Elton John
A shy, broke narrator confesses he has nothing to offer a loved one but a plainly written love song, and the song's own modesty…
romantic devotion inadequacy and humility the inability to articulate feeling
XTC
A giddy, image-drunk love song that describes a single overwhelming encounter through a barrage of unrelated historical and…
sudden infatuation the inadequacy of language before wonder celestial imagery displaced onto a person
Roberta Flack
A Leonard Cohen composition rendered here as a slow, aching meditation on a relationship's dissolution, delivered without…
romantic separation impermanence tenderness amid loss
Randy Newman
A jaunty, unguarded pledge of loyalty written for the Toy Story soundtrack, sung in the voice of a companion (originally Woody,…
loyalty friendship as identity reassurance in the face of fear
The Cure
A grief-drenched meditation on a lost relationship, told entirely through the act of staring at photographs and the memories…
grief and loss memory versus reality obsessive love
Bon Iver
A song built from disconnected fragments of memory — a Halloween mishap, a burnt-down bar, a Christmas night with a brother —…
memory and its unreliability humility versus self-importance nostalgia for place
Joni Mitchell
A three-part meditation that uses clouds, love, and life as parallel case studies in disillusionment, each verse moving from…
disillusionment the limits of experience loss of innocence