Valentine’s is an odd time of year; there’s pressure on those in a relationship to do something extravagant and expensive in order to prove their devotions while all the single people (happily single or otherwise) look on.
No such pressure here at The Progressive Subway! Our Valentine’s department has curated a playlist of progressive Valentine’s tracks from both the underground and mainstream prog. Feel free to do what you will – whether that’s to relax, to set the mood, or to deliberately scare off a bad date – our hope is that all can at least enjoy some of these excellent tracks.
See below what our writers’ thoughts were when they put this playlist together. Check the links at the bottom of the page to see full reviews of some of our featured bands.
Mathis:
As a married man, I have already succeeded in wooing a woman, so I don’t really frequent the softer lovey dovey music. However, nothing can ruin the mood more than me singing “Dear God” to my wife. She says it’s country music, and starts ranting about me being a redneck because I listen to country music and fish. It ain’t country music hun, and I ain’t no redneck neither, anyways I don’t even know where I am going with this. I hope you find love in your endeavors, and everyone on this team loves you! Consider this playlist a serenade of gratitude for each and every one of our readers. Don’t worry, my wife and I love each other very much, except for when I sing…
Sebastian:
Now that we’re on the conversation of what it’s like for metalheads to find dates and get closer to that special someone, I know most of us have been placed in a similar situation. Unless you’ve gotten extremely lucky, your prospective significant other probably doesn’t listen to metal so what do you do when they pass you the aux cord? Most of the time we end up showing them “Windowpane” when we’d really want to be showing them “Hessian Peel”.
Like a lot of things in life, enjoying progressive death metal or becoming intimate with someone takes time; you’ve got to be gentle with how you approach these things. This is why most of my picks are softer, and more sentimental ballads including a lot of underground picks from prog as well as a couple of mainstream picks (VOLA and Pain of Salvation) that have given me some romantic success.
Dylan:
I’m a sucker for a well composed ballad/power ballad. I definitely listen to them a lot more than someone would expect and they’re often one of the highlights in otherwise heavy albums. I feel like my three picks all share themes of romance and passion but in very different ways.
Axios‘s “With you in Mind” is the one that sounds the most positive out of the three here, yet it doesn’t really make it clear that the writer of this song has had a successful conclusion to his love story. This ultimately falls in line with Erased‘s bigger conceptual themes of isolation. Fughu‘s is definitely the quirkiest or “creepiest” one… it is a song about a man who chose to read her love interest’s mind only to realize her interests/dreams don’t line up with (or as he says, “belong to”) him yet can’t help but wish she’d stay anyways. The vocals in this song are really great, as it manages to sell the protagonists’ helplessness at the situation effectively putting yourself in his shoes. Last but not least Lost in Thought‘s “Save Me” takes the cake for the soaring/epic feel of an excellent prog power ballad. It is not a song that can only be strictly interpreted as romantic, as the lyrics are rather vague to whatever it is that saves you. But it is the song to which I relate a lot of my relationship with, thanks to how it portrays something that “Stops you from falling” or is your “window of clarity”. The vocals here are once again, absolutely phenomenal.
Will:
As the one who ends up putting these playlists together – it’s been really interesting seeing my fellow writer’s interpretations of Valentine’s songs and making them gel together in a playlist. The thing I learned about myself in the process of making this playlist is that I don’t listen to a whole lot of music that features romantic love as its main theme. Maybe it’s because the mainstream of music is so saturated with love songs and ballads that, when I’m looking for prog music to play, songs about love are the last thing I’m looking for. Or perhaps it’s because, when it comes to media about love, I really tend to gravitate towards works that are about the loss of love. So let me usher in the sad feels here with Opeth‘s “Face of Melinda”; a song from an album that can still genuinely makes my heart feel heavy. Mastodon‘s “Asleep in the deep” explores an empty home following a separation and Numenorian‘s “Stay” has one lyric: ‘Stay with me one more night’. My only song that gets close to being a love letter is Breaths “Lined in Silver” which speaks to love and new life.
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