“Unfinished Sympathy” by Massive Attack
This song is based on somewhat of a love/hate relationship the singer, Shara Nelson, has with the person she is singing to. Stated in another way, she desires to be with her lover and perhaps anticipates that he feels the same. However, she also acknowledges that either this selfsame person or someone else has hurt her romantically in the past.
Honestly despite the track being a massive dance hit, the lyrics of it are not the easiest to put together into a cohesive story. For instance, the song begins with Shara stating that she has “imagined love before” and specifically has fantasized about a romance with the addressee of the track. But then she insinuates that this person (or possibly another previous lover) ‘really hurt her’. In other words, the beginning of the verse insinuates that she has never been in a relationship. But apparently she had to have been in order to have experienced this pain. Then she questions the addressee with ‘how can you have a day without night’, making it appear as if they have parted ways, and she is wondering how he is able to live without her. Or a different interpretation would be that she is recognizing heartbreak as an intrinsic part of romance.
But overall, what can be ascertained is that Nelson has a deep romantic admiration for the person she is singing to. Owing to this, it can be said that “Unfinished Symphony” is largely based on her longings to get intimate with this individual. In fact the song insinuates that she is ultimately incomplete without him.
Song’s Title
As for the title of the track, it does not play into this narrative at all. Rather the name was derived from a 19th classical music piece by the iconic Austrian composer Franz Schubert entitled “Symphony No. 8” but commonly known as the “Unfinished Symphony” since Schubert never actually completed it.
