Acoustic Love

They tell us we're supposed to say it with flowers, chocolates, or diamonds . . . but they're wrong. Just pick up these Acoustic Love Essentials and you may as well be wearing an access-all-areas pass to the heart of your loved one. This list represents pure romance without the cliché or the fluff, thanks to the combined Cupidic love-force of Eva Cassidy ("I Know You By Heart"), John Lennon ("Oh My Love"), Katie Melua ("If You Were a Sailboat"), and other first-rate heartstring troubadours.

Blunt, Bangles, Beatles . . . they're all in Next Steps.

A Beatle show he knows a thing or two about the ways of love here – Paul McCartney allows his composition "Distractions" to unfurl like a flower in the sun. Young gun James Blunt lives up to his name with the plain-speaking exhortation "I Really Want You", while Laura Marling warns of love's close ties with pain on "New Romantic".

Mick Hucknall takes a less-is-more tack, in Deep Cuts.

Sometimes, it's hard to decide which accompaniment best complements love's main course: the piano or the guitar. Try pitting the keyboard-backed version of Simply Red's "For Your Babies" or the echoing ivories of Jon Foreman's "My Love Goes Free" against Allan Taylor's exquisitely picked "Urban Love Song" or Cat Stevens' lovingly strummed "Lady D'Arbanville" . . . but if you're still torn, settle on Stephen Bishop's "Never Letting Go", which has both.

Sure, there's a place in this world for amplified love — but until Motörhead starts doing ballads we'll stick with these amorous acoustic Essentials. That's not to say there are no rock bands here — Led Zeppelin shows a tender side with "That's the Way", Coldplay dims the lights for "What If", and the Eagles invite us to gather round their campfire and share the warmth of "You Are Not Alone". Adele and Duffy confirm the irresistible emotional power of a timeless soulful vocal, Bruce Springsteen and Chris Rea prove that gruffness can be good for the heart, and Rosie Thomas does things to R.E.M. that need to be heard to be believed.