Lesser-known love songs
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Support for NPR and the following message come from our sponsor, Whole Foods Market. Find great everyday prices on responsibly farmed salmon, no antibiotics ever chicken breasts, organic strawberries, and more at Whole Foods Market. Well, Valentine's Day is rapidly approaching. Maybe one of the more polarizing, perhaps, well, not really holiday. I don't know. What is it? An event? A ritual. A ritual. Ritual is a good word for it.

Some people really, really hate Valentine's Day. Some people really, really love it. What do you all do? Do you get into it? You know, do you get or give flowers or candy or whatever to the person you're with? This is feeling like a question about my love life. Oh, I'm not making any assumptions here at all.

Do I like to celebrate Valentine's? I like to mark the occasion. Yeah. I like to mark the occasion. I'm a lover. I like love. I love love. So I think I enjoy the concept. I like a holiday. I make anything into a party anyways. So if you're with somebody and they didn't do anything special for you, you'd... I'd be a little... I'd be like... You should be doing something minimum special for me every day.

Give it another 20 years or so, Ana. You might feel differently. That's why you recycled them, Robin. You recycled them? You got them on rotation and they're always motivated. So they forget that they were ever over you? Yeah. Lars, what about you?

I am largely indifferent to Valentine's Day, but usually my wife and I do a nicer dinner. A nicer dinner. We make food. I think this is known. You are a foodie. Yeah. You like fancy food. So yeah, we make a nicer dinner. Well, my wife and I really hit the jackpot with each other when it comes to this sort of thing, because neither of us want anything or want each other to do anything for

For each other. A simple handshake and a thanks for everything will do for us. Exactly. But on this episode...

We've decided to choose love and we're going to celebrate Valentine's Day this year by sharing a mix of lesser known love songs. You know, maybe you're putting together a mixtape or a playlist for that special someone in your life. And if you are, you can surprise them and thrill and delight them with these mostly off the radar songs that we've got.

We're just going to go around the room here and share what we brought. But first, a quick reminder, if you enjoy the show, share it with a friend, leave us a review in Apple or wherever you get your podcasts. And be sure to stay tuned at the end of the show for the new segment we're calling Your Weekly Reset. That'll come after the last song plays, Your Weekly Reset. Wow, Robin, that was such a compelling pitch. I got to start doing that on my show.

And if you want to know more, you'll just have to listen to the entire show. Okay, Ana, what do you want to start us off with? My song, it's from Linda Diaz. We love her, we know her, former Tiny Desk Contest winner. She got together with artist Solomon Fox, and they made this beautiful song called Watching Ourselves Die, which as I say it out loud, doesn't sound like love, but just wait till you hear it. ♪

Hopeless, illogical thinking

So, Ana, does love to you feel the same as, you know, being dead? I'm Mexican, Robin, so yes. Take a dip. Take a dip into the culture and let me tell you. Well, I guess I'm Kansan, so yeah. Yes, you got it.

Yeah, you know, I mean, if you listen to it sonically and those voices blending together, to me, I'm swaying in the sand, slow dancing next to the waves and there's sparkly confetti. That's what it sounds like. And then you listen to the lyrics and you're like, whoa, this is sad a little bit. It's a little about heartbreak. But I am a person that I think the best songs about love are about heartbreak because it's kind of like it takes losing love to really love love, I think.

You're gonna have it. Exactly. To feel, you know, the pain brings you the beauty of it all. So this song really does that quite nicely for me. It's a soundtrack to my life. I mean, I've heard that analogy before. The love is like dying.

And I never really quite got it. I'd always think, huh? How exactly? But the more I thought about it, I think it could be the idea that in order to love someone completely, you have to figuratively die yourself. Oh, interesting. Kill off the self. Like, you know, give yourself over completely for the other person. I don't know how my therapist would feel about that. Yeah. Yeah. I hear you. Ego death. It is. Ego death. Ego death. All right.

All right. Watching Ourselves Die from Linda Diaz. That was just a one off single came out in 2024. Yeah. Say yeah. Yes. Yes. Correct. Confirmed. All right. Lars, you want to get all your your screaming out of the way now or do you want to just hold the screaming in your heart?

