I Made Us a Playlist...Whoever You Are
Love is a tricky thing. Even more than tricky, love often feels like a rarity. But the truth is, if you look, or should I say listen, hard enough, the sensation of love is right by your side.
This idea that love feels out of reach is not one that I hold alone. One scroll through the comments of a TikTok post featuring a happy couple will reveal us lonely Gen Zer’s harrowing cry: single lives matter. Born in a generation full of hopeless romantics in a hookup culture, I have gotten creative with keeping my idealistic view of romance alive: through music.
In our musically diverse world, it seems that love songs are increasingly losing their place among the noise. As someone with more cancer placements in my birth chart than I’d like to admit, I have a soft spot for anything that even comes close to the feeling of being in love. What can I say? I love love. And while I can imagine what it feels like to be in love through my favorite songs, I have yet to experience such profound feelings in my reality. To emulate this feeling of what I believe love feels like, I have made a playlist with songs that evoke the precise emotion that we all watch, listen, read, and think about so much: love.
Genuwine’s “Differences” is my favorite love song of all time. The slow, sensual nature of the track, paired with the sentimental lyrics that describe the type of love that changes your whole life makes me feel like I’m experiencing the quintessence of romance. Genuwine describes a love in which his “whole life has changed since you came in.”
While, once again, I have never had the privilege of being in love, I cannot help but believe that when I finally am, it will change my life...not in the sense that I would change who I am, but what I value most in this world. As a confident woman with clear goals, I have asserted on multiple occasions that marriage and kids are two things that I want, but only after I am satisfied with my career as a journalist. That being said, I realize that, for the right person, what I think I want in terms of success is susceptible to change. “Differences” reminds me that the right person can alter your life for the better, even if you look around and everything is, well, different.
A true love song, “Jealous” delineates the closeness that Labrinth seeks with a specific person who is now long gone. He coos, “I’m jealous of the rain/ that falls upon your skin/ it’s closer than my hands have been/ I’m jealous of the wind.” He goes on to sing, “I wish you/ the best of /all this world could give...But I always thought you’d come back/ tell me/ all you found was/ heartbreak and misery.” He soulfully sings about his yearning to be with a specific person, while selfishly hoping that they never find closeness with anyone else. He encapsulates both the beauty and selfish nature of love. In both healthy and unhealthy ways, love can make the individual possessive, enough to wish them “heartbreak and misery” with someone other than you.
Tamia’s “So Into You” is a head bobbing, foot tapping R&B classic. Her lyrics write, “I think you're truly something special/ just what my dreams are really made of.” The chorus goes on, “There's no one like you around Oh baby. I really like what you've done to me/ I can't really explain it/ I'm so into you.” Tamia describes the inexplicable feeling of love, particularly of new love. She sings about the fact that this love may be too good to be true, as it seems like it is only in her dreams. Tamia goes on to sing, “I really like what i feel when I’m with you/ you’re a dream come true.” Sometimes the feeling of love comes down to the fact that you have an inexplicable desire to be in the mere presence of someone, even if you do not know why. And while this idea can be hard to verbalize, Tamia does so perfectly.
“My Boo” - Alicia Keys and Usher
Alicia Keys and Usher sing about their first love in “My Boo,” claiming that they will always be each other’s “boo.” They sing, “It started when we were younger you were mine” and even though they seemingly grew apart, their connection will never die. They point to the idea that love is not something that you simply get over. If it is the real deal, then it will last a lifetime. When I hear this song, I think of all the times I asked my parents to replay the track from my car seat, yelling “My Boooooo” as if I had the slightest clue what emotions Usher and Keys were trying to convey.
“Thinkin Bout You” - Frank Ocean
“Thinkin Bout You” is one of those songs that stay with you forever. Frank Ocean sings about the fact that he has been “thinking ‘bout” his love interest, as well as how he sees himself being with them “forever.” He asks, “Do you not think so far ahead/ Because I’ve been thinking ‘bout forever.” Frank sings about the kind of love that starts physically, eventually turning into something that he wants for the rest of his life. He depicts how love often comes unexpectedly, and, like Genuwine, asserts to the listener that the right person will enable you to alter your future plans.
