The Sound of Love: How Music Shapes Valentine's Day

The love song is as old as music itself, as the idea speaks to the very human need for connection. Since humans first started making music, they began sharing it with the people they loved, sometimes even hoping to impress their lovers - imagine the neolithic equivalent of someone singing Wonderwall to you. The oldest recorded love song comes from ancient Mesopotamia (a historical region of West Asia), around 2000BCE, and is called ‘The Love Song of Shu-Sin’. The song is proof that love songs are universal as well as ancient and ever important. With love being one of the biggest themes of pop music since the ‘60s, we have become very familiar with the love song. But with it being so common, it is easy to forget the importance of this musical phenomenon. So, as Valentine’s Day approaches, it is the perfect time to reconsider this genre from new perspectives.

Bjork, an Icelandic artist known for her musical innovations, but perhaps less so for her contributions to the love song genre, brings an alternative take on the typical love song. Her poetic lyrics and eccentric perspectives on music, have brought us ‘Venus As A Boy’, an unusual love song dedicated to a boy whose beauty is reminiscent of the Roman goddess of love and beauty, Venus. The song is an ode to him, but there also contains a hint of sarcasm: is Bjork’s celebration of the ‘boy’ really a mockery? Is she revealing his beauty to be only a façade? Bjork’s use of this mythical comparison allows her to present love as a mythical force. Perhaps the most interesting part of this song is the brief two lines of the pre-chorus, containing what seems like Icelandic but is actually gibberish, according to Genius. Bjork, here, is playing on a non-Icelandic audience’s lack of knowledge of her language to add to a sense of mystery. Despite this, Bjork’s music is able to transcend these language barriers and impart emotion beyond a linguistic level. This gains importance in the context of the album’s original release in the ‘90s, before Google was readily accessible and when the meaning of these lyrics could not be easily found. The whole album ‘Debut’, from which ‘Venus as a Boy’ originates, uses Icelandic folk elements that would be mostly unfamiliar to non-Icelandic audiences, and therefore the album stood out in the ways it blends folk influences and love themes, and, ultimately, provides alternative love songs.

Moving across the globe, the Japanese band Lamp brings a different kind of love song with ‘For Lovers’. The band have found success after going viral on a few occasions and now their music has found a deep appreciation by audiences all around the world. In the song, ‘For Lovers’ part of its success comes from its duration: it is short and sweet. The song itself is a little over a minute long, but this seems symbolic, like the length of a passing thought. The lyrics feel secondary to the atmosphere created within the song, and this is reinforced by the production, where the vocals fade, with this wispy, ethereal and almost ‘low-quality’ aspect to them, giving the song a sound that is like a raw recording. But, when you do translate the lyrics, they speak bittersweetly about thinking about someone they love. It is a great example of a song sonically reinforcing its lyrics and themes. This is an element present in the most timeless love songs, where the song can be heard without understanding the lyrics, still evoking a certain feeling. It speaks to the band’s global success and the ways in which non-Japanese audiences still resonate with the song without necessarily understanding the lyrics. And it is well worth a listen if you aren’t familiar.

With French being the ‘language of love’, it is hard to avoid French music when talking about love songs, and it would be wrong to not mention at least one. Whilst trying to broaden your love-song horizons, it doesn’t feel right however not mentioning one of the legends, Françoise Hardy. With Hardy, there are so many to mention but a slightly lesser-known love song of hers is ‘La Mésange’, a song obviously about love, but also about singing like a bird. It is beautiful and entrancing, yet quite simple in its lyrical content. Again, even without understanding its lyrics, its beauty transcends this. Part of this ability comes from Hardy’s voice, which lends itself very well to the love song genre – the emotion she can inject into the music carries the listener through the song, leaving lyrical comprehension as a mere afterthought. And I’m sure the cultural perception of the French as the ultimate romancers also helps a bit in giving this song its romantic quality.  

Although these songs are from such different places in the world and in the spectrum of the love song genre, they all contain one similar element that makes them successful as a love song. This is the element of transcendent emotion; that these feelings of love can be carried through the music, beyond an understanding of the lyrics. Music carries so much emotion in its sound, and often the success of these vocalists is that their performances work even beyond the language barrier - their emotion is in their tone and inflection.

Hopefully, this encourages you all to go out and find new love songs from around the world, this article cannot do justice the different possibilities of the love song and there are so many I didn’t include.

Happy Valentine’s Day from Burst!

