A lot of the greatest R&B songs of all time can be extremely direct in nature. There’s frankly no need for the poetic when the concept of love is beautiful enough on its own. Sometimes, you’ll get an endearingly cheesy metaphor like in “Directions” by Mario. Whether about breakups or romance or just plain ol’ raunchy sex, the directness in songwriting has always been the M.O. when it comes to such R&B classics. There’s no hidden meaning behind Ginuwine wanting to get into those jeans.
However, that’s not to say that R&B is incapable of some more literary songwriting. Noisey has selected four extremely poetic R&B songs over the years, demonstrating the range in penmanship. Sometimes, the best-written songs are the simplest— these four records challenge that notion.
4 of the Best Poetic R&B Songs Across the Genre’s History
‘As’ by Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder depicted love as the strongest element in the world, that it’ll conquer all. Consequently, his albums hold this spiritual nature to them in the essence of his musicality and in the tenderness in his songwriting.
Take “As”, a proclamation of eternal, unconditional love. Until the rainbow gets rid of the stars, the ocean sinks us all, and the dolphins take the place of parrots in the sky and vice versa. There’s no stopping time, everything might change in an instant. But the love Stevie taps into is a divine, poetic one, one that might just save us all.
‘Kiss Of Life’ by Sade
“Kiss Of Life” is all poetic imagery, imagining love as something that only could’ve been sent from God and his angels. There was this spiritual inclination to embrace the fullness and the purity of its love. “I swear the whole world could feel my heartbeat,” Sade Adu lovingly crooned. The right love, the right kiss will always breathe new life into us.
‘Cranes In The Sky’ by Solange
Grief will have us desperately searching for any way to distract ourselves. Solange knows this all too well on “Cranes In The Sky”, where the repeated refrain of trying to do it all away collapses into the poetic chorus. “Well it’s like cranes in the sky/sometimes, I don’t wanna feel those metal clouds,” she coos.
In a conversation with her sister Beyoncé, Solange explained why the imagery of cranes in the sky burned in her head. “They were so heavy and such an eyesore, and not what I identified with peace and refuge. I remember thinking of it as an analogy for my transition,” she explained. “This idea of building up, up, up that was going on in our country at the time, all of this excessive building, and not really dealing with what was in front of us. And we all know how that ended. That crashed and burned. It was a catastrophe.”
‘Wither’ by Frank Ocean
One of the strongest examples of poetic language within the R&B space is Frank Ocean. Given his affinity for Ray J and Bob Dylan alike, he knows how to bridge the writerly imagery with the tenderness of R&B classics. “Hope a garden grows where we danced this afternoon/hope our children walk by spring when flowers bloom,” Ocean croons. “Hope they’ll get to see my color/know that I’ve enjoyed sunshine/Pray they’ll get to see me, me wither.” Even in old age, the love shines the same as it always was.
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