This list is for the soulmate couple, the PDA’ers, the lonely hearts club, and everything else in between. This list is here to get you through lovey dovey season <3.

Ian Eisenbrand - Self Control by Frank Ocean

As the world’s most discriminatory holiday draws closer with dead-black eyes, those who didn’t secure a special someone to celebrate Valentine’s Day are left searching for roses within the withering weeds of their circumstances. In stark contrast to the customary odes of romance that serve as the anthems of February 14, “Self Control” chooses to ruminate in the tears that bloom with each flower undiscovered. The seventh track on Frank Ocean’s 2016 album Blonde, “Self Control” is a song that ruminates in loss. The loss of love, the loss of time, and the failure to catch moments that are only meant to stick around as memories. Over the course of its runtime, “Self Control” contains numerous verses offering timestamps of a relationship already crumbling beyond the capacities of erosion control. Frank Ocean uses each verse to lament and reminisce, calling to his distant lover through beautiful melodies over dry acoustic guitars and faint synth strings. In a time where heartbreak can reach pandemic levels, the bittersweet medicine “Self Control provides” may offer the antibodies necessary to make it through the night.

Anwuli Onwaeze - Baby, This Love I Have by Minnie Riperton

Let’s throw it back to the 70’s this Valentine’s Day with “Baby, This Love I Have”, Minnie Riperton’s soulful ballad bursting at the seams with sweet, sweet love. Starting with a bashful funky rhythm and tender vocals, Riperton begins to explain how she can’t properly show her partner her love. She stops after a few lines just to say “Baby, I'm tryin' to show you that I love you. Baby, I'm tryin' to show you that I care”. Every time this chorus comes around, Minnie strays further away from her shy profession of love. By the end of the song Minnie is hitting her signature whistle tones as a bouquet of supporting vocals and orchestration bloom around it. This song is for the cheesy lovers. The soulful lovers. The lovers whose tongues can’t translate their feelings of love into words. It’s even for the single people out there who just want to hear what an intoxicating love sounds like. Riperton may not know how to write down her feelings, but she sure as hell knows how to sing them.

Gloria Gress - Silly Love Songs by Paul McCarthy

“Silly Love Songs” might just be the ultimate love song. Written by Paul McCartney and released on Wings at the Speed of Sound in 1976, the song was initially a retaliation towards John Lennon, who criticized McCartney of writing too many “silly love songs.” McCartney’s response to his feedback is a brilliant pop track in which he embraces the concept of a mushy love song, and essentially tells Lennon and other music critics to lay off and let himself and his fans enjoy a good love song. A peak point of the track’s instrumentation is its complex bass line, which McCartney lets flourish throughout the song as a main component of its entire composition. It’s both touching and heartbreaking discovering that Linda McCartney, Paul McCartney’s first wife who tragically passed away from cancer in 1998, provided the backing vocals on such a sentimentally sweet song with her husband. “Silly Love Songs” has the ability to automatically make my day feel happier after listening. You may find its lyrics overwhelmingly mushy, but as McCartney sings, “What’s wrong with that?”

Corey Chun - Knocks Me Off My Feet by Stevie Wonder

Stevie Wonder’s “Knocks Me Off My Feet” is a perfectly dramatic love song that has been my anthem for consecutive Valentine’s Days. When I first heard this song, my 8-year-old self only associated love with Beauty and the Beast and loving my dog. In that mindset, Stevie Wonder’s lyrics reflected a rejection of the tough parts of love and only shedding light on the best parts, which was a great perspective to grow up having. On top of the personal meaning this song holds, the actual musical elements of the song are transparently noteworthy. The warm melodic piano chords throughout the verse, the instrumental breakdown, and bass-note step down at the end of each verse with the lyrics “I reach out for the part of me that lives in you/That only our two hearts can find,” sets up the anticipation for one of the most satisfying, encompassing choruses that are definitely up there as one of my favorites of all time. When he sings the line “I don’t wanna bore you with it//Oh but I love you, I love you, I love you”, it feels like his soul is spilling into sound and conjures images of hypothetical grand confessions of love that is all-captivating to sing along to. Even if this song seems to have no application to your love life on this Valentine’s Day, it will inevitably weave into your Valentine experience, past present or future.