For later. You know what? I kind of want to keep it in the Linda Diaz mood. Keep it somewhat chill. And so I want to go back to 1969. The Brazilian goddess, Gal Costa, and her song, Baby. I can't wait to talk about what a weird love song this is. You...

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

Well, Lars, I want to know what you think is so weird about this song, because I thought it was just lovely. Well, okay, so Gal Costa in the late 60s was part of the Tropicalia movement in Brazil, which basically a bunch of musicians and artists had to disguise what they were singing and what they were saying kind of through hidden messages because they were under a dictatorship.

at the time, and the government was highly censoring everything that they were saying and singing. And this is a song that was written by Catano Filoso. He appears on this track as well. And it's sort of a song that pokes fun at American capitalism and consumerism.

And they're kind of poking fun at all these Americanisms that were making their way into Brazil in the late 60s. And a lot of folks were feeling a certain way about their culture being kind of taken over by American culture. And so they're kind of like,

saying like, you need to have the margarine, you need to have the gasoline in order to love me. But at the end of the day, it's ultimately a song about you don't need all of these things, we just need each other. So have you read that that's what the song is about? Or is that kind of like your own interpretation? It's a little bit of both because I've read a few translations of the lyrics before.

There's a part in the song toward the end where she sings, "We live on the best city of South America." And so it's very much a song that's celebrating where they are from and the person that they are with. And when Cardona Buloso comes in at the end, he's saying, "Don't leave me." But he's not only saying, "Don't leave me," to the person he loves, but, "Don't leave me to the country that he loves."

Well, I asked because without that context, to me, I was just kind of focusing in on the fact that it was sort of a slice of life kind of song, you know, just with these little moments, you know, taking a walk together, having ice cream together. You get the feeling that they're on a beach maybe or a boardwalk or something like that. All the time I say this, the conceit of the lover is

is so commonly used as the resistance, as the tool for communicating, you know, feelings around political exhaustion or failures of the government or all of these things as personified by the singer and then whoever they're singing to, to explain these things. It's like an understandable language in Latin America to talk about love in this way. I could take you all the way up to the Bad Bunny album right now and the way he did quite literally just this.

in some of his most powerful moments on that recent record. Well, I love that. And I love the song Lars Baby from Gal Costa's self-titled album, again, that came out in 1969. I have not listened to a lot of Gal Costa's work, but you have definitely got me interested in going back and listening to more. Lars is always dropping me Brazilian tunes. I love it.

So I mentioned making mixtapes at the top of the show. You know, maybe you're making a mixtape for somebody for Valentine's Day. I imagine we've all done that, right? By mixtape, you mean playlist? Then yes. Okay, Ana. Yeah. Of course I know a mixtape. I just haven't made a mixtape. Yes, a playlist.

Well, every song that I'm going to play came from the various mixtapes. You might refer to them as playlists, Anna, though those did not exist at the time. I made these various mixtapes I made for my then girlfriend. You don't make your wife playlists? Well, not anymore. I sealed the deal. Robin, Robin, Robin, Robin, Mr. Robin. She is not real.

No, she is not remotely interested in any music that I'm interested in. I think she really loved these mixtapes at the time, though, and still hasn't. And this first song that I want to play. We're going to discuss this later, Robin. OK, your work is never done. Rule number one. Yeah, the work is never done. OK.

This first song that I want to play is from the singer Mira, M-I-R-A-H, Mira, an artist we have featured off and on over the years on All Songs Considered. The song from Mira is called Engine Heart. It's just such a sweet little song, I think, just about the ways that someone can make your heart go

you know, thumpity-thump. You know, that feeling you have, especially in the beginning, Anna, when you're absolutely smitten with somebody. My wife still makes my heart go thumpity-thump. It does. I knew you'd bring the tweed. I held off. It would be so easy to bring in a Tolly Craft song or anything that came out on K Records circa 1995. So I'm glad you brought in Mira. Yeah.

And this was such a fun time in indie pop because this whole album was co-produced with Phil Elverum from The Microphones and Mount Airy, who has his own set of incredibly beautiful love songs with weird metaphors for what it means to love someone. So I couldn't help but notice, but pretty much all the songs you chose for today are very twee. I am...

A very earnest person. I don't always show it, but in my heart I am. I also love love.

