Songs are a serious matter. This is especially so of those songs we call anthems, which stir our hearts toward some object of shared hope. It is by singing the song, by our joined voices and our reverent attention, that the hope expressed therein is really shared; at least that’s how we come to recognize that it’s shared (or if it is).

Who has the best anthem for our hopeless and love-starved world: John Lennon or Leonard Cohen?