Billie Holiday
A standard from the World War II era, delivered here as a hushed vow of remembrance rather than a jaunty farewell. Holiday turns…
separation and longing memory as consolation wartime parting
XTC
XTC dresses up an anti-militarist satire as a jaunty, whistleable pop song, mocking career soldiers who crave conflict for its…
militarism and glory-seeking satire of authority boredom as a driver of violence
Joni Mitchell
A three-part meditation that uses clouds, love, and life as parallel case studies in disillusionment, each verse moving from…
disillusionment the limits of experience loss of innocence
Yes
Starship Trooper is a three-part suite that moves from an invocation of natural, cosmic imagery into a meditation on inherited…
transcendence the limits of language/knowledge nature as cosmic messenger
Elvis Costello
A deceptively bouncy pop song about an elderly woman disappearing into dementia, told partly through the eyes of a younger…
dementia and memory loss identity and naming youth versus old age
Neil Young
A middle-aged narrator recalls a woman he once admired for her restlessness and beauty, now settled into domestic life but still…
nostalgia freedom versus domesticity female mythology/idealization
Danny Brown
A three-part posse-cut style flex track (featuring Ab-Soul and Kendrick Lamar on the full version, though only Danny Brown's…
success and its authenticity hedonism as armor class ascension from poverty