This must be Love

I remember watching a video either at school or at a youth group that was all about love and sex, you know how they do. Anyways, at the time it was made (it was outdated when we watched it then) Simon Mayo was the big cheese in the radio DJ world. He worked at Radio 1 and was excited to show us how he’d categorised all the records he receives into ditties about love and, as far as I can remember, ‘other’. He proved his point, there are a lot of songs about love, the majority of those played on Radio 1 in fact are about love.

Love is a powerful emotion so it’s unsurprising that there are so many tunes about it. It’s almost a requirement for an artist to make at least on track with ‘love’ in the title or somewhere in the lyrics. Here are 10 tracks, not a top 10, just 10 tracks about love that I like.

Busta Rhymes – I love my Chick
All there is to be said is ‘Yup Yup I love my chick’ and ‘comedy’.

Lady Sovereign – Love me or Hate me
So this isn’t strictly about love but it is in a way. Plenty of people do bother about whether people love them or hate them, most people are insecure in this way…and I just wanted to post the S.O.V.

Labi Siffre – Turn on your Love
This is the guy (not the song) Dre sampled on Em’s ‘My name is’ so you know he’s got that funky soul going on.

Huey Lewis & The News – The Power of Love
One of the songs going by this title, definitely the best by far. A great feel good tune perfect for driving.

K-Os – The Love Song
Hailing from Canada and contradicting the title in the first line (“This is not a love song, it’s a sonnet”) K-Os brings dusty beats and sing-song lyrics and if I remember correctly this was used in an advert that had a fly in it.

Peace 586 – Love’s still there
Not man/woman love this time but man/God love, 586 explains a relationship with God easily over this laid back, sweet, headnod beat.

Erick Sermon – Love iz ft. Al Green
A song about all sorts of ways that love is manifested all built around a sample of Al Green singing, you guessed it, ‘Love is…’.

>aRRO – I Luv U ft. Digga
Sharing a title with a Dizzee track could be a bad thing, but in this case it’s not. This is something a little different for y’all, from the vocoded fart bassline to the 80’s rock snare via the Grange Hill theme tune breakdown this is pure fun (and love).

Uffie – First Love
Yeah so posting Uffie is a little hypocritical after the whole Justice thing, especially since I got this off someone else’s blog but it fits right in here. This has 80’s written all over it and Uffie’s cheesy lyrics fit nicely with that but the fact they are slightly vocoded really brings it bang up to date, as does the broken electro beat.

Codebreaker – Are you ready 2 love?
This is probably thieved off another blog too but it’s infectious with more vocoder, funky guitars and bass and simple lyrics that I challenge you to not sing along to.