Songs worth listening to this Valentine’s Day
Leo Tolstoy described music as the shorthand of emotion; it has a power greater than any other art to make us feel a sense of unity with artists we’ve never met and to resonate in thoughts we imagined unique to ourselves.
Whether single and planning to spend the day drowning your sorrows with friends, or happy and contented in your relationship, Valentine’s Day is always enjoyed best with a love-themed playlist of songs. Apart from Adele’s critically acclaimed Someone Like You and Whitney’s celebrated I will Always Love You, there are a host of tracks just waiting for you to fall in love, or, perhaps more likely, break your heart to.
I always begin with With Or Without You by U2, largely due to its resonance in my mind as the song of Ross and Rachel’s rollercoaster love story in Friends, but also for its beautiful pathos and the unwavering emotion in Bono’s voice. With much the same provocation comes Only You, by Yazoo for its feature in The Office Christmas special, perfectly concluding the enchanting love story of Dawn and Tim.
If you’re wanting to go deeper and looking for a song about unrequited love it has to be Be Mine, originally by Robyn, but far more poignant when covered by Ellie Goulding and Eric Hassel, providing just the right degree of empathy to the listener. The powerfully gentle Heartbeats by Jose Gonzalez is perfect for encapsulating the intensity of passion and sorrow of regret. When I find myself in need of a good cry, I have an endless list of go-to songs about love. My favourites include I Will Follow You Into The Dark by Death Cab for Cutie, Hurt by Johnny Cash, Kissing You by Des’ree, and (whilst sometimes embarrassing to admit) James Blunt’s Goodbye My Lover.
For me, however, the ultimate love song is not as dramatic as those brought to us by Barry White or Bryan Adams. Instead I prefer the wonderfully understated Hold You In My Arms by Ray LaMontagne, a track that gains its success in lack of spectacle. The simplicity and ambiguity of this song never fails to send shivers down my spine and Ray’s husky vocals and touching lyrics will, I hope, one day feature in my own wedding.