Leonard Cohen
A meditation on the pull between transcendence and the grinding routine of ordinary commerce and appetite, imagined as a street…
sacred vs. profane mortality and impermanence spiritual longing amid worldly routine
Tom Waits
A wandering man confesses to a lover that he's constitutionally unable to take the straight path home, in love or in life. Waits…
restlessness and wanderlust romantic unreliability the tension between domesticity and freedom
Yes
A three-part suite that moves from pastoral invocation through cosmic address to a mantra-like affirmation of shared awakening.…
cosmic consciousness nature as spiritual messenger transmission of hidden knowledge
Prince
A slow, gospel-shaped ballad in which a speaker apologizes for hurting someone, then gradually widens the address from a single…
apology and regret failed intimacy that could not become friendship spiritual deliverance
Stevie Wonder
A funk sermon against magical thinking. Over one of the most recognizable clavinet riffs in popular music, Wonder catalogues…
superstition and magical thinking the cost of ignorance fear as self-fulfilling prophecy
A three-part meditation in waltz time that moves from a woman by a river, to Christ walking on water, and back to the woman…
erotic love as spiritual apprehension faith and doubt surrender to a guide
Jason Isbell
Isbell uses a fading hotel as an extended metaphor for a long marriage at risk of going stale, watching an older couple's silent…
marital complacency the labor of sustaining love aging and decline
Nina Simone
A traditional African-American spiritual rebuilt by Simone into a ten-minute chase sequence: a sinner runs from judgment on the…
judgment day futile flight refused sanctuary
Patti Smith
A duet between erotic urgency and something closer to faith: the speaker asks a lover to take her as she is, and then defends…
erotic desire as sustenance night as sanctuary from harm doubt and belief