more thrilling. Just as in the case with “Up Against Me,” whose acoustic version we were lucky enough to hear live (yes, we’ll use every pretext to give mention to the concert in Trójka.) This acoustic performance, our little excuse for the article, happened prior to LP’s main show during the Ottawa Folk Fest, and it was a part of the so called workshops that took place earlier during the day, for the audience’s benefit. In 2012, when LP performed “Wasted Love,” the theme was “Somebody Else,” which could include writing songs for other artists, covering other artists’ material or writing from the perspective of someone else.

Here, in Ottawa, the perfectly audible ukulele and LP’s sharp and full voice creates this interesting juxtaposition when it comes to the sound. And overall, it somehow makes you listen to the song in a different way, you focus on different things. You become intimate with it. Although the video recorded during LP’s workshop starts from the second verse, don’t be disheartened. Everything you need is there. Go and see for yourself.

✶ LP performing the acoustic “Wasted Love” during the Ottawa Folk Fest (2012)

WASTED LOVE – LYRICS

I didn’t wanna know
I was happy on my own
Wish I never had a taste of your sweet song
I was rolling like a stone
Taking any road
There was something in the way you stopped me cold

All the pretty words you said slipped through my fingers just like sand
Ever since that sorry day you took my hand

Wasted love
Wasted love
Wasted all my time and all my love on you
When times were rough
You used me up
Wasted oh oh oh oh all my love on you

Did you ever really see
Was it ever really me
Why did you keep me in a cage you should’ve set me free

Cause every single time you lied felt like a splinter in my pride
If you had a heart now I know it wasn’t mine

Wasted love
Wasted love
Wasted all my time and all my love on you
When times were rough
You used me up
Wasted oh oh oh oh all my love on you

All along I knew something was not right
But I was hoping I could change your mind
All along know matter how I tried & tried
You kept taking taking taking
Every breath I had inside