What is love if not a meticulously-crafted, personalized mixtape? Whether you have a walkman or not, music unlocks what words otherwise cannot capture. In that spirit, I’ve assembled a non-exhaustive list of my favorite love songs for the holiday here, and I’ve highlighted some of the tracks below. Happy V-Day, WGTB <3
- “I Want You to Love Me,” Fiona Apple
- To the surprise of none of my close personal friends, Fiona Apple leads this playlist with the first track and anthem of her Pitchfork Perfect 10 album, Fetch the Bolt Cutters (2020). Characteristic of her discography, her exacting lyricism crystallizes her want to love and be loved into its purest form. Singing “I want somebody to want / and I want what I want and I want / You to love me,” Apple takes this desire as part of her self-acceptance in a greater cosmic order. Other tracks of hers for the season include “Hot Knife,” “Pale September,” and “Valentine.”
- “when you sleep,” my bloody valentine
- In what some would call the defining track of the shoegaze genre, lead vocalist and guitarist Kevin Shields offers a tender ode within a dream-like haze. The record’s deeply confessional poetry is obfuscated by the band’s signature multilayered production, producing an intimacy between artist and listener, as if you have to muster all your attention in order to make out what Shields sings. For more, listen to “sometimes,” “cupid come,” and “only shallow.”
- “PLASTIC OFF THE SOFA” / “VIRGO’S GROOVE,” Beyoncé
- Here’s two songs for the price of one, but really, it would be a crime to separate this pair (and elide the sublime transition). Both tracks provide a playful look at long-term partnership through a seamless neo-soul / disco-funk blend in the genre-bending album. Following up the infidelity uncovered and unpacked in Lemonade (2016), “POTS” allows us a peek inside the aftermath, a reconciliatory and enduring love for each other despite (and because of) the weight of their shared history. With Beyoncé’s vocals lilting atop a heartbeat-like bassline, VIRGO’S GROOVE affirms the pair’s connection is far from lost. Check out “PURE / HONEY”, “CUFF IT”, and “CHURCH GIRL”, all from the masterclass which is Renaissance (2022), which we moved on from far too quickly.
- “party 4 u,” Charli xcx
- Charli xcx taps into the Great Gatsby of it all. Off her 2020 studio album how i’m feeling now, Charli xcx drops her cool girl persona, exposing the frenetic anxiety of a crush and desperate waiting for something to happen. It’s hard not to feel her crawl-out-of-your-skin nerves which the unrelenting production captures. In the context of early 2020 COVID-19 isolation, “party 4 u” also acts as a time capsule for yearning for connection in disconnected times. For Valentine’s, I also enjoy “Baby,” “Official,” and “Track 10” of Charli xcx’s discography.
- “Posing For Cars,” Japanese Breakfast
- Closing her meteoric third release Jubilee (2021), Michelle Zauner says I love you in so many words. In some of her greatest lyricism to date, she unfurls her devotion through the sprawling epic: “When all your love, it grows full and firm beneath / Without a festered thought, without an emerald want / Just a single slow desire fermenting.” Zauner follows it with a soaring guitar solo to say what she cannot put into words, inspired by Wilco’s “At Least That’s What You Said.” Together, unbridled love. Want more? “Savage Good Boy,” “Till Death,” and “Everybody Wants to Love You” each provide a different slice of Zauner’s writing.
- “True Love Waits,” Radiohead
- In one of the most gutting love songs ever written, Thom Yorke unpacks the depths devotion can reach. On one hand, he offers to drown his beliefs to be able to give his partner all which he can give; on the other, he conjures imagery of the unconditional love of a mistreated child who knows no other love. This position is not unfamiliar to Yorke (see: “All I Need,” “India Rubber”), but here it particularly devastates to hear his earnest plea to his partner not to leave. Long-time listeners have listened to this track evolve for almost twenty years before its 2016 release. The 2001 acoustic performance in Oslo highlights the fear bubbling below the lyrics and cuts to the bone in its stripped down instrumentation. In contrast, the more 2016 release following Yorke’s divorce reflects wistfully on devotions past and love lost. Caroline Polachek also has a lovely cover performed in front of Monet’s Water Lilies at Musée de l’Orangerie. Related tracks from Radiohead include “All I Need,” “Fake Plastic Trees,” and “Motion Picture Soundtrack.”
To hear some of these tunes and more, tune into the final season of “Are You There God? It’s Me, Bailey Margaret” this (and every) Sunday from 10:30AM to noon!
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