How Come I Love Them Now, How Come I Love Them More?

Let’s go back for some more 1980s-vintage UK pop, specifically Scotland’s Bluebells. They’re probably best-known for the single “Young at Heart,” but they put out a whole bunch of other great sides as well as one solid album, Sisters. (In the early 1990s the main songwriters got back together for a followup, Second, which I’ve never been able to get into.) At their best they threw out effortless McCartney-style tunes – many of them uneasy love songs – that somehow balanced exuberance and melancholy. Perfect for this hot yet rainy summer week.

• The Bluebells, “All I Ever Said”
• The Bluebells, “Some Sweet Day”

(Buy The Singles Collection here.)