Eric B.
A New York subway pickup evolves into a slow-building courtship narrative, told from the perspective of a smooth-talking…
courtship and seduction urban geography as narrative backdrop mind versus body
Carly Simon
Carly Simon splices the nursery rhyme about the persistent spider into the title track's refrain from her own 'Coming Around…
resilience cyclical hope romantic disappointment
Angel Olsen
A driving, garage-pop declaration of romantic persistence, in which the narrator refuses to let a faltering relationship end…
romantic persistence refusal to quit desire versus communication
Bad Company
A late-period Bad Company track built around a simple, almost adolescent premise: a narrator paralyzed by unspoken feelings for…
unrequited longing fear of rejection romantic timidity
Marvin Gaye
A slow-burning plea for mutual desire, built almost entirely on repetition of a single wish stated and restated until it becomes…
unreciprocated desire longing for mutuality vulnerability in seduction
Otis Redding
Otis Redding's cover of Sam Cooke's civil-rights-era anthem strips the original's orchestral polish into raw, gospel-inflected…
racial oppression and hope endurance and exhaustion fear of mortality
Bert Jansch
This is a traditional Appalachian folk lament, here rendered by Bert Jansch in his hushed, weathered late-career voice, about a…
exile and rejection itinerancy social reversal of fortune
Gregory Porter
A meditation on a love the narrator can't will himself out of, even when guilt, fatigue, and a bruised past argue for release.…
involuntary devotion emotional exhaustion guilt and self-reproach
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
Steely Dan
A slack, aging drifter moves onto his aunt's couch and develops an unseemly fixation on his young cousin, pitching her a…
arrested development delusional self-image taboo desire played for laughs
Erykah Badu
A meditation on spiritual self-possession disguised as a loose, jazzy groove, 'On & On' moves through riddles, numerology, and…
spiritual self-knowledge Afrocentric/Five Percenter theology cyclical time and endurance
Rodney Crowell
Rodney Crowell weighs the pull of escape—into fantasy, death, or transcendence—against the stubborn pleasures of ordinary life,…
mortality and mid-life reflection gratitude versus escapism love and social barriers