Mojo - The Music Magazine

1. Tom Waits
Blue Valentine
(Asylum, 1978)

Littered with gutterlife it may be, but Tom's 1978 Asylum LP has the same grimy carnal appeal as the man himself. On the sleeve he looks as tortured and beautiful as he sounds on the title track, bemoaning his "blind and broken heart". JB

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2. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
The Boatman's Call
(Mute, 1997)

Romance in a saturnine mode, as lovestruck Cave gets behind the piano and unveils his wounds. Into Your Arms is as beautiful as any love song ever written, West Country Girl his gorgeous sonnet to Polly Harvey: "She's got a house-big heart where we all live / And plead and council and forgive". DE

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3. Frank Sinatra
Songs For Swingin' Lovers
(Capitol, 1956)

The spring of love, blithely rendered. You Make Me Feel So Young is aural Viagra; Frank's euphoric take on Cole Porter's immortal I've Got You Under My Skin a whirling evocation of infatuation's bouleversement of reason; Makin' Whoopee a snarky warning for the morning after, when the champagne and oysters have worn off. DE

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4. Bettye Swann
Bettye Swann
(Astralwerks/Honest Jons, 2004)

This LP warrants inclusion on this list just on the basis of Little Things Mean A Lot; a devastating gospel-soul ballad delivered with a hushed intensity that came naturally to the Louisiana native. When the horns and backing vocals kick in at the start of the second verse, you're forced to sit back and melt. RB

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5. Cat Stevens
Harold & Maude
(Vinyl Films, 2007)

A black comedy in which a 20 year-old death-obsessive falls head over heels for a 79 year-old woman doesn't initially scream love and romance, but Cat Stevens and his warm, lush acoustic ballads - particularly If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out and Don't Be Shy - most certainly do. Here lies the beating heart of a counter-cultural classic. Has there ever been a better amalgam of movie and music? RB

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6. Ben Webster
Music For Loving
(Verve, 1954)

Given that Ben Webster's raw ballad sound was already swooningly romantic - a warm, breathy zephyr shot through with hazy summer light - some might argue that hooking him up with arrangers such as Billy Strayhorn, Ralph Burns and Gerald Wilson would be gilding the lilly. Instead, it just makes the perfect better, like cold, sweet strawberries on a warm summer's day. AM

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7. Jennifer Warnes
Famous Blue Raincoat
(Private Music, 1987)

The production might now sound a little Claptonesque, but Warnes' delivery remains utterly seductive, her sweet, mellow sadness occupying Cohen's songs completely, as if she were repurposing them as universal love songs to the world in general and, specifically, the man himself. AM

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8. Neil Young
Harvest Moon
(Private Music, 1987)

Lovely 1992 acoustic album that reassured fans of Neil's folky side after the years spent with one foot on the monitor recording Ragged Glory. Harvest Moon is a sugary confection piled high with Linda Ronstadt's velvety backing vocals and Jack Nitzsche's Hollywood heartthrob arrangements. Songs like Such A Woman and From Hank To Hendrix are some of his sweetest. JB

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9. Marvin Gaye
I Want You
(Tamla, 1976)

Slightly less priapic than the all-rutting Let's Get It On, but still startlingly pre-feminist. "I want you, the right way," Marvin assures his beloved, raising the question, what would be the "wrong" way? The arrangements - especially on the hazy, gossamer plea of Come Live Me Angel - provide the, er, lubrication. DE

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10. Roy Orbison
Crying
(Monument, 1962)

Because love's not all flowers and chocolates - that's the first five minutes if you're lucky. The title track, Love Hurts and Wedding Day ("I watched my whole world fade away") are harrowing enough, especially via The Big O's lachrymose tremor, but then there's Running Scared - a slow-starting monologue of emotional pain and fear that builds to an astonishing release of heart-bursting joy. Just cross your fingers that the "other half" understands. IH