Love is Pop

04/23/2025

What is your favorite Van Halen song? This song, "(Don't Tell Me) What Love Can Do" is my favorite. But I'm probably the only person on the planet who'd cite this as their favorite Van Halen song. It's from their album Balance, which came out in 1995 if memory serves me correctly. Suffice to say, it came out during the grunge era. And out of all of the songs on Balance, this one is easily the most grunge influenced. I wouldn't call it a grunge song, but the guitars are kind of in that vein. And it's also probably the angriest and darkest song that Van Halen ever released. (Although, there's a creepy song called "From Afar" on the album they did with Gary Cherone, Van Halen III, which is from the point of view of a stalker and seems to glamorize that so I suppose that one might be darker but this one is still pretty darn dark for Van Halen, too.)

There's just something about the pi**ed off and angry vibe of "(Don't Tell Me) What Love Can Do" that always seems to resonate with me. It's one of my go-to songs when I'm in a bad mood and want to listen to something that agrees with that mood.

The irony is that Balance is also the album that had the song "Can't Stop Lovin' You," which is a very upbeat and positive song. I always thought it was funny how the same album had "(Don't Tell Me) What Love Can Do" and "Can't Stop Lovin' You." If you read the lyrics to both songs, you wouldn't guess that they were written by the same people because they seem like polar opposites. But those were the first two singles from Balance. (I can't remember if there was a third single from that one.).

Ripped from Greatest Video Hits Volume 1 DVD to HD upscaling in Topaz Video AI. Great care was taken to ensure the correct aspect ratio and original frame ra...

04/10/2025

Check out my lengthy review of Kylie Minogue's concert at TD Garden in Boston last night. It was a nonstop dance party and I had a blast.

[NOTE: I apologize for this review not having any photos from the show. My cellphone doesn’t have a very good camera so I didn’t take photos last night. Besides, I wanted to fully immerse myself in the show and if you spend half the time taking photos, you’re not enjoying it so much as trying ...

03/27/2025

New review: Selena Gomez & benny blanco - I Said I Love You First (album).

https://loveispop.com/reviews/albumoftheday-selena-gomez-benny-blanco-i-said-i-love-you-first/

03/19/2025

Our review of the Robbie Williams biopic Better Man is out now and there's one big problem with it that kept us from entirely loving it. Find out what it is. https://loveispop.com/reviews/nowwatching-review-better-man/

03/08/2025

Check out Valerie Renay's intoxicating new masterpiece...

As even a young child could tell you, songs have the ability to make people feel things. For example, maybe you cry every time you hear “Open Arms” by Journey or “Against All Odds” by Phil Collins. (Truth be told, these songs usually do make me cry.). On the other hand, there are songs like ...

01/31/2025

My interview with Adam O'Donnell, owner of the record store A Damn Shame Records, is now up:

https://loveispop.com/interviews/its-a-damn-shame-an-interview-with-record-store-owner-adam-odonnell/

If you plan to visit A Damn Shame, this is the final weekend that Mill No. 5 is open before closing permanently so please do so very, very soon. Read the interview to find out where Adam will be selling records after the mill closes.

I recently met with Adam O’Donnell, the owner of A Damn Shame Records, located at Mill No. 5 in Lowell, Massachusetts, to do an in person interview. The interview went well, Adam proving to be a terrific and insightful person to interview. There was just one problem. My trusty digital recorder, wh...

01/26/2025

My new interview with Rob Fitz is now live on Love is Pop. Rob Fitz has been running a weekly movie event called Weirdo Wednesday at the Luna Theater in Lowell, MA for the last decade, showing lots of strange and interesting films you wouldn't see anywhere else. In addition to hosting Weirdo Wednesday, Rob is a very accomplished professional make up artist who has worked on dozens of films, many of them very big and famous movies. Additionally, he owns The Magic Parlor in Salem, MA, where he sells magic in all of its many forms.

Weirdo Wednesday will now be happening at Cinema Salem in Salem, MA. It started there a couple of week ago so Rob has been running back and forth between Lowell and Salem a lot this month. But after Weirdo's final night in Lowell on the 29th of this month, it will be held exclusively at Cinema Salem so check it out if you're in the area. It's always a great time.

Since one Wednesday in June of 2015, Rob Fitz has been hosting a weekly event called Weirdo Wednesday at The Luna Theater located in Mill No. 5 in Lowell, Massachusetts. Sadly, it was recently announced that the mill is closing at the end of the month. The final edition of Weirdo Wednesday in Lowell...

12/06/2024

If you like violent movies, you have to see the Korean movie Project Wolf Hunting. Rated NC 17 just for violence. Basically, a bunch of criminals are being extradited from Korea and they’re sending them back via a cargo ship because another method was tried previously and there was a problem. So y...

11/13/2024

I wrote about the Marvelous 3 show from Boston this past Sunday night in a Butch Walker group here on Facebook and decided to post it as a review on Love is Pop.

I went to the Marvelous 3 show in Boston. It was quite marvelous indeed. To tell you the truth, I had slightly mixed feelings going into the show because I do much prefer Butch’s solo stuff over M3 but as soon as they hit the stage and started playing “Little Head” I just completely surrendere...

10/24/2024

= Valerie Renay: "PEEL THE SKIN" review here:

Longtime readers of Love is Pop will know Valerie Renay as one half of the mesmerizing Berlin duo Noblesse Oblige. Valerie has now released a new solo single entitled “Peel The Skin.” It’s something of a genre bender but if we had to assign it one, it would have to be trip-hop, the intoxicatin...

09/04/2024

Check out the video for Auni's breath-taking new song "The Road," which we've designated as our song of the day today.

The gifted singer/songwriter known as Auni has just released a new single entitled “The Road.” If you like pretty and light songs with a bit of a new age vibe then this one is for you. Auni’s ethereal vocals dance and play above some of the sweetest sounding keyboards you’ve ever heard on th...

05/07/2024

My brand new interview with Dave Perry, owner of the late record store Vinyl Destination, is now live. Check it out! And please leave a comment on it if you do. Cheers!

The following interview with Dave Perry, the owner of the late Lowell, Massachusetts record store Vinyl Destination, took place on Wednesday, May 1st, 2024. We did the interview inside of what was once Dave’s shop and where a large number of records remain. (A new owner will be opening A Damn Sham...