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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Vashti Bunyan
A short pastoral hymn that treats an ordinary day of rural labor as something precious, using plain agricultural imagery to…
rural simplicity contentment the sacred ordinary
Echo & the Bunnymen
A moody, image-driven piece built more from atmosphere than narrative, cataloguing a set of broken or hollow figures before…
emotional guardedness disillusionment longing for redemption
Chaka Khan
Chaka Khan addresses a fragile, self-sabotaging figure imagined as a wounded angel, urging her toward emotional openness and…
emotional vulnerability self-acceptance healing through love
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
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
The Cure
A grief-drenched meditation on a lost relationship, told entirely through the act of staring at photographs and the memories…
grief and loss memory versus reality obsessive love
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
The Shins
A hushed, melodically sweet song about romantic regret and a wish to shed adult disappointment carries lyrics that are far more…
regret and self-recrimination longing for innocence small-town disillusionment
Abbey Lincoln
A standard-era torch song built on a single plea: seize the present because permanence is never guaranteed. Abbey Lincoln's…
carpe diem uncertainty of the future mortality
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
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
Deep Purple
This is a straightforward garage-pop cover turned hard-rock workout, built almost entirely from nonsense syllables and a simple…
obsessive infatuation powerlessness in love physical desire
Free
A blues-rock warning shot aimed at a rival encroaching on the narrator's relationship. It's less a fully worked lyric than a…
jealousy and possessiveness masculine pride confrontation