Jack Cusick - Friday I’m In Love by The Cure

When it comes to love songs, the ones that tend to be the most impactful and heartfelt come from artists who are the antithesis of the type of upbeat, romantic type of music you imagine when you hear “love song”. This is probably why The Cure, one of the leading forces in the creation of "goth rock," managed to create pure bliss with their hit “Friday I’m in Love” off of their ninth album, Wish. A departure from almost every other song in their discography, The Cure’s typical darker, pessimistic musical tone is countered in the song’s pop sound and structure. While utilizing a more popular genre, the song is anything but traditional, noted by the unique tuning and tone, originally caused by an error during the song’s production. However, this error is arguably what makes the song so great, bringing feelings that invoke the cheerful, wistful, and nostalgic feelings of love. Robert Smith’s vocals on the track add to the song’s passionate sound, bringing energy and life to his uncharacteristically peppy lyrics. “Friday, I’m in love” is the perfect song for those who want to feel the excitement and passion that Valentine’s day traditionally alludes too.

Roxana Berentes - You and Me by Penny and the Quarters

“You and Me” by Penny & the Quarters is the perfect simple, yet sweet melody to sing with your lover or friends this Valentine’s day. The song has a soft backtrack paired with the hums and singing of the “Quarters”, aka the background singers, all topped with Nattie “Penny” Coulter’s lead vocals. The lyrics are pure and direct while still holding a loving tone through the back and forth of the vocalists in the band. All the elements come together to create a tune that’s ideal to sing to the ones you adore. The lyrics that make up “You & Me” don’t have the deepest, most complex symbolism that many other love songs do, but the classic, old twain and soft nature make it an absolutely perfect Valentine’s day song in my eyes. Lyrics like “If you love a soul more than fame and gold; And that soul feels the same about you; It's a natural fact there's no turning back” remind us of the sentiment of love and its genuineness. Overall, “You and Me” by Penny & the Quarters is as authentic and uplifting as love experienced this Valentine’s day should be.

Jake Goldberg - Just the Way by Parmalee

Parmalee’s 2021 single “Just The Way” with Blanco Brown gives the messages and feelings of classic country songs while also producing a more modern feel. The main lesson this song teaches is one that every person out there needs to hear. The opening line of the chorus stating “I love you just the way God made you, girl he don’t make mistakes” really just sums it all up. This song overall talks about how the things you look at as “flaws” in yourself are what make you unique and are the best parts of you. The song takes that idea of lack of self confidence and displays it from another perspective. The most powerful set of lines in the song are in the bridge where it states “Girl I ain't ever gon' try to change ya, my masterpiece, my Mona Lisa, and I need ya.” This song is a message to everyone just to be yourself.

Buddy Murphy - You’re Nobody ‘Til Somebody Loves You by Dean Martin

For this assignment I was contemplating covering a Brent Faiyaz song to highlight toxic relationships or a Barry White song to ramble on about sappy and lustful love, but instead I decided to highlight “You’re Nobody ‘Til Somebody Loves You” by Dean Martin. Dino lets you know your worth with the title of the song, but that can’t apply to everyone, right? Wrong. This applies to all of those under the sun, including kings, with the lines “You may be king, you may possess the world and it's gold, but gold won't bring you happiness when you're growing old.” Lyrics aside, when I think of romance and love, I think of swinging, jazzy, big bands. The full instrumentation of the tune encourages the listeners to embrace one another and waltz across the living room floor like an elegant ballroom while the crackle of the fireplace turns into the crowd cheering the two lovers on. Between the Dino’s choruses, the horns have a loving conversation with one another. The Saxophones compliment the clarinets finely detailed black and white suits while the strings gently converse with the swinging ride cymbal, only to be interrupted by the shrill laughter of the muted trumpets and an opposing hardy laugh from the trombones and tuba. The instrumental conversation complimenting Dino’s classic crooner vocals lend this tune to be a lover’s classic.