By Sam Duff

Album Review - Reading, Writing and Arithmetic by The Sundays

By Sam Duff

When picking an album to review for Burst, it became a struggle between picking a classic, a Bristol favourite/local, or something just out there, so then I found myself listening to a familiar favourite, an album I return to so many times, Reading, Writing and Arithmetic by The Sundays. Although it’s not an out there choice and its neither a giant nor a forgotten album, to me it is a classic. It’s one of my most listened to albums for sure, and although not from Bristol, the band met and formed at Bristol University. It felt like the right choice and a good start, first some background about the band and the album.

The Sundays are an alternative/indie rock band formed in 1988 by Harriet Wheeler and David Gavurin, meeting at Bristol University, the band got signed by Rough Trade, and their first album, Reading, Writing and Arithmetic was released in 1990. Their song ‘Here’s where the story ends’ from the album is probably one of the most known Sunday’s songs, owing to a brief bit of viral fame, a clip from a German chart show of the band performing it with a noticeable unpolish on the video and low quality audio on the vocals leading to it garnering a certain appeal, I too enjoyed its brief spot in the long line of a million things that go viral every week, but clearly what stuck with people beyond the appeal of the video was the songwriting and the band’s great sound.

The album is a nice 38 minutes long and leaves you wanting more in the best way. The band’s sound, which I still think hasn’t sounded better than this album, is this great product of the jangly guitar sounds of 80s indie, that sound associated in many people’s eyes with The Smith’s and Aztec Camera and the cusp of the more shoegaze dream pop that would dominate the 90s. The Sunday’s blend it with this slightly wispy and distant production, and their songs have this sort of folk hint creating this slight timeless feel out of what could be quite dated, combined with Gavurin and Wheeler’s songwriting, and Wheeler’s incredible singing voice, the songs have this very much lamenting tone, but also this underlying feeling of content, curiosity and acceptance of the world, more specifically dreary late 80s Britain, despite one of the classic hallmarks of the British, the complaining, it never comes across as always fully sad. Some of my favourites are the opener, Skin And Bones, obviously Here’s Where the Story Ends, Hideous Towns, You’re Not The Only One I Know and My Finest Hour.

The album just sounds great and feels great, it can fit so many different moods, if you’re a fan of 80s or 90s alt and indie there’s bound to be something you enjoy here, and I think modern indie fans will really resonate with the vocals and the lyrics, it’s worth checking out.

2024 in Review - In Conversation with Burst’s Music Team

As another year draws to a close, Burst Radio’s music team looks back on 2024, revealing their insights on the year’s developments and top picks of the year.

Tell us a bit about yourselves!

Elisha: Hi! I’m pleased to be taking on the role of Head of Music and I’m really excited to work with this great team of music enthusiasts - I think this year has been a refreshing year for music and it’s a real pleasure to be at the helm of this great wave of change.

Sam: Hello, I’m Sam and I’m excited to be part of Burst’s music team this year, I love music and think radio is really cool and still an excellent, though now underrated, medium. I’m excited to be involved in the future of Burst.

Seren: Hey I’m Seren, I’m looking forward to being part of Burst’s music, news and culture team this year. I host a show called Sunset Sessions on Monday evenings which got me into the role, and I’m so excited to be part of the future of Burst! Music has always been such an important part of my life and I’m so enthusiastic to be part of something like this.

What’s been on repeat for you this year?

Elisha: I listened to a hell of a lot of the usual suspects: Indochine, Slint, Car Seat Headrest and Red House Painters. One thing that surprised me this year was how high up Slowdive was in my Spotify wrapped top artists, finally overthrowing PJ Harvey as my top artist after a good few years - I listened to ‘Slomo’ (from their 2017 self-titled album) excessively this year, it pretty much soundtracked the entirety of my spring/summer.

Seren: Since Spotify wrapped recently came out, I’d have to say that my most played of this year was In Rainbows by Radiohead, closely followed by Rumours by Fleetwood Mac. My top songs of the year were ‘You Make Loving Fun’ by Fleetwood Mac and ‘Just Like Heaven’ by The Cure (my wedding song).

Sam: Not many surprises for me, Magnetic Fields really soundtracked this year for me, several of their albums really. A lot of my favourites, Talking Heads, Bowie, Pulp also a lot of The Jam, got really into them early in the year, and they’ve been a steady favourite, They Might Be Giants is another one that always seemed to stick with me throughout the year

It’s been a great year for music, what would you say your favourite release was?

Elisha: I really loved We’re Gonna Make It In a Man’s World by Camera Obscura, I went to the release party at Rough Trade East and had a whale of a time, I really love the way the band have preserved their unique indie-pop sound while continuously evolving. With releases such as Kim Gordon’s The Collective, Fat White Family’s Bullet of Dignity, Geordie Greep’s The New Sound, and of course, Brat summer takeover, it’s just been such a riveting year in music.

