Heaven Week: Nearer to Heaven

Nina Simone: Nearer to Heaven

[purchase]

I have 73 songs by Nina Simone in my iTunes library. Some I know better than others; sometimes, when I press play on Nina, the songs—all great—start to blend together if I'm not paying attention. In a way, that's okay. Because every time one of her songs comes up on shuffle, isolated from the rest of its album, it's like I'm hearing genius all over again. Like a little aural truffle. That was the case for this song. I didn't jump up and say "Nearer to Heaven!" when I found out this week's theme. Searching my library, this song fit the theme. So I honed in on this one for the first time just a few days ago and, unsurprisingly, it's genius.