Just a trend I noticed recently...

First, there's "Calling All Angels" by Train. Excerpts:

I need a sign
To let me know you’re here
All of these lines are being crossed over the atmosphere....

And I’m calling all angels
And I’m calling all you angels

And I won’t give up if you don’t give up....

I need a sign
To let me know you’re here
‘Cause my TV set just keeps it all from being clear

When children have to play inside
So they don’t disappear
While private eyes solve marriage lives
‘Cause we don’t talk for years....

And I’m calling all angels
And I’m calling all you angels
And I won’t give up if you don’t give up...

The world sucks, and the answer is to call in "all angels" to solve it: help and guidance from supernatural beings is just what the world needs now.

So, um, would that include the hypothetically "fallen" angels too? The ones allegedly behind much of the pain, suffering, and lies? And what's with requesting angels to do something, but not asking for God's help? So do we really only want the "free agents" who aren't working for Him?

Then there's the GooGoo Dolls, whose song "Iris" appeared as the theme for a movie about, um, angels. It is apparently written from the angel-protagonist's point of view:

And I'd give up forever to touch you
Cause I know that you feel me somehow
You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be....

And I don't want the world to see me
Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

This angel apparently wants to keep himself hidden from the world. He's a "broken" sort of being apparently, and thinks that was the fault of the one who made him. And apparently, his chances of getting to close to heaven again are pretty slim.

Okay, that's pretty interesting, too.

Then, moving into the really interesting stuff, we have British pop diva Kate Bush, who says she's actually been having conversations with said angels:

Bush maintains that she lost her innocence before she knew how valuable it was. And now, she said, she's immersed in the job of getting it back. She's investigating past-lives therapy and communicating with her angels....

"Lily" (which Bush said was written a full year before the "angels" meta-pop boom) finds her chanting a prayer that her friend Lily claims will summon a celestial guide. "It's an incredibly positive message to be given, I think, at a time when people are wandering," muses Bush. "Lily says they're very powerful, benevolent beings whose purpose is to help us."

"Lily" is a critter Kate Bush's been taking advice from, and apparently to whom her song "Lily" was dedicated:

I said "Lily,
Oh Lily I'm so afraid
I fear I am walking in the Veil of Darkness"
And she said
"Child, take what I say
With a pinch of salt
And protect yourself with fire"

Apparently what "Lily" says isn't always entirely true (must be taken "with a pinch of salt") -- e.g. Lily is capable of deception. Bush's experiences with Lily make her feel she is walking in "Darkness." Well, that sounds very positive.

And what's the solution to this "Darkeness"? David, in the Psalms, also once felt as though he walked in a Valley of Darkness. David took solace in God. Lilly assures Kate, instead, that she can "protect" herself with "fire", which, in the bible, is depicted as being the instrument of confinement and punishment for evil, fallen angels.

Indeed: compare Bush's imagery, depicting a circle of fire:

Oh Oh, Gabriel before me
Oh Oh, Raphael behind me
Michael to my right
Uriel on my left side
In the circle of fire....
This is my space.

... with the imagery in the apochryphal "Book of Enoch", from which the angelic names she uses originates, and which deals with the subject of the angels who rebelled against God:

"And these are the names of the holy angels who watch: Uriel, ... Raphael, ... Raguel, ... Michael, ... Saraqael, ... Gabriel, .... Remiel..."

"I saw a horrible thing: a great fire there which burnt and blazed, and the place was cleft as far as the abyss, being full of great descending columns of fire... Uriel... one of the holy angels who was with me... said unto me: 'This place is the prison of the angels, and here they will be imprisoned for ever.'" (Enoch 21:1-10, excerpts)

Note that Bush describes herself, with Lily, as standing "in the circle of fire".

Fascinatingly, Bush also recorded "The Disbelieving Angel". And what, exactly, does this particular angel disbelieve in?

So much for all the prayers you've learned.
They are no help to basic needs....

Why should I whisper in the church?
Because they say it's sacred ground?
Oh, my sacrilege would do you good.
You see, there's nothing here, I've found.

Are there any other modern pop songs about angels?

The ones I can think of, if taken together, present a picture of angels as:

(a) Broken, estranged from heaven
(b) Disbelieving or angry at God
(c) Capable of saying things not entirely true, and yet
(d) We'll need to unleash their power to solve all the world's problems

Why, that sounds like a great idea. If blindly trusting human leadership hasn't been working out, then we need to blindly trust supernatural beings, who bear a grudge against the one who created us.

Yeah, it's just pop music.

But it's also rather eerie.