R.E.M.
A hazy recollection of a dream that blurs into music itself, built almost entirely from sensory fragments and a nonsense chant…
dream logic memory and doubt transcendence through sound
Joe Williams
This is the standard Johnny Mercer/Richard Whiting torch-song standard, given a warm, unhurried reading by Joe Williams. The…
ineffability of love the limits of language playful hyperbole
The xx
A sparse, almost hymn-like love song built around a single repeated claim of devotion, sung by a narrator who seems…
devotion the ineffability of love fear of loss
Pulp
A comeback statement dressed as a meditation on vocation, in which the singer reflects on a past crisis of purpose and reaffirms…
vocation and calling self-doubt versus instinct reunion/comeback
Calexico
A quiet meditation on a nighttime car journey through the Southwest, where a small mishap and a slow, starlit drive become a…
memory and time gratitude toward a companion landscape as emotional space
Carole King
A simple, effusive love song built almost entirely around one repeated phrase, this track (originally a hit for The Drifters and…
ineffability of love physical intimacy as communication contentment and gratitude
Vashti Bunyan
A short, hymn-like meditation on children as old souls, built from three near-identical stanzas that shift only in pronoun and…
motherhood reincarnation or old-soul intuition time and memory