V2: An honest verse of longing or a simple song of hope

so, volume 2 of the mix has arrived-- i'm heartened by the fact that many of you have listened to volume 1, and unsurprised to realize that the songs aren't as happy as i thought they were, but give me the benefit of the doubt on this. volume 2 is a bit more conventionally happy... for most of it.

splitting these into three unique chunks was mostly a function of necessity, but i think i stand by it. there's one greatest hits collection to be culled from these 42 vaguely happy songs, but that's not really the point. i'm of the opinion that mixes should be a little more challenging than just corralling your favorite songs or disparate songs with similar titles. for volume 2, i wanted to include all the conventional pop songs with full band arrangements that i thought fit the mold of songs you might include to really seal the deal on any mixtape you made for that person you wanted to seal the deal with-- so it gets pretty obvious. belle and sebastian? check. (dating all the way back to high school, no less! i've been unconvincingly cynical for YEARS.) stars? duh. twice. could have made up half the list. zombies? yup. but...

i came up with the title before i came up with the idea for three mixes worth of love songs, and i knew pretty much right away i wanted bowl of oranges to end this one-- it's sort of the thesis statement for the whole project. to that end, bonnie 'prince' billy unexpectedly makes two appearances, as does some neutral milk hotel, and an unabashedly lovelorn magnetic fields song (is there any other kind? that i have covered?), and one of my favorite old smashing pumpkins songs. i think that honest verses of longing have just as much standing as simple songs of hope when you're dealing with mixes. so, this mix ends side A with "look up," which, duh, totally killer. it starts side B with "love comes to me."* it's not found if it's not lost at some point along the way-- you will not be surprised to know that i enjoy the journey.

so! i hope you like this one, too. it should at the very least give you something to listen to no matter what sort of mood you're in.



*: i changed the sequencing for vols. 2 and 3 after i had linked them in the initial post, and made a few additions, in case you were wondering.** also, for volume 1, side A ends on "i found a reason" and side B starts with "a tender history in rust." in case you were wondering.***

**: you weren't; it's fine.

***: you weren't; it's also fine.