Anna, and I still have these feelings even if I don't make mixtapes. I'm going to need to go talk to her. I'm going to call her after this. I'm not. Honestly, I don't think she's ever listened to the show. She's never listened to the show? That sounds right, actually. You make marriage sound so romantic, Robin. It's its own kind of love, Anna, where you are so comfortable being with each other and so happy being together. You don't have to jump through all these hoops for each other to show it. You just feel it and know it. It's ever-present.

And we should say this song, Inch in Heart, Lars, you mentioned that it was a great time for indie rock and pop when it came out. It came out in 2000, 25 years ago. Hard to believe it was from Mira's debut album called You Think It's Like This, but really it's like this. It's like this. Every song on that album is amazing. Everyone should check it out.

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All right, Ana, we've come around to you. This is a song from one of my new favorite kind of fun indie pop doing all the different styles, doesn't care what genre is or who knows what, artist coming out of Mexico City. Her name is Paloma Morfi, and this is her song. This was the first song that really hooked me on her, and it's called Me Faltas Tú. ♪♪♪

Ya no como tan mal y en las mañanas salgo a caminar Ya no salgo hasta tarde, lloro cuando el pecho me arde De aprendido no espera nada de nadie Y a soltar lo que algún día me hizo sentir culpable Ya no me falta nada pero siento que me faltas tú Ya no me falta nada pero siempre me faltas tú

So, you know, Ana, I noticed this is also a one-off single from 2024. And I know the other thing you want to play also from 2024 is...

Do you want to tell us what was happening in 2024? Yeah, what was going on? Yeah, what... This is a safe space. You can share here...

Let me preface by saying 2025, I'm a committed single woman. 2024 created the groundwork for 2025, me being a committed single woman. This song, let me tell you about it because I will admit, I will admit to the people because I don't think just as you said, your wife doesn't listen to this show, Robin. I don't think anyone I should be concerned about listens to this show either. So you can just get it all out here. They're never going to hear this.

No, when I first heard this song, I definitely had a big crush on someone. And I felt this exactly encapsulated my feeling because this song, it's really, again, it's one of these like a little off to the side love songs where it's a love song that's almost not a love song. I mean, it moves really fun. It doesn't have this little, you know, fun, lovey energy like the Linda Diaz song did. It's a lot more like, oh, we're cool. We're out here. It's got this cool beat to it.

And I love this chorus because the chorus, me faltas tu, faltar in Spanish kind of has two meanings. Like there's not quite a perfect direct translation. You could say faltar is either without, but it can also be to miss. And it kind of leaves this question of like, were they in love? And then she got her heart broken. Is this someone she's crushing on? As I was at the moment, so I took it that way. And she's thinking about them. Is this a person she's never even met?

but she still feels as though she's missing them. She's good, but she's missing them. So there's like a lot of different ways you can take it, but I just love kind of the open-endedness of it and this feeling of like a level of self-satisfaction and yet also like, but if you were here, it would be cool. Well, I really love this song. It's a great pick from Paloma Morphe, May Felt Us Too. All right, Lars, how about now? Yeah, let's get screamy now. Do you want me to just hit this? Let's hit it. Don't turn down.

And don't you know you're mad You threw my wife inside out My life's a ball And it's your dead love

Would you make someone a playlist of all Screamy Love songs? That is exactly what I was going to ask. Did you put this on a mixtape or playlist for someone? And if so, how did it go? The answer is no. I've never put it on a mixtape for anybody. And would I put together a whole mixtape of Screamy Love songs? Of course I would, if the person wanted it. I want to find that person.

I cannot think of too many hardcore bands that just have put out an extremely earnest, straight up love song like Stretch Armstrong did in 1999. Like for now. No, but I'm behind. I can really get behind the screamo part because honestly, what's more like effusive than like, I love you so much. I have to scream about it. You know what I mean? Yeah.

I mean, I have definitely been in the pit during a performance of this song and see just a bunch of grown men and women clamoring for the microphone, wanting to sing these lyrics along with the band. It's the best feeling in the world.

Because, you know, at the end of the day, yeah, you make my heart sing. I want to scream that out as loud as I possibly can. Why wouldn't I want to do it with a bunch of my best friends? And I kind of read this as more of a best friend song than a love song. So it's a love song for best friends.

