Stevie Wonder
A new father's unguarded celebration of his infant daughter's birth, structured as a series of rhetorical questions that answer…
fatherhood and new life gratitude love as creative force
Mitski
A brief, hymn-like address to the moon in which the speaker asks that their love outlive their body. It works less as narrative…
mortality possession and dispossession love as legacy
Kacey Musgraves
Kacey Musgraves' rendition of this 1961 standard, recorded for the 2022 Elvis biopic soundtrack, strips the song down to its…
surrender to love fate versus choice vulnerability
The Who
A single, almost liturgical plea builds around one pun -- love as both sovereign force and literal downpour -- to dramatize a…
spiritual thirst emotional exhaustion love as redemptive force
Robyn
A teenage Robyn's breakout single is a straightforward Eurodance declaration of romantic surrender, built around a repeated plea…
romantic vulnerability independence versus surrender demand for reciprocity
Minnie Riperton
A love song built around the gap between feeling and expression, in which the narrator worries that her devotion isn't landing…
communication anxiety reassurance devotion
Bon Iver
A raw, fragmentary breakup address built from accusation and self-recrimination in equal measure, sung to a fading relationship…
dissolution of a relationship emotional exhaustion blame and self-blame
Aretha Franklin
A joyous, motorized courtship song built around a single sustained conceit: romance as a drive on an open highway. Aretha…
romance as motion/escape freedom and self-determination playful flirtation
Whitney Houston
A gospel testimony built almost entirely from a single scriptural refrain, this recording turns a short devotional statement…
divine refuge suffering and lament faith as action
Queen
A ballad of direct, almost naked pleading, structured as a repeated appeal to a departing lover rather than a story with events.…
romantic loss pleading and supplication devotion despite rejection
Randy Newman
A booming, boosterish anthem that turns out to be a satire of boosterism itself: the narrator's civic pride is so shallow and…
civic pride as delusion class blindness American boosterism
Pixies
A deliberately dumb, bubblegum-pop pastiche sung by drummer David Lovering, this is Pixies parodying the sincerity of teenage…
parody of pop convention adolescent sexuality irony vs sincerity
Lauryn Hill
This is Lauryn Hill's rendition of the 1967 Frankie Valli classic, placed on The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill as a brief,…
infatuation gratitude vulnerability
New Order
A synth-pop anthem built on emotional gridlock: the narrator is caught between joy and dread in a relationship he can't name or…
emotional paralysis unspoken feelings fear of vulnerability
Broken Social Scene
This is Broken Social Scene's rendition of Joy Division's 1980 classic, recorded for the soundtrack of The Time Traveler's Wife,…
romantic disintegration emotional stasis guilt and self-recrimination
Simon Jäger
A quiet, confessional love song built around the sound of rain, in which the narrator, separated from his beloved, uses the…
distance and longing artistic self-doubt loss of faith/belief
Smokey Robinson
A straightforward declaration of romantic devotion, built on the classic Smokey Robinson template of certainty and fidelity. The…
romantic devotion certainty/fate fidelity
Sturgill Simpson
A father addresses his infant son with a promise of enduring presence and love, framed as spiritual reassurance against the…
parental love mortality and continuity spiritual comfort
Chris Stapleton
A recovery narrative dressed as a love song, where the singer trades one intoxication for another. The verses sketch a history…
addiction and recovery redemptive love substitution of vices
The Beach Boys
A love song built on an admission rather than a boast: the singer refuses to promise eternal devotion outright, instead…
dependence and self-erasure in love uncertainty as a form of honesty devotion expressed through negation
Ann Peebles
A gratitude-soaked soul ballad in which the narrator credits a lover with rescuing her from despair and teaching her what love…
redemption through love gratitude rebirth/renewal
Ethan Whitney
A straightforward pop declaration of romantic devotion dressed up in comic-book imagery. The narrator pledges protective,…
devoted love self-sufficiency vs. support escapism
Jason Isbell
A recovery ballad disguised as a love song, in which the narrator counts the cost of his old chaotic life and credits a specific…
addiction and sobriety redemption through love domesticity as safety
James Blake
A minimalist ballad structured as a farewell blessing, where the speaker releases someone from obligation while affirming an…
letting go unconditional love spiritual blessing
Sufjan Stevens
A quiet domestic carol that strips Christmas of all its commercial and decorative trappings and relocates the holiday's meaning…
domestic intimacy anti-consumerism presence versus decoration
Frank Ocean
A soft, wandering meditation on maternal love and mortality, built around the image of a hurricane and the small acts of…
maternal love survival and resilience impermanence
Warren Zevon
A dying man's direct address to the people he loves, written and recorded as Warren Zevon faced terminal cancer. The song trades…
mortality memory and legacy love as continuity
The Replacements
A quietly tender ballad from a famously loud punk band, this song imagines two gender-nonconforming lovers with a gentleness…
gender nonconformity acceptance and tolerance love as constancy
Fairport Convention
A meditation on mortality and constancy, written by Sandy Denny and here performed by Fairport Convention (who backed her on the…
mortality and impermanence the passage of time constancy in love
The xx
A sparse, almost hymn-like love song built around a single repeated claim of devotion, sung by a narrator who seems…
devotion the ineffability of love fear of loss
Angel Olsen
A short, driving song that circles a single unresolved feeling: the narrator loves someone who is present in her thoughts but…
unrequited or distant love self-doubt forgiveness as an open question
Roberta Flack
A slow, hymn-like meditation on falling in love, told through three escalating 'first times' — seeing, kissing, and lying with a…
romantic awakening the sacredness of intimacy time and permanence
Depeche Mode
A slow-burning devotional track that blurs the line between spiritual ecstasy and self-annihilation, using the imagery of…
surrender and self-dissolution transcendence through love or faith mortality
Judee Sill
Judee Sill turns a love song into a devotional hymn, blurring the line between romantic union and religious ecstasy until the…
sacred and profane love transcendence mortality
Beck
A hazy breakup meditation built on repetition and stasis, where time itself seems to have stopped moving. Beck uses flat,…
emotional numbness the end of love stalled time
Carly Simon
Carly Simon's version of this old folk standard strips it down to a hushed, almost prayer-like lullaby, trading the song's usual…
fragile love fear of loss comfort and vulnerability
Japanese Breakfast
A synth-pop breakup plea dressed up as a demand rather than a lament: the narrator wants proof of good faith from an unreliable…
conditional love self-deception desire versus doubt
Sharon Van Etten
A quietly seething breakup song in which the narrator sees through a partner's self-serving reassurances and names the pattern…
emotional self-protection disillusionment in love fading intimacy
Weezer
A deliberately simple escapist fantasy, built almost entirely from stock vacation imagery and a chant-like hook, that trades…
escapism forgetting the past idealized love
Paul Simon
A gentle lullaby in which a father tries, with dwindling patience and self-deprecating humor, to coax his son to sleep. Beneath…
parental love domesticity sleep and childhood