Cat Stevens
A gentle folk song that turns the image of a shadow cast by moonlight into a meditation on loss and acceptance. Through a series…
acceptance of loss optimism in adversity spiritual companionship
Rosanne Cash
A gentle invitation song that frames creativity and connection as a shared, almost tangible place rather than an abstract goal.…
creative inheritance invitation and encouragement intimacy
Genesis
A closing-track anthem of forced optimism, built on simple exhortations to hold on and reach out against a backdrop of urban…
urban alienation perseverance solidarity
Modest Mouse
Modest Mouse builds a shaky optimism out of wreckage imagery, insisting that even a broken-down vehicle still gets you…
near-disaster and survival willed optimism emotional evasiveness
Yes
A commercial-rock love song built on hesitation rather than certainty, in which the narrator wavers between wanting closeness…
romantic ambivalence reassurance through repetition emotional confusion
D'Angelo
A slow-groove love song built almost entirely from a single circling phrase, promising that romantic devotion is enough to…
romantic devotion as survival domestic intimacy sensuality
Tom Waits
A domestic wreck of a song dressed in the sunniest possible title: the narrator is broke, abandoned, and effectively parenting…
irony of optimism poverty and abandonment loneliness
A buoyant early-70s anthem that turns hope for global reconciliation into a literal vehicle, imagined as a train that anyone can…
utopian hope collective longing for peace spiritual/religious undertones
Tears for Fears
A cool, synth-driven meditation on estrangement between two people who once knew each other well, built around the anxious…
emotional distance loss of identity regret and hesitation
Daft Punk
A single fragmented phrase is chopped, looped, and reassembled through vocoder into a mantra about relentless productivity and…
labor and productivity machine identity repetition and ritual
Soundgarden
A song about the futility of trying to change or improve oneself, told through a narrator whose every attempt at effort or…
self-doubt futility of effort inversion of moral action
A catalogue of everyday mishaps—fender benders, cons, firings, verbal blunders—gets deflated by a chorus that refuses to treat…
resilience through indifference everyday misfortune collective endurance