No better way to celebrate Valentine’s day than to have sex assemble a love songs mixtape.
Hope all of you had someone, something or somewhere to love.
man of the hour * norah jones
At some point between 2007 and 2009, Norah Jones broke up with her long-time boyfriend and bassist Lee Alexander. She then cut her long brown hair and the cheese off her music, releasing a record that sounded more interesting than anything she’d ever done before.
The Fall (this the name of the record) didn’t sell super well, but featured one of her most convincing, realistic and straightforward love songs to date.
Which – FYI – is a declaration of affection to her dog.
history of touches * bjork
Bjork wakes up in the middle of the night. She’s lying in her bed beside her husband and realizes with absolute clarity that that is the last time the two of them will have closure.
On the paper, History of touches could have been a slow, romantic ballad, but that didn’t happen. The arrangements are tense, haunting, creepy and underline how traumatic was for Bjork to discover the cold corpse of her marriage in that bed.
Nevertheless this is – undoubtedly – a love song, too. A song that is possessed, fueled by the ghost of a love that won’t let Bjork sleep until she succeeds at exorcising it.
[Click to listen]
anyone else but you * moldy peaches
Juno‘s closing song is extremely indie, but not annoying-indie.
Also, I’ve always thought that “I don’t know what anyone can see in anyone else but you” was the ultimate love declaration.
senza parole * cristina donà
Italian indie guru Cristina Donà crafted a poetic love ballad in which the mountains and the nature surrounding her house are the “You” she sings to.
Breathtaking.
icicle * tori amos
A young Tori Amos contemplates masturbating while everyone else is downstairs reading the bible and the love to her own body feels like both sin and freedom.
every little hair knows your name * jens lekman
Every cell in this body has been replaced since I last saw you, but the memory is in the DNA. And through the vessels and veins weaves a halo round the brain. Every little hair knows your name.
Why is it so difficult to let go of lost love, even when our exes are out of sight? Is love something that’s anchored to our bodies like a bad chemical and physically refuses to abandon us?
au parc * chiara mastroianni
In the French musical Les chansons d’amour, Chiara Mastroianni wanders through the park where she and her deceased sister used to hang.
Every detail looks familiar, immutable and reassuring, until one recurring line of the song she’s singing reminds us that “Everything will be there, except for you”.
Heartbreaking.
I can’t take my eyes off you * melanie doane
I can’t take my eyes off you/Nothing ever needs to be said/Send your message right into my head/You fill me up when I’m alone/
Melanie Doane claims that this song is about the special relationship she has with her TV set.
I believe her.
the origin of love * hedwig and the angry inch
It was about time that someone turned into music the Greek myth about the origin of love.
I’m sure Plato would approve.
I have never loved someone * my brightest diamond
It happens often that when female songwriters give birth their creative vein clogs up.
Especially when they start writing disgustingly cheesy songs for their children.
My brightest diamond is the exception to the rule, clearly, and this lullaby just sounds heartfelt and real.
gold * frida hyvonen
There’s some gold here ’round my finger/More precisely it’s a ring/On the inside of the ring it says we got married in the spring/
“Gold” has one of the cleverest opening lines I’ve ever heard, epic string arrangements and a sense of salvation and commitment that is unusual for Hyvonen’s music.
It tells the story of a couple travelling to India to retrieve their wedding rings and captures the enlightening moment in which the female protagonist not only feels overwhelmed with love for her fiancee, but finally gets to understand love, decipher it.
Throughout the song, Frida sings the words “I love you” exactly twenty-nine times. She sings them as if she means them, every fucking time, and I hope she’ll never regret that. ‘Cause she shouldn’t.
he woke me up again * sufjan stevens
Speaking about your love for God without having your music labelled as “Christian Music” is tricky.
It doesn’t look like Sufjan Stevens cares, though.
that I would be good * alanis morissette
Before her music became the equivalent of a lame self-help book, Alanis Morissette wrote a bunch of good songs.
I feel like That I would be good deserves to be in that bunch and will always be a hymn to self-acceptance for us former teens of the 90s.
stereotypa * dimitra galani
I once had a crush on a Greek guy and he introduced me to this song.
I don’t remember anymore what it’s about, but I’m still totally sold on it.
wonderwall * oasis
An obvious choice because obvious is fine with me and because we’re all secretly in search of the love that can save us.
The post Fifteen Love Songs appeared first on A More Quiet Place.
