Erykah Badu
A woman confesses to an overwhelming attraction to someone who isn't her partner, and instead of acting on it, she defers the…
temptation fidelity vs desire self-restraint
The War on Drugs
Red Eyes is a rush of ecstatic, half-legible sentiment stitched to a driving, anthemic rock arrangement, where the lyric's…
devotion under strain spiritual/emotional darkness self-doubt
Queen
A collaboration between Queen and David Bowie built around a rolling bass riff, the song treats societal pressure as a physical…
collective anxiety urban alienation the erosion of love as a value
SZA
SZA casts herself as the mistress in a triangle and refuses the shame the role usually carries, framing her position as a…
infidelity and complicity self-worth versus desire possession and comparison
An eight-minute opener that treats emotional exhaustion as a kind of weather system, with Adam Granduciel repeating fragments of…
burnout and psychological strain instability in relationships disillusionment with promised futures
The Rolling Stones
A song built from apocalyptic weather and violence, treating storm, fire, flood, war, and rape as a single continuous threat…
apocalypse and dread violence and its proximity the search for shelter/refuge