Dedicated Spotify playlists are the new mixtapes.
Love is a topic that has been central to music since its beginnings and on this day dedicated to the complex emotion, we’d be remiss not to look at some of the best songs spawned from the heart.
Love comes in varying forms and the music it’s inspired ranges from euphoric to miserable, a vast spectrum which we have all experienced at some point in time. So, let’s take a look at those whose work best describes the language of love.
‘Into My Arms’ by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Nothing evokes the sense of yearning and pure adoration quite like Nick Cave’s baritone voice crooning, “I don’t believe in the existence of angels/But looking at you I wonder if that’s true”. Set against a sombre piano melody, ‘Into My Arms’ is stirring and somewhat haunting – as if plucked straight from the depths of Cave’s longing heart. The power of this ballad speaks for itself, but when Cave famously sang it at Michael Hutchence’s funeral, it took on an ethereal force.
‘Golden Brown’ by The Stranglers
‘Golden Brown’ is notorious for its double entendre in which heroin is personified as a female figure, but that doesn’t lessen the sentiment behind its lyrics. A jaunty harpsichord riff flits between 3/4 and 4/4 time signatures, somewhat akin to a flurry of butterflies in a lovesick stomach, as Hugh Cornwell sings “Golden brown, texture like sun/lays me down, with my mind she runs/throughout the night, no need to fight/never a frown, with golden brown”. No matter the muse, ‘Golden Brown’ is as romantic as love songs come.
‘Sensory Memory’ by Jen Cloher
For anyone who’s experienced a long-distance relationship, Jen Cloher’s ‘Sensory Memory’ hits especially hard. An intimate account of dealing with a partner whose work often tugs them from reach, “I start missing you/days before you leave/I guess it’s a kind of sensory memory/deep below the conscious” meanders through the thought process of perpetually missing someone. Lines like “Distance has a funny way/of slowly making you someone/that I don’t know” makes this track more realistic that starry-eyed, but lightly plucked acoustic guitar notes and Cloher’s floating vocals do well to mask the sense of emotional strain.
‘Ain’t No Sunshine’ by Bill Withers
There’s no denying that Bill Withers’ ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’ is an elegy to co-dependency. While it was penned with two mutually-enabling alcoholics in mind, it does epitomise the melodramatic musings we all fall victim to when missing a loved one. “Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone/And this house just ain’t no home/Anytime she goes away” speaks for itself; as does the verse that repeats the words “I know” 26 times. Withers penned this track while working at a factory assembling toilet seats, but you may want to omit that fact if you’re trying to set the mood.
‘Whole Wide World’ by Wreckless Eric
‘Whole Wide World’ depicts the desperate search for ‘the one’ to which most of us succumb to at some point in our lives. Proof that complexity isn’t everything, the song consists of just two chords alongside a catchy chorus “I’d go the whole wide world/go the whole wide world just to find her” which Wreckless Eric wrote on a bass guitar amidst a break-up. Interestingly, the track bought Eric and his now-wife Amy Rigby together when he was invited to play the song with her and the pair hit it off. The track has been covered by everyone from Marylin Manson and Mental As Anything to Will Ferrell on Stranger Than Fiction, because what’s more universal than the language of love?
‘Because The Night’ by Patti Smith
‘Because The Night’ was almost a very different song, until its original composer Bruce Springsteen decided it wasn’t the right fit for the album he was working on and gave a demo of the track to Patti Smith, who happened to be recording in the same studio at the time. As Smith awaited a phone call from her long-distance partner Fred Sonic Smith, who would later become her husband, she listened to the demo and wrote the lyrics “Have I doubt when I’m alone/Love is a ring, the telephone”. ‘Because The Night’ is an all-consuming powerhouse, much like the relationship that inspired Smith’s take on it.
‘Lovin’ You’ by Minnie Riperton
It would be a travesty to talk about love songs without mentioning Minnie Riperton’s infallible hit ‘Lovin’ You’. Between swelling violins and chirping birds, it’s a little corny, yet it remains a timeless classic. “No one else can make me feel/The colours that you bring/Stay with me while we grow old/And we will live each day in springtime” captures the heart-bursting happiness that comes with being in love. It’s hard not to fall in love when Riperton hits those impossibly high notes.
‘Chateau Lobby #4 (in C for Two Virgins)’ by Father John Misty
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Josh Tillman said he and his wife “fell in love over talking about how love was bullshit and relationships were bullshit”, so it’s no surprise that his 2015 album I Love You, Honeybear paints a particularly cynical perspective of love and the expectations we place on others in its name. However, naysayers aren’t immune to the whirlwind of emotions love can bring and ‘Chateau Lobby #4 (in C for Two Virgins)’ is a realistic take on that. The notion behind lines like “I haven’t hated/all the same things as somebody else/since I remember/what’s going on for, uh, what are you doing with your whole life?/how about forever?” is pretty damn romantic.
‘Home’ by She & Him
The She & Him discography is littered with break-up songs, which makes ‘Home’ even sweeter. Love songs needn’t be soppy ballads, and this is the perfect example of how something upbeat and light-hearted can be just as sentimental as a slow burner. Playing on the idea of home as a person, rather than a place, Zooey Deschanel coos “I could be your welcome, I could be your greeter/I could be sweet and I could be sweeter/I want to be where your heart is home” against jangling keys and soft twangs of electric guitar in a way that will make your heart sing.
‘B.M.F.A’ by Martha Wainwright
Whether you’re vehemently against celebrating Valentine’s Day this year or you just couldn’t care less about the over-hyped holiday, an anti-love song is the way to go. While there are thousands of songs inspired by heartache to filter your own emotions and experiences through, none are quite as cathartic as Martha Wainwright’s ‘B.M.F.A’. “Poetry is no place for a heart that’s a whore” croons Wainwright in the opening line of the track, whose title is an acronym for Bloody Motherfucking Asshole. Ouch.
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