What the Fran

Favourite love songs

Some of these are arguably not love songs. We can argue that if you like. In no particular order, a non-exhaustive list. It's a bit of a mix and my taste in music is extremely variable. I like what I like and I often like a soppy love song.

♫ The Whole of the Moon, The Waterboys. A song about thinking that person is just the greatest thing.

I spoke about wings
You just flew

♫ Chain Reaction, Diana Ross. Is actually amazingly filthy. But I'm a sucker right from the first lines:

You took a mystery and made me want it
You got a pedestal and put me on it
You made me love you out of feeling nothing

♫ The Actor, Moody Blues. It's an odd song. I've no idea what it's really about but I find it extraordinarily romantic.

The sound I have heard in your hello
Oh, darling, you're almost part of me
Oh, darling, you're all I'll ever see

♫ Song for Zula, Phosphorescent

Some say love is a burning thing, that it makes a fiery ring
Oh, but I know love as a caging thing
Just a killer, come to call from some awful dream
And all you folks, you come to see
You just stand there in the glass looking at me
But my heart is wild and my bones are steel
And I could kill you with my bare hands if I was free

♫ I Found, Amber Run

I found love where it wasn't supposed to be
Right in front of me

♫ We Don't Deserve Love, Arcade Fire. I love this as a declaration of love:

If you can't see the forest for the trees
Just burn it all down
And bring the ashes to me

♫ I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me), Whitney Houston

♫ Feeling In My Heart (For You), Joan Armatrading

♫ I Want to Know What Love Is, Foreigner. Pivotal role in the pivotal film of my teenage years, Fucking Åmål, so I am fond.

Can't stop now, I've travelled so far
To change this lonely life

♫ Tonight, Lykke Li

♫ I Try, Macy Gray. So many love songs are actually songs about breaking up I guess.

♫ Summer of 42, Kishi Bashi. The way the chorus changes from "I am in love with you" to "I was in love with you" and then back again gets me so hard.

♫ Hey Now, Matt and Kim. Such a good enemies-on-their-way-to-lovers who are each other's ride or die type song.

♫ Start Again, Bishop Allen. Previously I have felt like this works for my OTPs but by goodness it really works for the OTP. Is it even a love song? It is to me.

If you want to burn it down
If you want to start again
If you want to turn around, then go ahead

♫ Breathe Me, Sia. When I was young this was the song everyone used for their OTPs, for their music videos, such as we could muster pre-YouTube. Before Take Me To Church, before Fix You.

♫ La Vie en Rose, Lucy Dacus. Obviously the original is wonderful but this Lucy Dacus cover is my entire heart.

♫ No One Dies From Love, Tove Lo. Peak yearning lesbian soundtrack.

No one dies from love
Guess I'll be the first

♫ Treehouse, I'm From Barcelona

♫ Nothing's Gonna Hurt You Baby, Cara Salimando

Back in 2015 I made an 8tracks (RIP 8tracks, I still think about you all the time) for a ship all about yearning and travelling the world without your lover. It was called Miles From Where You Are, featuring:

  1. Set the Fire to the Third Bar, Snow Patrol feat. Martha Wainwright
  2. Always for You, The Album Leaf
  3. Deep Wide Ocean, The Jezabels
  4. Port of Call, Beirut
  5. Driftwood, Travis
  6. Plains, Wye Oak
  7. I'm Gonna Wait, The Temper Trap
  8. Miracles (Back In Time), The Dø

I later turned it into a playlist that is now eight hours long so I'm not listing all those. It's more about feelings, so not just love songs.

More music posts.

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