Sam: The Bed I Made by The Softies, they’re a folky, dream indie pop duo who returned after a 27-year hiatus with an album this year, and their first live performances in 10 odd years, really lovely album that reflects on the time since the last albums in quite a nice way and their music still holds up.

Seren: It would have to be Ascension by Berlioz. That whole album was unreal. A close second would be Romance by Fontaines D.C though. The best song on that album I’d say was ‘Sundowner’ or ‘Death Kink’.

…Most exciting gig?

Seren: My favourite gig this year probably follows my top releases! Both Berlioz and Fontaines D.C were very different but amazing gigs. The crowd at Berlioz was filled with love and everyone was grooving so hard, and at Fontaines, it was so lively and the energy was bouncing. I saw the Libertines at The Roundhouse which was an experience of course, although I can’t remember too much about it as I was a bit too tipsy. I also love a bit of house, dance and electronic, some of my favourite gigs this year would be Moodymann, Hot Since 82, Kolter, Pete Tong, Carl Cox (3 deck wizard), Anotr and Seth Troxler. It’s a large list but they were all honestly on par with each other. Anotr and Seth Troxler were together at a Circoloco event in Amsterdam and the energy was immaculate, Carl Cox played at a day event at Margum Castle which was such a beautiful place to be dancing with people.

Elisha: I’m really lucky to have seen a lot of really great live music this year, with the highlights being LCD Soundsystem & Pixies at All Points East, Miki Berenyi Trio at The George, Porridge Radio at Marble Factory and PJ Harvey (supported by Big Thief) at Gunnersbury Park - all of which were truly brilliant, but I think the standout gig would be John Maus at New Century, Manchester - I don’t think there are enough words to do this performance justice, what a man.

Sam: Probably seeing The Magnetic Fields in London performing the 1st half of 69 Love Songs, they were a band that I listened to more than most others this year by a large margin, seeing them live was something I thought I’d never do so it felt like a real privilege

Who do you think is ‘one to watch’ going forward?

Sam: Next year I think we should be looking out for Bird Photos, an indie rock duo, they released 2 singles this year, and I think they have a lot of potential to really go far in 2025. Also, Sierpinski, a shoegaze and noise-inspired indie rock band from Portsmouth, released an album this year, with one on the way and recently performed at The Lanes, I think they could go far. It wouldn’t be right if I didn’t mention Pulp signing to Rough Trade, playing some new songs and the rumour of a potential new album next year.

Seren: My ‘one to watch’ for the year ahead would be Alexandra Saviour. I saw her in the Electric Ballroom in Camden and it was such an experience. She makes sort of creepy, psychedelic rock music which really stays with you once you listen to it. She is due to release music any time soon and if it’s anything like her first two albums, this will be one to watch out for.

Elisha: I’m so in love with The Laughing Chimes at the minute, they just released a lovely new single called ‘High Beams’, I was already quite obsessed with ‘A Promise to Keep’, which had a real New Wave vibe to it so I was shocked to discover how new to the scene they were. It’d be criminal not to mention Aweful Kanawful and Fish Wife (the latter recommended the former - check out both, you won’t be disappointed!) who serenaded me through the early months of the year, I hope next year they get the recognition they deserve. Fuelled by cryptic posts on Instagram, I’m also so very excited at the prospect of a new album from Swans! God knows how that’s going to sound.

And finally, what would you say is your favourite album of all time?

Sam: My favourite all-time album is an impossible choice but a few I go back to time and time again are Stop Making Sense by Talking Heads, Station to Station by David Bowie, Reading, Writing and Arithmetic by The Sundays and Gold Against The Soul by Manic Street Preachers

Elisha: I could be here all day, it changes day by day for me. Souvlaki by Slowdive, Down By The Water by PJ Harvey and Methodrone by The Brian Jonestown Massacre are all real contenders. I’d be damned if I didn’t mention The Velvet Underground & Nico too. 

Seren: Picking my favourite album of all time is so hard, but if I had to choose it would be Beach Life - the Salinas Sessions. This is a good album with a mix of feel-good groovers. My Grandma, Aunty and parents used to play this album to me when we would all go and stay in a bungalow in Portugal so I have very fond memories of boogying in the sun to this at a young age. My other favourite album of all time is Dire Straits self-titled. It makes me feel like I should be riding a horse through the desert.

Like what you’re seeing? You can hear more from the team on air - Elisha hosts Gold Soundz every Friday at 7pm, Sam hosts The Show About Nothing every Wednesday at 9am (but stay tuned for updates in the new year!) and Seren hosts Sunset Sessions on Monday evenings.