Imagination is a mystical occurrence of the consciousness, transporting us to fantastical realms bright with addictive happiness.
It often signifies a deep need to escape the world you’re living in, painting brighter colours upon it and crafting it into your own quirky land, rather than accepting the grey truth.
Our playlist of songs about imagination covers it all, whether you’re looking to melt into a dreamscape or look inwards to what is really inspiring your imagination.
Songs About Imagination
1. Labrinth – Imagination
Labrinth’s snippet of a track, Imagination, embodies a daydream in every sense. A soft distortion to the harmony creates a subtle effect of being removed from true reality, mirrored by celestial echoes and a choral organ which swells mesmerisingly into a dance synth.
Imagination masterfully captures the feeling of ascension of mind, as you break free from your physical limitations.
Labrinth’s lyrics swirl around the word ‘imagination’ as if lost in meandering thought, before making way for a picturesque verse showcasing the moldability of reality through imagination;
“As the sun’s lopsided and the birds fly sideways, and I shake the sky with a Heavenly smile on my face, and I draw up Picasso’s and I spray paint Banksy’s, and we live on L-O-V-E like it was our salaries.”
2. The Cranberries – Just My Imagination
Just My Imagination seeps with a summery feeling, its bright, nostalgic soundscape itself is enough to whisk you away from the modern world in blue-skied reverie. The Cranberries’ iconic Irish touch adds another magical layer of dimension to their 1999 single about reminiscence.
The Cranberries’ lyrics are crafted around ‘the good old days;’ the picture of your past drowning your current reality in its vivid colour as you relive better years within your mind’s eye;
“We used to be so free, we were living for the love we had and living not for reality, just my imagination.” This is a song for anyone who can’t resist thinking about their old escapism tactics; a daydream which morphs itself into a whole new form of escapism entirely.
3. Gene Wilder – Pure Imagination
One of the most celebrated songs about our concept, Pure Imagination from the 1971 film, Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory, captures the daydream of every kid in the world, as the characters enter a wild garden made completely of candy.
This track is glazed with wonder and fantasy, the song’s narrator opening the doors to the endless whimsical potential of imagination, where the world is held in your palm;
“If you want to view paradise, simply look around and view it, anything you want to, do it, wanna change the world? There’s nothing to it.”
4. The Temptations – Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)
The Temptations’ 1971 single, Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me) is a glossy soul track backlit by a lovesick and lonely story.
The narrator finds himself stuck in a hopeless fantasy, in love with a woman who doesn’t know he exists. The Temptations cleverly allude to reality before finally spilling the shocking truth in the last verse.
The orchestral strings appearing and disappearing add artful details exploring the strange dreamy ambience of imagination, such as highlighting the word ‘dream’ in the second verse and following the chorus lyric with disorienting chromaticism.
5. Daryl Hall & John Oates – Your Imagination
Your Imagination details the toxic romantic trait of a partner who builds things up in their head, devising scenarios in their imagination which bear no real resemblance to what actually occurred.
The video accompanying Daryl Hall & John Oates 1981 pop track is an absolute time capsule of the early days of music videos, hearkening back to a time when nobody was quite sure what a music video could entail; a far cry from the cinematic productions that would envelop MTV today.
6. Tamia ft. Jermaine Dupri – Imagination
Tamia’ s R&B sound is serenely upbeat, her hypnotic vocal tone dancing with the same spark as the beat inspires you to move with.
Tamia devotes her track to a positive message – Imagination sets you free – moulding her lyrics around how you can attain every wish you’ve ever made if you use your imagination;
“Everything you want is real close when you close your eyes, and the things you think about the most, they come to life (come to life), when your relationship is heading for the rocks, gotta use your imagination to get you back on top.”
Jermaine’s verse meanwhile is like peering into a man’s imagination and finding exactly what’s to be expected; “I’ll kiss everything, I don’t miss a spot, stuff you ain’t never seen from the man you got, I ain’t hating, my imagination’s just more advanced.”
7. Doris Day – Imagination
Doris Day’s vintage track is a self-contained reverie, blanketed in a sound as soft and fragile as a dreamworld.
Imagination is completely captivating, its glockenspiel glistening like strange sunbeams upon a rosy sky, with a harmony sparse and wavering majestically in texture and depth to create a sweet soundscape for Doris’ vocals to play upon.
Imagination’s lyrics are centred around imagination being a crazy thing, whilst daydreaming all the ways it melts your reality into a haze;
“Imagination is funny, it makes a cloudy day sunny, makes a bee think of honey, just as I think of you. Imagination is crazy, your whole perspective gets hazy, start asking a daisy, what to do, what to do?”
8. The Quotations – Imagination
This quirky 1961 song by The Quotations is more upbeat than anything dared to be released today. Buried beneath Imagination’s distractingly up-tempo sound is a story of shattering heartbreak alongside the act of finally making peace with your ex, even if it’s only in your imagination;
“The stars that shine tonight remind me of you, I remember when we met, how can I forget, you left me all alone with just regret. So, I still love you so, and I just wanna say ‘Girl hope our love grows’ we met beneath the stars, on a balcony, I looked into your eyes, and then you came to me.”
9. John Lennon – Imagine
Lennon imagines the impossible in his classic hit, Imagine, envisioning world peace in a way which transcends every passing era and political disaster.
His lyrics are deeply evocative in their simplicity, dissecting the burdens of civilisations and laying out a message of peace, “Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can, no need for greed or hunger, a brotherhood of man, imagine all the people, sharing all the world.”