Results for “seduction by evil”

Songs

Evil

Interpol

A murky, incantatory song built around two women's names -- Rosemary and Sandy -- that Interpol never fully reconciles into a…

complicity and denial seduction as manipulation guilt and judgment

See No Evil

Television

The opening track of Marquee Moon works as a manifesto of pure appetite and willful blindness, its narrator declaring immediate…

desire and impatience willful ignorance denial of consequence

Sinister Purpose

Creedence Clearwater Revival

A brief, ominous track built around a menacing figure who arrives with promises of transcendence and destruction in the same…

temptation and corruption apocalyptic imagery seduction by evil

Cabin Down Below

Tom Petty

A stripped-down invitation song built almost entirely on repetition and a single image: a secluded cabin as the destination for…

seduction escape desire

FALLINLOVE2NITE

Prince

A one-night invitation dressed up as a love song, built almost entirely around a single seductive refrain. Prince stages a…

seduction romantic urgency escapism

Share It

Smokey Robinson

A late-70s slow-jam invitation built almost entirely around a single repeated request: an offer to share the night. The song…

seduction mutual vulnerability intimacy as exchange

I'm a King Bee

Muddy Waters

This is a blues standard built entirely on an insect conceit: the singer casts himself as a bee and his desired partner as a…

sexual boasting seduction male virility

Let the Good Times Roll

Harry Nilsson

A stripped-down invitation to abandon restraint set to a rolling backbeat, the song works less as narrative than as incantation,…

seduction release/abandon repetition as persuasion

Hot Thing

Talib Kweli

A breezy, radio-ready love-and-lust song built around a repeated hook praising a woman's heat and appeal. Talib Kweli trades his…

desire and attraction romantic idealization pop culture reference as flattery

Angeles

Elliott Smith

A quiet, corrosive warning song addressed to someone being courted by fame and the music industry, personified as a seductive…

temptation and corruption the music industry as predator loss of autonomy

This Charming Man

The Smiths

A stranded young man with a broken bicycle is picked up by an older, wealthier stranger, and the encounter becomes a charged,…

class anxiety closeted desire vanity and self-consciousness

Lay, Lady, Lay

Bob Dylan

A gentle, direct invitation to a lover to stay the night, sung in a warm, unhurried voice that marks a sharp turn from Dylan's…

seduction and invitation domesticity urgency vs. patience

Smooth Operator

Sade

A cool, cinematic character study of a jet-setting con artist who trades in seduction and money with equal fluency. Sade…

seduction as commerce emotional detachment glamour and danger

You Should Probably Leave

Chris Stapleton

A late-night seduction song built on reverse psychology, where the narrator repeats a warning to leave while doing everything…

temptation and self-denial desire versus restraint vulnerability disguised as control

Spanish Moon

Little Feat

A late-night narrator wanders into a seedy nightclub called the Spanish Moon and finds himself pawning his possessions to keep…

seduction and ruin vice and nightlife music as intoxicant

Jeepster

T. Rex

A glam-rock come-on that fuses car culture, cosmic imagery, and vampire slang into a single boastful seduction. Marc Bolan…

desire and objectification glamour of consumer culture (cars) seduction as performance

Thriller

Michael Jackson

A horror-movie pastiche built as a seduction, where the terror on screen and the terror of intimacy blur together. The song…

horror as seduction voyeurism and spectacle predator/prey dynamics

Blackwaterside

Sandy Denny

This is a traditional British/Irish folk ballad given a spare, haunting reading by Sandy Denny, in which a woman recounts…

seduction and betrayal female shame and defiance broken promises

Who's Zoomin' Who?

