Results for “mysticism/apophatic thought”

Songs

Big Thief

"Not" is a song built entirely out of negation, circling an unnamed thing by naming everything it isn't. Lenker piles up sensory…

negation and unnameability impermanence desire and its objects

Led Zeppelin

An eight-minute ballad that starts as a gentle folk critique of spiritual materialism and gradually swells into a mystical,…

spiritual materialism doubt and ambiguity nature as mystic guide

Built to Spill

A meditation on obsessive thinking and the indifference of the natural world, built around a repeated denial that functions…

obsessive thought indifference of nature anxiety over decision-making

Leonard Cohen

A meditation on the pull between transcendent, near-mystical intimacy and the noisy, transactional churn of ordinary life. The…

sacred vs. profane transience of ecstasy spiritual longing

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

Neutral Milk Hotel

A meditation on love, mortality, and impermanence that blurs the line between romantic address and elegy, filtered through Jeff…

mortality and impermanence romantic devotion memory and loss

Creedence Clearwater Revival

CCR's take on this traditional American folk-blues song reworks a prison-camp lament into a swampy rock anthem, keeping its cast…

incarceration and forced labor folk tradition and inheritance longing for deliverance

The Roots

The Roots' reworking of Cody ChesnuTT's song blends literal talk of casual sex and impregnation with a metaphor for musical…

legacy and lineage sex as creative metaphor authenticity vs. commercialism