Erykah Badu
A meditation on getting lost, both literally and existentially, that refuses to resolve into a tidy moral. Badu treats…
self-doubt and self-trust fate versus choice spiritual wandering
D'Angelo
A prayer-like meditation on trying to hold steady inside collapse, written for a video game about the death of the American…
endurance amid chaos spiritual uncertainty frontier mythology and its end
Led Zeppelin
A slow-building folk-rock epic that follows a mysterious woman convinced she can purchase spiritual transcendence, using her as…
spiritual materialism vs. authentic enlightenment ambiguity of language and meaning pastoral/mythic imagery as escape
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
The Who
This is the climactic closing statement of Quadrophenia, a plea for emotional deliverance disguised as a weather report. The…
spiritual longing emotional exhaustion love as elemental force
Leonard Cohen
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
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
The Staple Singers
This is the Staple Singers' rendition of the traditional African American spiritual, built almost entirely on call-and-response…
deliverance and salvation collective faith and community crossing over / transition between states
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
Judee Sill
Judee Sill's 'The Kiss' fuses erotic and devotional language until they become indistinguishable, imagining spiritual union as a…
sacred and profane love transcendence death as release
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