And I love love songs for best friends. I think there should be more of them. Because a lot of the song is seeing someone going through hurt and through pain and still wanting to love and support them through that time. And that is such like a punk thing. It's like, here, we got to struggle through this thing together and we're going to do it through song.

So Stretch Armstrong, the name of the band, the song was For Now from the album Rituals of Life. Again, that came out in 1999. Well, Ana, I've given you a hard time for whatever was going on in 2024. And of course, now when I look at everything that I'm playing, it's all stuff from years ago when I was going through the thresher of love. And that's true of this next song by an artist that goes by the name Tinder Forever. It's the project of the musician Vito Valera.

They put out this debut album in 2005 called The Soft and the Hardcore. I wish I could remember how I discovered Tinder Forever, but I love this album so much. And the song that I want to play from it, it's maybe not as obvious as some of the other songs that we're playing. But to me, it's again about the early days of young love and sort of that naughty mix of, you know, being really excited and absolutely petrified. And the song is called Soft.

then if I'm weird, I want to share. ♪ What's going on ♪ ♪ When you're talking on the phone ♪ ♪ To that girl and it's not me ♪ ♪ And it's driving me crazy ♪ ♪ What's going on ♪ ♪ I feel you in my bones ♪ ♪ Should I die or should I laugh ♪ ♪ Is it freezing ♪ ♪ People say ♪ ♪ Maybe I'm gay ♪

I love that recurring line and the name of the song, then, "If I'm weird, I want to share," which I think maybe could mean a lot of different things, but to me it's just about being fearless and finding that one person in life who gets you.

I think that, but also, I think it's maybe also a song about finding your people in a way. I mean, I remember when I found my people who were also weird and liked strange movies and wild indie rock and all these things. And I've been searching for them for the first 18 years of my life. And within one month of going to college, I was like,

Oh, I love these people. I never want to let them go or anybody else that I meet like them. I mean, I often say the greatest value of love is deep understanding. That's one of the most valuable things in the world. But I think when you fill your life with people you love and people who understand you deeply, then it's like that just the love compounds. I thought you were going to say the greatest value of going to college is to find your people. Yeah.

That's certainly true of me, too, Lars. I mean, that was totally true. Yeah. I found people I love in college. I found people I love out of college. Anna loves everybody. Oh, you're right. If you if you that's right. If you put love out there, it will come back to you because you refuse to make playlists for your wife. All right. Here's what we're going to do.

I'm going to make that playlist on it and I'm going to document maybe my video or something like that. What what she does when I tell her I've made this playlist for her that I want her to listen to. And then I'll share that video with you. This message comes from Carvana. Sell your car the convenient way. Enter your license plate or VIN. Answer a few questions and get a real offer in seconds. Go to Carvana.com today.

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This is another song out of Mexico, kind of. Mexican-American kid, 20 years old. He's like the new most exciting artist in the Corrido Tumbado movement. I was a little bit skeptical of him at first because his first few songs that really blew up, they were all covers. But this song in particular, I always go back to because again, it's one of those songs that has a really kind of funny conceit to me. It's called Tú Casi Algo and the artist is Javi. ♪

I hate myself, fuck Stop fucking with me, life is more Look for another bastard And you had a fight, if you run into another I'm better than me But you know I'm not You have a lot of lips, but all of them are like this Why keep pretending that you still love us?

♪

I love it because it is one of those classic... You guys are going to think this is crazy. One of my favorite songs in the world is Leonard Cohen's Chelsea Hotel No. 2. That's not crazy. Well, it's crazy because I'm about to draw a comparison to this song. Okay. Because I love it because I love that energy of like, this is a love song that's barely a love song because I don't really care, but obviously I'm in love with you. And that's exactly what this song... The first time I heard this song, I was like, oh, this kid, he really is...

Brilliant. Besides the fact that these guitars totally bang, I love the melody. His voice is so distinct and beautiful. The chorus to me is so hilarious because he's like, you were almost my everything. You were always my forever. Like he's like, but now it's like, whatever. Like, I don't care. And like that to me is that exact same thing where in Chelsea Hotel number two, he says, I don't even really miss you anyways. Well, doesn't he say at some point, like, stop messing up my life, you know, like.

You're a smooth talker or whatever, but, you know, like I am so on to you and what you're doing. And you need to know, like, I have already begun erasing you from my life. Is that right? Definitely there's an energy of that.

