VALENTINES DAY SPECIAL: A SIX PACK OF GREAT LOVE SONGS

SEVEN GREAT LOVE SONGS

1. "HEROES-" DAVID BOWIE

This song is probably the most epic love song ever written. Bowie wrote the song while detoxing in Berlin in the late seventies. He happened to observe a couple that daily met for a romantic rendezvous by the Berlin Wall. Bowie imagined their story and wrote a song about lovers finding freedom in each other while living under oppression. "Though nothing can drive them away, we can beat them just for one day. We can be heroes just for one day." The song gets really epic though toward the end when Bowie passionately sings, "I can remember, standing by the wall, and the guns shot over our heads; and we kissed, as though nothing can fall; and the shame was on the other side. Oh we can beat them, forever and ever, then we can be heroes, just for one day..."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3SjCzA71eM


2. I'LL BE YOUR MIRROR - VELVET UNDERGROUND

This one is an oddball with its simple spare arrangement and Nico's unique, to say the least, singing voice. However the lyrics are probably the sweetest most heart on the sleeve lyrics Lou Reed ever wrote. Basically its a song where he encourages his lover by saying that when she is feeling bad about her self all she needs to do is look at him and he will be her mirror reflecting back all the beauty he sees in her.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31g_4B9AkYs


3. STAND BY ME - BEN E. KING

I'm not sure this song was intended to be a soundtrack to love during an apocalypse but that's the way I always imagine it. Listen to the lyrics: "If the sky that we look upon should tumble and fall, or the mountain should crumble to the sea, I won't cry... I won't shed a tear, just as long as you stand, stand by me..." Now picture a movie with two lovers holding hands looking at the sky during an alien attack, a war or some other apocalyptic event while this song plays. The world crumbles around them yet they feel peaceful because at least in the world's final moments they have each other.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vbg7YoXiKn0


4. ANDROGYNOUS - THE REPLACEMENTS

I like love stories about misfits finding each other and this one is one of the best. It tells the story of Dick who wears a skirt and Jane who sports a chain but yet, "they love each other so..." Paul Westerberg plays it as a drunken piano ballad and it works perfectly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8J9WssSj7Q


5. LET'S STAY TOGETHER - AL GREEN

You can't have a list like this without including Al Green and his most famous song, "Let's Stay Together." The title says it all. Let's quit fighting and work it out. With his seductive singing voice and the smooth vibe of the music, the Reverend Al Green makes a pretty convincing argument.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COiIC3A0ROM


6. THIRTEEN - BIG STAR

I never had a high school sweetheart, but if I did and I was hip enough to know who Big Star was, this would've been our song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pte3Jg-2Ax4


There are many others of course, but these six are probably my faves. What are yours?

Music Review for Warpaint's: Warpaint

Let me start by saying I love this album’s artwork. It’s one of those few album covers where the artwork is a perfect picture of how the music within sounds. The artwork is pretty, sexy and ethereal which also describes the music on Warpaint’s eponymous second album. It’s been four years since their previous album, “The Fool,” and from the sounds of it the group spent that time experimenting with and perfecting their chops. The time gap has definitely paid off as Warpaint has crafted a dreamy near flawless late night headphones record.

A brief intro opens the album and sets the tone with its smoky keyboard ambience, slowly pulsing bass, spacey guitar swells and basic but prominent drumming. “Love Is to Die,” is probably the album’s most obvious single and again the drums are out front bursting through the sonic smoke and acting as a tour guide through the song’s foggy ambience. It’s a tune that seems to both fear and idealize love with its chorus that says both, “love is to die,” and “love is to dance.” Check it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnuFYYJHaY0

“Hi” has a trippy hypnotic bass line, a perfect blend of live and programmed drums, and a chorus that has Theresa Wayman swooning, “In the middle of the day, you find love…” A similar slow and hazy vibe permeates “Go In” which also incorporates a sample from one of the forefathers of afrobeat, Tony Allen and his song “Hustler.” The tune floats through your head with the last forty or so seconds featuring some backwards guitar blending into a keyboard forged stratosphere. “Feeling Alright,” opens with Stella Mozgawa hitting her drum sticks together before the song bursts into a determined almost funky stomp.

Some of the songs float gently and some of them float menacingly, but they all float as the girls incorporate the lessons they’ve learned from hip hop and electronic music into a seductive fusion of trance-like electronica, spacey psychedelic rock and sexy dream pop. This album is a step forward for the band and as such it earns four burning coals.