AILSA CHANG, HOST:
With Valentine's Day on the horizon, you might be thinking of putting together a playlist or even a mixtape for that special someone in your life. Well, our friends at NPR Music are here to help. They put together a list of lesser-known love songs to spice up your soundtrack. Here's All Songs Considered host Robin Hilton.
ROBIN HILTON, BYLINE: There are probably more songs on the planet about love than anything else. And chances are, you've heard the big ones a million times - Etta James singing "At Last" or Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes." But sometimes, big things come in little packages, like this incredibly sweet song called "Engine Love" (ph) from the singer Mirah.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ENGINE HEART")
MIRAH: (Singing) Be still my heart. Engine turning over, won't you start? This one's come to tear me all apart. Be still my heart.
HILTON: "Engine Love" is all about the ways that someone can make your heart go thumpity-thump, kind of like a motor that's skipping a beat, that feeling of butterflies when you're absolutely smitten. Of course, love can feel way more complicated and intense than that. Poets and scholars have even said falling in love can feel like dying. And if that's your jam, check out singer Linda Diaz and her song "Watching Ourselves Die."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WATCHING OURSELVES DIE")
SOLOMON FOX: (Singing) You...
LINDA DIAZ: (Singing) Me...
LINDA DIAZ AND SOLOMON FOX: (Singing) Don't it feel like a movie watching ourselves die? Just let me love you forever, babe, and we can promise to stay the same.
HILTON: Maybe it's the idea that to truly love someone, you have to let your ego die to be vulnerable and to give yourself over completely. Whatever it is, this song from Linda Diaz absolutely makes me swoon. But love doesn't have to be so crushing. In fact, it can be the thing that saves you. And for that, try Daniel Lanois' wondrously beautiful song called, simply, "I Love You."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I LOVE YOU")
DANIEL LANOIS: (Singing) I think I'll call you up...
DANIEL LANOIS AND EMMYLOU HARRIS: (Singing) ...And say please, baby, please. I love you. I love you. Yeah, I love you. Yeah, I love you.
HILTON: This song, featuring Emmylou Harris, doesn't mince words, but it's ultimately about struggle, about the desperate burdens and baggage we carry and all the ways that love can make it better.
CHANG: That's Robin Hilton, host of All Songs Considered. For a complete list of lesser-known love songs, go to npr.org/allsongs.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I LOVE YOU")
LANOIS AND HARRIS: (Singing) I'd make the dream filter down to my fingers and rip at the fool's head and follow your scent that lingers. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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