Love Lockdown: The No Trivia Edition

Brandon's V-Day Mix (LimeLinx)

Brandon's V-Day Mix (YSI)

Here’s the thing. When I make any kind of mix for a girl—which is ostensibly what a Valentine’s Day mix is—it’s light on soul songs. It’s light on soul songs because when every dope in the world’s trying to seem sensitive or whatever, they slap Barry White or Al Green on a CD and like, I don’t want to treat the genre like that.

So yeah, there’s a girl out there with a tape from me that had Prince’s “Another Lonely Christmas” on it, and I’ll use a soul song here and there, but to simpletons, the plurality of soul music’s lost. It just means “makin’ out music” and I like to come off a little better than that. But this is Souled On and this is Scholar we’re talking about, so I wanted to keep the mix at least, tangentially connected to the Soul genre, while still fumbling around with all the crazy emotions of loving or even just really liking somebody:

-“I’m Alone In the Wilderness” by Culture off Two Sevens Clash

This song is not being in love and maybe like, being so out of love you haven’t even talked to anyone in a while and you’re going a little crazy. This heartbreaking track from Culture’s end-of-days masterpiece sums up that feeling well.

-“Shoot Em’ Up Movies” by Deele off Eyes of a Stranger

Meeting the girl of your dreams amidst violence—even if it’s just on the screen—seems appropriately bittersweet and the right kind of weird to base a relationship on. This song’s also a like secret test to a girl because if she laughs at this shit, her ironic ass has got to go!

-“Frontin’ (9th Wonder Remix)” by 9th Wonder

There’s always that early moment with “that special someone” where you’re stuck in your asshole patterns still and you front or lie about something and if you want this good thing to last, you get-real and admit it and hope she understands. 9TH replacing The Neptunes’ synthetic funk stabs with the warmth of Stevie’s “My Cherie Amour” highlights the pathos hiding inside Pharrell’s and Jay’s swagger.

-“Betcha By Golly Wow” by Grant Green off Live at the Lighthouse

This song is falling in love and that’s something that can’t be articulated or verbalized, so a soaring, happy-sad instrumental is perfect. Monique taught me how to ride a bike two summers ago (you’re allowed to laugh) and for whatever reason, biking at three A.M, I found myself humming the melody of “Betcha”, specifically hearing Grant’s version.

-“You” by Bobby Womack off B.W. Goes C&W

Just a flat-out, super-obvious love song from Bobby Womack’s slept-on “country” album. What’s so great about this track is that it still touches on the insecurities and “maybe you’ll leave” worries we always have and it’s important to not forget that stuff. I always look at this song as an unofficial sequel to Bobby’s “Facts of Life/He’ll Be There When the Sun Goes Down”…the “game-spitting” phase—which is how every relationship starts--turned to pleasant nights next to the fireplace.

-“That’s Us/Wild Combination” by Arthur Russell off Calling Out of Context

Just listen.

-“Send It On” by D’Angelo off Voodoo

“If you’re feeling insecure/You can be sure…”

More wisdom from Brandon can be readily obtained via the highly sophisticated No Trivia

Word From Your Moms:

"Your equivalent of my orchids may always seem merely weird, merely idiosyncratic, to practically everybody else. But that is no reason to be ashamed of, or downgrade, or try to slough off, your Wordsworthian moments, your lover, your family, your pet, your favorite lines of verse, or your quaint religious faith. There is nothing sacred about universality which makes the shared automatically better than the unshared. There is no automatic privilege of what you can get everybody to agree to (the universal) over what you cannot (idiosyncratic)."-Richard Rorty