NPR Music - Lesser-known love songs

Episode Date: February 4, 2025

Making a playlist or mixtape for that special someone? We've got you covered this Valentine's Day with these off-the-radar love songs.Featured artists and songs:1. Linda Diaz: "Watching Ourselves Die (feat. Solomon Fox)" (single)2. Gal Costa: "Baby," from 'Gal Gosta'3. Mirah: "Engine Heart," from 'You Think It's Like This, But Really It's Like This'4. Paloma Murphy: "me faltas tú" (single)5. Stretch Arm Strong: "For Now," from 'Rituals of Life'6. Tender Forever: "Then If I'm Weird, I Want To Share," from 'The Soft And The Hardcore'7. Xavi: "Tu Casi Algo," from 'NEXT'8. Elf Power: "Temporary Arm," from 'Vainly Clutching at Phantom Limbs'9. Daniel Lanois: "I Love You," from 'Shine'Enjoy the show? Share it with a friend and leave us a review on Apple or wherever you listen to podcasts. Questions, comments, suggestions or feedback of any kind always welcome: [e-mail] Hear our expanded playlist of lesser-known love songs in Apple Music and Spotify.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Well, Valentine's Day is rapidly approaching. Maybe one of the more polarizing, perhaps, well, not really holiday. I don't know what, what is at 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? 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. 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 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, Anna. You might. You might feel differently. That's like you recycled them. You recycle them? You got them on rotation and they're always motivated. So that 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 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. set. Wow, Robin, that was such a compelling pitch. I've 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, Anna, 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 until you hear it. So, Anna, 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 Kansans, so yeah.

Yeah, so you get 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 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, I think. You're going to 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 analogy. 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, 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, some ego death. Ego death. It is. Ego death. Amigo death. All right, watching ourselves die from Linda Diaz. That was just a one-off single came out in 2024, yeah? Say, yep.

Yes. Yes. Correct. Confirmed. All right. Lars, you want to get all 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, Galcasta, and her song, Baby. I can't wait to talk about what a weird love song this is. 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 tropicalian 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 Catanol Foloso. 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 60. 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 these things.

We just need each other. So have you read that that's what the song is. 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. There's a part in the song toward the end where 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 Cajona-Buloso comes in at the end, he's saying, don't leave me. But he's not always saying, don't leave me to the person he loves, but don't lead 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 boardwalk or something like that.

All the time I say this, the conceit of the lover. 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 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 in the way he did quite literally just this in some of his most powerful moments. 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, honest. Of course I don't mix tape. I just haven't made a mixed tape. 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 playlist? Well, not anymore. I sealed the deal. Robin. Robin, Robin, Robin. She is not. Mr. Robin. 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 has them. And this first song that I want to play. We're going to discuss this later, Robin, okay? Your work is never done. Rule number one. Yeah, the work is never done. Okay. 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, consider 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 thumpety-thumb-ty-thumb. It does. I knew you bring the tweed. I held off. It would be so easy to bring in a toy craft song. or anything that came out on K Records, circa in 1995. So I'm glad you brought in Mira. And this was such like a fun time in indie pop

because this whole album was co-produced with Phil Elvroom from the microphones in Mount Erie, 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 sounds 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 and 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. All right, Anna, 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 Morphy.

And this is her song. This was the first song that really hooked me on her. And it's called Me Faltas Tu. in a place, in a no way, I'm gonna' and in the morning, I'll

come to go to start I'm when the heart, I'm and I'm

and let's let's something I'm I'm I feel you you,

but I'm you I'm still you, I'm I feel that I'm I'm

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

Because this song, it's really, again, it's one of these like a little off to the side love songs where it's, 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 too. Falta in Spanish, kind of has two meanings. Like there's not quite a perfect direct translation. You could say Falta 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 heartbroken.

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 pig from Paloma Morphy. Mayfaltus too. All right, Lars, how about now? Yeah, let's get screaming now. Do you want me to just hit this? Let's hit it. Would you make someone a playlist of all scream-all 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. Never put it on a mixtape for anybody. And what I put together, put together a whole mixtape of screaming love songs. Of course they 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 a lot 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 songs for best friends.

I think there should be more of them. Because a lot of this 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 us 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 Four Now from the album Rituals of Life, again, that came out in 1999.

Well, Anna, 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 you could remember how I discover 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, Then If I'm Weird, I Want to Share. Hey, what's going on when you're talking on the phone? Do that go on. And it's driving. What's going on? I just don't care. And if I'm weird, I want to share. I love that recurring line and the name of the song. Then if I'm weird, I want to share, which I think maybe can 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. Yeah. In a way. I mean, I remember when I found my people who were also. weird and liked strange movies and loud 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 need

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 of 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. That's certainly, it was true of me, too, Lars. I mean, that was totally true. Nah. Yeah.

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. It's because you refuse to make playlists for your wife, Robin.

All right, here's what we're going to do. I'm going to make that playlist, Anna, and I'm going to document maybe on my video or something like that. Film it. 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. Well, Anna, you've got one more that you want to play. Yes. This is another song.

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 Tu Casialgo and the artist is Javi. Deja to be jodying me the life more. Buscate another cabron

And you pass one peria If you topas another, I'm better than I But you know, oh, oh Tumat the rolloo I know your man, and you have much lavi but all are so,

so, for to keep that we that we're when this never was No, more, I love it because it is a yeah, you're going to

I'm about to this is one of those classic This is going to be the, you guys are going to think this is crazy. One of my favorite songs in the world is Leonard Cohen's Chelsea Hotel number two. 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 No. 2 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 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 Tukasi 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. 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 Glew by the Jervils, which I agree with you is probably one of the greatest love songs 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 things. the band Elf Power. From their very first album, vainly clutching at Phantom Lems, 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 the song, It is a love song, and it's about how love can come in many different forms. I mean, but 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 miss their old arm.

That's it. That's the conceit of a song. I miss you flesh arms so much. How can you get behind that? I found out about this song, because back when I was in college, I was, a DJ at WG. 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 Elth Power.

It is one of the most romantic songs I've ever heard in my life. And so I was like, okay, cute person that I have like a little bit of a crush. 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 at a 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 lanwa if you don't know daniel lanwa he is a legendary producer absolutely legendary he he he he did 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 Lainois, 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 mixed tapes. 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 Imulhu 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 and an apocalypse kind of life. Yeah. All the imagery, all the sonic textures of this feel gritty and strained. And then Daniel and Emily Harris came in, 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, Anna Maria Sayre, Lars Gottrich, 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. Thank you.