Aretha Franklin

A mid-80s dance-pop track built around a single street-slang question: who's manipulating whom in a game of seduction. Aretha…

romantic gamesmanship female agency and self-possession seduction as strategy

Sumthin' Sumthin': Mellosmoothe (Cut)

Maxwell

This is a stripped-down, mostly instrumental-feeling neo-soul seduction piece built from fragments rather than full verses. It…

desire and seduction emotional guardedness persistence versus reciprocity

Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire

Joni Mitchell

A stark, allegorical account of heroin addiction told through personified figures: the needle, the drug's seductive pull, and…

addiction death as seduction urban decay

Trust

Prince

Written for the Batman soundtrack, this track uses seduction as camouflage for a darker interrogation of manipulation and…

seduction as manipulation power and control faith versus flattery

Sugar Daddy (Theme from "Vinyl")

Sturgill Simpson

A retro-soul come-on built around a single, overworked double entendre, this theme song for HBO's Vinyl trades on 1970s funk…

desire as addiction performance of seduction decay behind glamour

As the World Falls Down

David Bowie

A courtly, almost hypnotic love song written for the film Labyrinth, in which the speaker offers cosmic gifts to a beloved while…

seduction and enchantment love as surrender impermanence

Come Live with Me Angel

Marvin Gaye

A slow-burning seduction song built almost entirely on a single proposition: move in with me. Marvin Gaye layers a soft, almost…

seduction and desire domestic fantasy emotional vulnerability masked as pleasure-seeking

Domino Dancing

Pet Shop Boys

A jealous lover watches a partner flirt and toy with a string of admirers, using the image of dominoes toppling one after…

jealousy and possessiveness romantic betrayal seduction as a game

After the Dance (Vocal)

Marvin Gaye

A slow-burning seduction built almost entirely on repetition, this track turns a dancefloor encounter into a mantra of desire.…

seduction and pursuit dance as courtship ritual instant attraction

Poetic Machine Gun

Buzzcocks

A speaker pitches his own verbal outpouring as a weapon of seduction — a "poetic machine gun" that's supposed to get someone…

failed seduction language as weapon/drug male bravado vs. rejection

Lay Lady Lay

Isaac Hayes

Isaac Hayes takes Dylan's spare, folk-country invitation and rebuilds it as a slow-burning soul seduction, stretching the…

seduction and invitation patience and waiting domestic intimacy

In the Mood

Talib Kweli

A loose-limbed party track built around braggadocio and seduction, where Talib Kweli shifts between flirtatious come-ons, boasts…

seduction and courtship artistic superiority authenticity vs. performance

What's on Your Mind?

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

California Roll

Snoop Dogg

A breezy, sun-drenched ode to Los Angeles life that runs its title's double meaning -- rolling a joint and 'going with the flow'…

California/L.A. mythology cannabis culture seduction and courtship

Personal Jesus

Johnny Cash

A Depeche Mode cover reworked through Johnny Cash's late-life persona, this version strips the original's synth seduction down…

false idols and substitute faith loneliness and isolation seduction and manipulation

So Fresh, So Clean

OutKast

A hook-driven strut through vintage cars, retro cool, and pickup lines, where the chorus's braggadocio functions less as…

vanity and self-presentation seduction and courtship rituals nostalgia for Black pop-culture iconography

Chasing a Bee

Mercury Rev

A hazy, druggy fable about pursuit and containment, where sunlit imagery of seduction and pleasure keeps curdling into images of…

intoxication and altered perception freedom versus entrapment instability of the self

'Til Tomorrow

Marvin Gaye

A late-night plea from a lover trying to keep a partner from leaving after what sounds like a one-night or transient encounter.…

transient intimacy romantic pleading vulnerability masked as seduction

Sexy Boy

Air

A woozy, vocoder-warped taunt built almost entirely out of one phrase, "Sexy Boy" pokes at masculine vanity and celebrity…

vanity and self-image celebrity and consumerism irony versus seduction

Batdance

Prince

A collage rather than a song, this track stitches film dialogue samples, chant-like hooks, and rapid genre-shifting funk into a…

identity and masquerade seduction and menace media spectacle

I Love a Man In a Uniform

Gang of Four

A first-person portrait of a man who joins the military not out of conviction but as a solution to unemployment, lost…

militarism as consumer choice economic desperation masculinity and self-worth

Keep the Beat

Eric B.

This track is Rakim's rare romantic showcase, built on a conceit that fuses music-making with lovemaking so thoroughly that the…

music as seduction control and rhythm stamina and endurance