Playlist 9: Love Songs, Part 4

1) All I Want From You Is Love – Let’s Go Sailing

‘And all I want from you is love.’

Shana makes it pretty clear what she wants in this song; Love. The singing is soft and heartfelt, backed by music that just makes you want to smile, always.

2) Kiss Me – Sixpence None the Richer
‘Strike up the band and make the fireflies dance, silver moons sparkling. So kiss me.’

Despite being released back in 1997 when I was merely 5 years of age (and too young to appreciate it) this song never seems to get old. It describes a summer romance in the ‘bearded barley’ and an ‘old tree house’, when all you want to do is make out. Well why not =).

3) So Here We Are – Bloc Party
‘I really tried to do what you wanted, it all went wrong again.’

One of my favourite bands of all time, and also one of my favourite songs. I’m not sure that this song is really about love – Keele sings about a mistake that just brings a relationship back to square one, but the repeated guitar riff, confident lyrics and gradual crescendo shows me that he’s not quite ready to give up.

4) My Best Friend – Hello Saferide
‘And we dance in the living room, dance on the sidewalks, dance in the movies, dance at the festivals, dance, dance, no men ever really dance like this.’

Ok, so I’m not admitting some secret desire for women, but I do think this song is well written, entertaining and probably true. Every girl has a best friend who they love to pieces, and a male acquaintance that they hate to pieces. Annika questions why not just scrap the latter all together?

5) Set the Fire to the Third Bar – Snow Patrol
‘We'd share each other like an island, until exhausted close our eyelids.’

The voices of Gary Lightbody and Martha Wainright fit perfectly together in this song depicting the trials of a long distance relationship; ‘I’m miles from where you are’, but it is still about Love. Obviously sometimes, it can work.

6) Lower Ground – Katie Sutherland
‘I need more to give to you, it’s not enough saying I do love you....but holding onto you is the best thing I’ve done.'

A feel good love song about Katie’s belief that saying ‘I do love you’ is just not enough. So what else can she do to show she loves someone? Write them a song of course.

7) For the Widows in Paradise, For the Fatherless in Ypsilanti – Sufjan Stevens
‘If there's anything to say, if there's anything to do, if there's any other way, I'd do anything for you.’

I love this song. It has harmonies, a banjo, some sort of horn, and lyrics about doing anything for the person you’re with. Lovely.

8) Dice – Finley Quaye
‘Nothing can compare, to when you roll the dice and swear your love’s for me.’

Ok so I’ll admit it, I first heard this song on season one of The O.C, in an episode where Marissa is waiting patiently for her boyfriend Ryan to come and kiss her as the clock strikes 12 on New Year’s Eve. In typical American TV show style, he only just makes it (after running up about 30 flights of stairs!), and kisses her just as the bell strikes. I guess it’s never too late.

9) Ghosts – Broken Records
‘In my heart, in my heart.’

Ghosts is a song about the past, about ‘people who’ve shaped your past in ways you can’t understand’, and who never really left your heart. I’m sure we all know someone like that; not necessarily a lover, maybe a childhood friend. It’s songs like this that make me wish I had listened to Broken Records earlier.

10) Smash Into You – Beyonce
‘And me and you belong, I wanna run smash into you.’

So if you asked me what Beyonce mean when she sings ‘I wanna smash into you’ I’m afraid I could not tell you. I’m assuming she doesn’t mean it literally, but rather that she is ready to put everything into her relationship. Good on her I’d say. This is one of those songs that I probably shouldn’t love as much as I do.

11) Wherever I Go – The Album Leaf
‘Wherever I go, I take you with me, cause I don’t want to see you leave.’

I think the fact that this song has 16 lines, says the word ‘you’ 16 times, the word ‘I’ 12 times, and the word ‘here’ 8 times speaks for itself. He clearly just wants to be with her. Simple but sincere.

12) Chalk Stars – Animal Kingdom
‘I'll be drawing chalk stars on a black board, seeing rainbows in the raincloud.’

I will admit, this song is not technically about love. To me it is about optimism and always looking forward. When Richard Sauberlich sings ‘don’t you know we all cry sometimes’, I think he’s saying ‘Hey, it’s ok to be sad, things will be just fine’, and in a way he always manages to convince me with this simply beautiful song.