Happy Valentine's Day! We're going with a Special this day, searching using "love" in the old collection and then randomizing among those songs. It returned 500 songs, which makes me think it's only the first 500 results. But whatever. Let's hear what we got!
The Ramones, "Today Your Love, Tomorrow The World"
I kind of feel like, in tribute to the Ramones' consistency and committment to making the same album over and over, I should just make every Ramones entry the same.
Encore, "Love & Hate (The Mellow Drama)"
Like most people, I encountered Encore first tearing it up on the Handsome Boy Modeling School song "Waterworld". That led me to picking up his debut album, on Dan the Automator's label Ark 75. It fits right in with the other acts on the label, with cerebral beats and a focus on lyricism. It's a really good album that didn't seem to get the attention it deserved. Or I didn't notice. I'm pretty out of touch!
Atmosphere, "Give Me"
Let's stick with underground rap! Hell yes. Another track from God Loves Ugly, one where Ant's beat actually fits pretty well with the beat on the previous song.
Love Battery, "Colorblind"
This special is working out well! Or it was, until I discovered this was a repeat. Can't blame it on Amazon's random number generator!
Aretha Franklin, "Dr. Feelgood [Love Is A Serious Business]"
Every now and again, we get an artist on here that totally overwhelms me, where I'm just not sure what to say. My pathetic chattering here is just unable to really do them justice. When it's one of the greats of the music underground, I feel like I'm on pretty solid ground. But, Aretha Franklin? Frankly, I'm not worthy. I guess I'll just say that she's rightfully one of the titans of soul and pop music, and everybody should listen to more of her.
This song comes from I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You, which is one of the all-time greats. If you want to be at all a well-educated listener of soul, or pop, or music in general, you should listen to it.
Belle & Sebastian, "I Don't Love Anyone"
Wrapping things up with a charming song from Tigermilk. That was fun!