Seven Little Pieces of My Heart

Merlin really likes music, and he has a delightfully economical way to share it with you.

A 14-year-old Merlin lies on his bed, listening to music on Radio Shack headphones. In a moment he'll return to his TV Guide.
Your Curator, ca. 1981.

I love music more than pretty much anything, so it's probably not surprising that I also enjoy making playlists.

One of my favorite kinds of functional playlists is illustrated in a series that I do called "Gentle Introductions."

I explained this concept in more detail on a recent episode of Roderick on the Line, but the idea is to see if I can get somebody interested in a band I love (or sometimes even one specific aspect of a band I love) by curating a playlist of seven and only seven songs.

The number seven is an almost entirely arbitrary constraint (which also doesn't mean the same thing as "several," by the way). But, remember that my sole ambition here is to help you decide for yourself whether this could be a band that you also love. And that gesture oughtn't arrive rejoined with detailed homework, byzantine editorializing, or even good old-fashioned brow-beating.

Just seven really good songs that might help you fall in love too.


“The Part That Breaks My Heart” - A Gentle Introduction to Sloan


“No More Than a Thought” - A Gentle Introduction to Old 97’s


“Stick in Your Spokes” - A Gentle Introduction to Superchunk


“Always Talking to Myself” - A Gentle Introduction to The Police


“A Million Heartstrings” - A Gentle Introduction to Tobin Sprout


“In a Nutshell” - A Gentle Introduction to Michael Penn


“Fit Them Where They Belong” - A Gentle Introduction to Ted Leo and the Pharmacists


“A Little Dazzled” - A Gentle Introduction to XTC


“The Switchback Will Make You Crazy” - A Gentle Introduction to Richard Thompson


“December Boys Got It Bad” - A Gentle Introduction to Big Star


“Lonely is Only a Place” - A Gentle Introduction to Cheap Trick


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A Curator's Note: Huge thanks to @philcrissman who directly inspired the creation of this page. Which page I'd been meaning to make forever anyway. But, this finally got me off my butt. Thanks, pal.