Four songs each on the theme of love - that was the brief we set the Platform team in the hope of creating a playlist for all you loved up readers out there to enjoy on Valentine’s day. Typically, they came back with very different responses; some sensual (Adele), some sweet (Mark), some sexually aggressive (Lewis), but all great in their own way.
What follows are twenty love songs, of sorts, with stories and explanations from our team on why they chose them. Valentine’s day is many things to many people and this playlist reflects that, there’s really something for everyone.
Download the Platform Valentine’s Love-In Playlist.
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Stephen Pietrzykowski
1. Richard Hell and the Voidoids – “Love Comes In Spurts”
You wait for a bus for ages and two come at once.
Sample lyric: “I was fourteen and a half and it wasn’t no laugh”
2. Ne-Yo – “I Don’t Care”
Because if loving you is wrong baby, I don’t wanna be right.
Sample lyric: “You wanna be the quiet part of my life, they don’t understand how beautiful that is”
3. The Wipers – “Telepathic Love”
Psychic Rohypnol.
Sample lyric: “Could you tell me something without saying a word?”
4. Dizzie Rascal – “I Luv U”
Just be safe kids, be safe.
Sample lyric: “but its your own fault you said three magic words (i love you)”
Lewis G. Parker
5. Back Door Man - The Doors
There’s nothing more romantic than anal sex.
Sample lyric: “The little girls understand/ I’m a back door man.”
6. We Never Motored West - The Wave Pictures
The tenderest song about erectile dysfunction.
Sample lyric: “I never once got it up for you, but believe me when I say how much I wanted to.”
7. Amy in the White Coat - Bright Eyes
Get all romantic with your other half while listening to this song about a father sexually abusing his daughter.
Sample lyric: “You get nauseus as he speaks to you/ Such proper language for acts so cruel.”
8. Heartbreak Hotel - John Cale
Sinister interpretation of the Elvis classic by the Velvet Underground’s real hero.
Sample lyric: “Feeling so lonely, baby, I could die.”
Robert Foster
9. Sparkle Moore – Skull And Crossbones
All I know about this song is that it’s off the Lux And Ivy’s Favourites compilations, but it has a lovely sentiment, that being “you are fucking bad for me and I love it.” Because who wants to spend their twenties watching Lost, buying furniture and cooking healthy dinners together? Fuck growing up, all that really means is ‘becoming passionless’. I’m 26 and teetotal but I still want to feel like I might have to chase you round Soho covered in blood with no shoes on or punch a rock musician for hitting on you or have you throw plates at me for being a shit or physically restrain you from kicking the shit out of another girl that I used to date.
Sample lyric: “You should be labeled with a skull and cross bones, you’re a jinx to my soul”
10. Why? – These Few Presidents
I know that anticon backpack college boy hip hop is really gross in a load of ways, and it’s the worst thing ever that they insist on not having a capital letter at the beginning of the name of their label. But Why? are a guilty pleasure of mine, mainly because of Yoni’s lyrics, which are down on himself and kind of proud of it, plus when he talks about relationships he really nails sentiments. I love this song mainly because of the line “even though I haven’t seen you in years, yours is a funeral I’d fly to from anywhere”, which is just about the nicest thing you could ever say when you’re young, like, “even if this doesn’t work out, you’re always gonna mean enough to me for me to travel thousands of miles in 60 years time just to pay my respects while you lie in a fucking box”.
Sample lyric: “Even though I haven’t seen you in years, yours is a funeral I’d fly to from anywhere”
11. Bruce Springsteen – Atlantic City
The story of this song is basically, “You and me have moved to Atlantic City to make a new life and I’m working for criminals to make ends meet because I love you so fucking much, I know shit’s not going that well right now but I’m going to do EVERYTHING I can to fix it for you, baby”. Isn’t that just adorable? Even if you only listen to the chorus (“Well now, everything dies, baby, that’s a fact,
but maybe everything that dies someday comes back”) you’re getting something out of the song, cos it sounds like he’s talking about a relationship failing, and he sounds pretty set on making it work again, which is how you get if you love someone and things are going wrong.
Sample lyric: “I drew what I had from the central trust and I bought us two tickets on that coast city bus”
12. Vybz Kartel – Yuh Love
Much like this song, to really love the sentiment of Yuh Love you have to see the video, the bits where ol’ Vybzy is wearing a white suit and crooning under a spotlight absolutely kill me. He’s a skinny guy who looks like a nasty coke dealer but he still loves his girl and that’s what the song’s about: being a badman but still having time for love. Which is exactly how I am.
Sample lyric: “Me fi gi’ya love til the day I die…”
Mark Fountain
13. Hot Chip - Alley Cats
I’ve always thought of myself as a dog person, but this heartbreaking ballad about two people finding each in the night like wondering Alley Cats, curling up together, and, in time, becoming inseparable makes me think again.
Sample lyric: “Two people are alley cats, this got me thinking about our cat”
14. Palace Music - New Partner
I only got into Will Oldham really recently and this track is one of my favourites. It’s the chorus that really kills me. We all carry the image of someone around in our heads that we can’t shake. Someone who our mind wonders to when we need to do a bit of daydreaming.
Sample lyric: “And you are always on my mind”
15. New Order - Every Little Counts
This one can speak for itself.
Sample lyric: “Every second counts, when I am with you”.
16. Fats Waller - Two Sleepy People
My dad is a big Jazz fan and I grew up in a house full of Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller and Count Basie. But of all the songs that I listened to as a kid this one stayed with me. The idea of being so in love you can’t bear to say goodnight is what Valentine’s day is all about.
Sample lyric: “Here we are out of cigarettes. Holding hands and yawning, look how late it gets”
Adele Austin
17. D’Angelo - Untitled (How Does It Feel?)
Quintessential love song, this made its way in the list because once I heard Valentines day, it flashed in my head like an appropriate revelation. The memorable part about it isn’t even the song, but the video that came along with it.
Sample lyric: “I wish you’d open up, cause I wanna take the walls down with you”
18. Ginuwine - In Those Jeans
There are a lot of songs out there glorifying women’s physique, and almost all of them dirty but Ginuwine knows how to keep it classy, this is a fine example.
Sample lyric: “Make me wanna get down on one knee, you got that thunder, and it only makes me wonder”
19. R. Kelly - Bump N’ Grind
This, is pretty self-explanatory and what’s a Valentine’s playlist without R&B King Kelly?
Sample lyric: “I don’t see nothing wrong, with a little bump n’ grind”
20. J. Holiday - Bed
This was my graduating class’ anthem for about two months back when it first came out. Every girl I know loves this song, and every guy they know love them for loving it.
Sample lyric: “Now stop, and let me repay you for the week that you’ve been through, working that 9-5 and staying cute, like you do”
Happy Valentine’s day to you all. I hope you’re nicely loved up so you can enjoy the love-in.