If the original track was not emotional enough, Sam Smith’s acoustic version of “Latch” is melodic food for not only the ears but the soul. The ultimate first dance song, Smith sings about their attachment to a special someone, wondering, “What did you give me to make my heart beat out my chest?” Here, they discuss the mystery of love, and how it seems to sneak up on the individual in such a way that they do not know how they came to feel such profound feelings. Smith goes on to sing, “I feel we’re close enough/ could I lock in your love/ Now I got you in my space/ I won’t let go of you/ got you shackled in my embrace/ I’m latching onto you.” They sing about the kind of connection that you do not want to let go of. Rather, you feel inclined to “latch” on to it. They assert that when you find someone that you love, you hold on to it, even when the road gets bumpy.
“If Love is Overrated” - Gregory Porter
Gregory Porter’s “If Love is Overrated” may have been released in the past year, but it feels like a romantic relic from the past. A successful jazz vocalist, Porter grabs the listener by their heart strings, taking them on a vintage listening experience like no other. He sings, “If love is overrated/ let me be the one that is naive.” He asserts that if love is wrong, then he doesn’t want to be right. He sings about his willingness to be called a fool if it means that he can experience true love. This track is soulful, touching, and the epitome of a true love song. When listening to this track, you feel the sudden urge to sway with someone that you love, real or imaginary.
Another one of my favorite songs of all time, “When I See You” does not necessarily describe what it means to be in love, but rather the feeling of a budding flame between two people. Fantasia sings about the overwhelming emotion that she feels when she “sees you,” singing about her involuntary actions and emotions at the mere thought of the person on her mind. She sings, “I lay my head on my pillow/ Staring out the window/ Wish on a star for a sign/ You're the reason why.” She sings about that feeling when all you want is one person, and the seemingly all-encapsulation emotions that come with it. She ponders whether this person even knows that she exists at one point in the song, but continues in the chorus, “You’re always in my mind/ when you come around I get shy...never know when you might walk by/ so I gotta be right on time.” Perhaps I resonate so intensely with this song because Fantasia sings about something that I have experienced: a heart stopping crush.
“If I Ain’t Got You” - Alicia Keys
This song needs no introduction. Possibly one of the most iconic love songs of all time, “If I Ain’t Got You” describes a feeling so passionate that Alicia Keys wants nothing if she cannot have the person that she is in love with. She sings, “Some people want it all/ but I don’t want nothing at all, if it ain’t you baby/ If I ain’t got you baby.” Her soulful lyrics remind me of how we picture success as a society. We idealize material things as the epitome of achievement. Yet, we make love, an intangible entity, something worth giving up all of that success for. Almost universally, we are willing to give it all up for love, voluntarily or not.
“Until the End of Time” - Justin Timberlake and Beyoncé
I invite you to put your earbuds in, close your eyes, and listen to this last track. Slow, sensual, and moving, “Until the End of Time” is a song that you cannot help but think about that special someone while listening to. Feeling especially relevant today, Justin Timberlake sings, “There’s so much darkness in the world/ but I see beauty left in you girl...If your love was all I had in this life/ well that would be enough until the end of time.” He harks that despite the tragedy in our world today, the person that he is in love with makes him want to endure it all.
Even with the dismal state of the world, he sees the light in his partner. And for him, that is all the light that he could ask for. He seems to lack the words to describe such powerful emotions, singing along with Beyoncé, “You’ve got me singing Oh whoa, yeah Oh whoa, yeah.” They describe the kind of love that just makes you want to sing, and is there really any better indicator of pure joy than that?
So, as you can see, I made us a playlist...whoever you are. And I’m waiting on the day that all of these love songs are suddenly about you. Until then, I hope that I have curated a selection of songs to satisfy us hopeless romantics in the meantime.