'Love' Songs

Savath & Savalas - Balcon Sin Flores - Apropa't (WARP 2004)


Aloha - You've Escaped - Here Comes Everyone (Polyvinyl 2004)


Ryan Adams - I See Monsters - Love is Hell Pt. 2 (Lost Highway 2003)


Lateduster - Shaker/Flicker - Easy Pieces (Merck 2004)





Today, riding home from work on the El, a girl sat down two seats ahead of me facing in the same direction. I never actually looked up from my book, but utilizing my cute girl sixth sense (an awareness I’m assuming most other guys also have), I instinctively knew she was there. My face remained buried in Hunter S. Thompson’s drug-induced prose, but my mind’s eye was focused on the back of this girl’s head. Before the train even left the station, she turned around and glanced in my direction. Was I the cause for that coy glance??? No way… she must’ve been looking at something behind me, maybe checking the station map or maybe there was a frisky bum scuffling around conspicuously. Doesn’t matter anyways, it’s not like I’m about to get up and take the seat next to her; courageously striking up an intriguing conversation that immediately sweeps her feet from their firmly planted position on the stained floor. Not to mention, Hunter’s lawyer was threatening him with a Gerber Mini-Mangum while sitting in a bathtub full of mysteriously green water hopped up on a head full of acid… I had more important matters to attend to.

Six stops later and a cunning escape by Thompson, my stop at Addison station was quickly approaching. Headphones set, music chosen, Collections of Colonies of Bees seemed appropriate for my current state of mind and the dreary, overcast day, it was time to strategically position myself for a quick escape from the train. It was a no-brainer to chose the door directly in the sight-path of my backwards-glancer, you know, just in case. I moved quickly from my seat to the door, strapping my backpack and slipping the flypod into my back pocket in one fluid motion. Now standing in front of the door, my eyes firmly planted on my feet (I really could use a new pair of shoes), I tried to decide what was the most non-chalant (sp?) way of sneaking a quick glance at my new lady friend. Wrigley Field now clearly in sight, and the station immediately approaching, I had to act quickly or it would be too late.

When I was in eighth grade, I had to get a physical to run track. I never really liked running at all, so why I was actually going out for the track team is still beyond me to this day, but nonetheless, I did it. Anyways, at my physical they discovered a light heart murmur; nothing serious, but my heart on occasion was beating irregularly, skipping the occasional beat. It didn’t keep me from running track (the broken foot I suffered after my second practice took care of that), but two lengthy doctor visits later, I now was very educated on the possible side effects of a heart murmur. Those side effects were the first thing that popped in my head when I glanced up at my mystery girl, because she was staring directly back at me with a coy smile planted firmly on her gorgeous face and my heart, without a single doubt in my mind, skipped a beat, if not fourteen. Being the person I am, my eyes were back on my feet within moments, and seconds later I was off the train heading for the stairs, daydreaming about running back o to the train to forever steal the lady’s heart away.

While walking the necessary 7 blocks back to my apartment, I pondered over the fluttery feeling that I couldn’t shake, and how a good ‘love’ song should produce that same sensation. I use quotation marks around ‘love’ because it’s a word I’m not too big on. Being in ‘love’ with somebody designates having a perfect relationship. While having this supposed perfect relationship would not only be incredibly boring, it is also impossible to achieve; two people can never make a complete subjective connection no matter how much time they spend together. So being in ‘love’ would denote an impossible perfection, which adds a tremendous amount of unneeded stress to try to retain this perfect state, while the two people should be just enjoying each other’s wonderful imperfections. But I digress; my goal here is to share four of my favorite ‘love’ songs, which more than likely are not even supposed to be ‘love’ songs but I’ve adopted that as my personal interpretation, that are now dedicated to my glancing mystery lady.

Savath & Savalas – Balcón Sin Flores
To me, foreign languages will always be leaps and bounds sexier than the English language. Maybe it’s the mystery of the meaning or the fluidity of the syllables, but either way, I find it incredibly sensual. Savath & Savalas is one of Guillermo Scott Herren’s many monikers, which also include Prefuse 73, Delarosa & Asora, Piano Overlord, La Correccíon and whatever he is stirring up this week. This is by far his most delicate project though, and for his second proper full-length under the alias, Apropa’t, he enlisted Catalan singer/songwriter Eva Puyuelo for vocals. Her sweeping and incredibly sexy voice is the perfect match to Herren’s downbeat melancholia meets Spanish folk music. I have absolutely no idea what Puyuelo is saying in the first half of the song, and I never wish to find out, but the real entrancement is during the latter half. The music all but goes silent right after the 1-minute mark, and then slowly broods into a wonderful soundscape of intertwining accordion, muted trumpet and cello (I believe). It is absolutely the sexiest song I have ever encountered.

Aloha – You’ve Escaped
Aloha’s fourth album, Here Comes Everyone, came along at about the same time I started dating this wonderfully intriguing girl. Every night that I drove to her house, I would play this song on repeat, and it became closely associated with that particular journey. Tony Cavallario and company have always created low-key and melodic songs, but with ‘You’ve Escaped,’ they really found their own sound. There is not really any significant difference as far as instrumentation is concerned, acoustic guitar, a light, unrepetitive bass line, simple piano riff, off-beat percussion, Cavallario’s ambiguous lyrics and their signature marimba/vibraphone presence, but it just seems like it all came together seamlessly. I really like the quivering sine wave they use to accentuate the chorus; it really adds that extra little bit that really individualizes the song. And to top it off, what may be Cavallario’s best lyric off any of their albums, ‘Do you see/out of the corner of your eye/that I’m standing by your side.’

Ryan Adams – I See Monsters
I’ve never really been a big Ryan Adams fan; in fact the only music of his I own, and really even listened to, is his two amazing Love is Hell EPs. The song, ‘I See Monsters,’ off the second EP, especially moves me. Musically, it’s incredibly simple, just a deeply resonant acoustic guitar, unassuming electric bass and occasional string swells. But what makes it stand apart are some of my favorite lyrics ever, especially the chorus, ‘when she calls/know that she’s the one/makes me want it harder/makes me want to be a little stronger/but still I see monsters.’ Maybe it’s the helplessness of the song that is so accessible, I’m not completely sure; but it’s without a doubt the best ‘all alone on a rainy night in the city song’ that exists to my knowledge.

Lateduster – Shaker/Flicker
Lateduster’s only album, 2004’s Easy Pieces, was sorely overlooked by most everybody in my opinion. Featuring members of Fog, Hymie’s Basement, Neotropic, Dosh and Sans Le Systeme, it’s no wonder how the group found it’s melodic and minimal post-rock sound. ‘Shaker/Flicker’ is an incredibly sexy instrumental song that is hard to define because it enlists so many different musical characteristics. The best definition I can come up with is quiet psychedelic post-rock, but that sounds very cold to me. Believe you me, if you are into any kind of deeply melodic instrumental music, you will absolutely love this album. It’s sensual and deeply textural sound makes it one of my favorite make-out albums of all time.

Runners Up:
Adem – Ringing in my Ear, Bear in Heaven – My Chair, anything by Al Green, Cee-Lo – Spend the Night in your Mind, Cursive – The Recluse, Four Tet - Unspoken, The Go Find – Summer Guest, Jim Guthrie – Lovers Do, Karate - Cacophony, Milosh – You Make Me Feel, n. Lannon – The Catch, TV on the Radio – Wear You Out