There's a lot of this like, why are you pretending? Like, let's just stop pretending. Like you're kind of putting on a show, you're putting on a front and like, whatever. We were almost something. It's called Tu Casi Algo. You were almost something. And then it was like, you were almost everything. But now, whatever, it doesn't matter. We're fine. Let's just call it. But it's like, he's taking that step to be the person to be like, let's just call it when clearly he doesn't want to be that person. Yeah.

Javier, again, is the artist, the song Tukasi Algo. And the album, that album's called Next. All right, Lars, you've got one more too. So we actually did a version of this show 16 years ago. That's right. But that show is now old enough to drive. And on that show, you featured a couple of Athens bands, including the song Gloom by The Gerbils, which I will agree with you is probably one of the greatest love songs of

Of all time. And so I kind of wanted to have a connective tissue to that episode by keeping it in Athens, Georgia, because both Robin and I spent some formative years there. And so I wanted to throw it back to the band Elf Power. From their very first album, Vainly Clutching at Phantom Limbs, they have a song called Temporary Arm. And trust me, it is...

Technically a love song, but it will not sound like one when you listen to it. ♪

Oh, I love Elf Power so much. Thank you for playing this, Lars. One of my all-time favorite bands from the Elephant Six Collective. And this is a song, it is a love song, and it's about how love can come in many different forms. And the metaphor is that somebody's lost their arm, it's been amputated, and they feel stronger now that it's been amputated, but they missed their old arm.

That's it. That's the conceit of a song. I miss you, flesh arms, so much. How did you get behind that? I found out about this song because back when I was in college, I was a DJ at WOG. And there was one night where I was doing a Valentine's themed episode of my show. And a cute girl that I knew called in.

and said, I would like to request Temporary Arm by Elf Power. It is one of the most romantic songs I've ever heard in my life. And so I was like, okay, cute person, but I have like a little bit of a crush on you. I will play this song for you. Well, we have her on the line right now. So let's just go to her and see if she's still feeling that way.

One of my all-time favorite love songs is Missing You by Robin because it's not necessarily about a lover. I remember the first time that I came out of paternity leave and Missing You came out and I was bawling because I was not with my little girl who I love so much.

Well, we can put that song and a whole bunch of the other ones that we wanted to play but didn't get to in a playlist. And you'll find a link for it in the episode description in your podcast feed. You can also find it on our website, npr.org slash all songs. We'll put everything that we played on that playlist along with a bunch of other stuff. But I've got one more that I want to play for us before we go. And it's from Daniel Lanlois. If you don't know Daniel Lanlois,

He is a legendary producer, absolutely legendary. He did U2's album, The Joshua Tree. He did Peter Gabriel's album, So. He did Bob Dylan's Time Out of Mind.

so many landmark albums over the years. But he is also, Daniel Lanois, is also an incredible solo artist and collaborator. We've got a couple different tiny desks up from him that you should watch. The song that I want to play is another one that I put on my very ancient mixtapes, and it's called simply, I Love You. And it's just about the struggles I think you endure in life and the ways that love can lift you up.

And I'll just say, just listen to, there's so much incredible ear candy going on in this song. And the even more incredible voice of Emmylou Harris, who appears on this song. Robin, I'm so glad you brought in this song. I have not listened to this record shine in a very long time. And this song has always stuck out to me as like love in an apocalypse kind of vibe. Yeah. All the imagery, all the like sonic textures of this feel is,

gritty and strained. And then Daniel and Emmylou Harris come in and say, I love you. And the sky opens up. That is so beautifully said. I don't think you could sum this song up more perfectly than that. All right. Ana Maria Sayre, Lars Gottridge, thanks to you both, as always. Thank you, as always, Robin Hilton. Love to love. And from NPR Music, I'm Robin Hilton. It's All Songs Considered. ...

A man carried metal, carried gold, more than he could handle, more than he could hold, to a sand-shallow grave, where his bones were beaten by a heatwave. I'll hear it rains all night,

And it blows a sweet breeze Think I'll call you up And say please, baby please I love you, I love you, I love you All the dream machine Makes it hard to see

If I could stand outside myself and watch it come to me Make the tree filter down to my finger And rip at the fool's head and follow your scent and linger If I love you, yeah, I love you

*Humming*

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