Angelina Perez, Senior Writer
I have a confession to make… I, Angelina Perez, am a hopeless romantic and will not take any more Valentine’s Day slander. Why has it become so easy to dismiss a day celebrating love? So many kinds of love are often overlooked on Valentine’s Day, and I feel like that deserves some attention just as much as relationships. It is a privilege to love and be loved no matter the circumstances. While a million songs are sung about love, here are just a few that can get you in your feels any day of the week.
Laufey – Valentine
Laufey writes love songs for those who don’t know how to register what love that turns you upside down and leaves you excited feels like. There’s something so relatable in her music, as it captures that feeling of falling hard and fast for someone, not entirely understanding what’s happening, but knowing it’s something that changes everything. With this song, Laufey embraces her love for this person, and because of that, she has a Valentine to celebrate every year. It’s that feeling of finally finding someone who makes you feel alive in a way you never expected, and in the process, you create your tradition of love, year after year.
Favorite lyrics: “I’ve lost all control of my heartbeat now / Got caught in a romance with him somehow / I still feel a shock through every bone / When I hear an “I love you” / ‘Cause now I’ve got someone to lose”
Mitski – My Love Mine All Mine
Mitski has this raw, unflinching ability to write love songs that feel deeply personal and universally relatable. This song highlights love that’s all-consuming, possessive and vulnerable. This song reflects the need to take love that once felt fleeting and impossible and claim it as your own, fully and unapologetically. Her ability to blend the deep pain of longing with the joy of having something that’s genuinely yours that should be protected and valued makes this song both comforting and heartbreaking and is the kind of song you want to play when you’re not just in love but when you’re embracing the complicated, beautiful truth of it.
Favorite lyrics: “My baby here on Earth / Showed me what my heart was worth / So, when it comes to be my turn / Could you shine it down here for her?”
Edison Lighthouse – Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)
When I’m in the mood for a song that helps reflect the innocent, gentle side of love, “Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)” shows the warmth and joy that the lyrics effortlessly convey from the very first note. This kind of track makes you want to skip down the street, screaming you are in love and reflecting on the most straightforward, heartwarming kind of love that grows quietly, steadily and without warning. The lyrics paint a picture of love that’s so genuine and natural it feels like it’s always been there, just waiting for the right moment to bloom. Lighthouse speaks of Rosemary; through her, we get this sense of being consumed by a unique love that changes everything. The charm of the song lies in how easy it feels. It’s not complicated or dramatic; it’s just a simple, beautiful expression of affection. The upbeat, catchy melody only adds to the joy of the song, making it feel like a perfect celebration of love that, while small and understated, is still powerful in its own right.
Favorite lyrics: “I’m a lucky fella / And I’ve just got to tell her / That I love her endlessly / Because love grows where my Rosemary goes / And nobody knows like me”
Beabadoobee – Glue Song ft. Clairo
Glue Song is a tender, intimate ode to a love that’s as subtle as sticky. This song is about the quiet but unshakable love that sticks with you, even when your world is spinning. It’s not dramatic or over-the-top; instead, it’s the kind of love that hasn’t always been there but that realization that feels like finally finding the missing piece you didn’t even know you were searching for. Being “stuck” to someone has this warm, comforting undertone as if love is a gentle force that keeps you tethered, but not in a way that feels suffocating. Instead, it feels grounding, the connection that makes everything else seem less critical. The song is like a quiet confession of how much you care, yet it feels as if it’s just a natural thing to say, something you can’t help but express when you’re sure of how you feel.
Favorite lyrics: “I always knew I’d find you / To be here is worth the wait to / I’m not lying / When I say I’ve been stuck / By the glue onto you”
Laufey – Bewitched
I had the pleasure of seeing her perform this song live, and I did bawl my eyes out. For most of Laufey’s discography, this song especially, there is this feeling only as explainable as what it would be like to ballroom dance with the love of your life as you are both trying to assess how the other feels. Okay, maybe I need to stop reading so many romance novels…Bewitched speaks about the confusion of falling hard and quick for someone, not knowing how you ended up under their spell, which changes everything you believed love was before you met them.
Favorite lyrics: “You bewitch me / Every damn second you’re with me /I try to think straight / But I’m falling so badly, I’m coming apart / You wrote me a note, cast a spell on my heart / And bewitched me.”
Billie Eilish – BIRDS OF A FEATHER
I said I would include a song that shows the need for platonic, familiar love and how we connect and see each other when no one else is watching, and Billie indicates just that. There’s something raw about how Billie sings about seeing someone and knowing how they look to her, even if they don’t quite realize it yet. You can feel the depth of admiration of being so in tune with someone that words aren’t even necessary to communicate the connection, and it’s something felt rather than spoken. Birds of a Feather showcases the bond that doesn’t need constant reassurance because it’s built on shared moments and a deep sense of belonging.
Favorite lyrics: “ want you to see, hm / How you look to me, hm / You wouldn’t believe if I told ya / You would keep the compliments I throw ya”
Taylor Swift – You Are in Love
Any Jasper Jam I write would not be complete if T.S. were not listed. Not only is this one of my favorite songs by her, but it is her more simplistic lyricism that doesn’t rely on dramatic twists, grand gestures or hidden meanings. Instead, it’s about the little details, the subtle shifts in the way you see someone when you’re in love.
The lyrics describe a love that feels like it’s been built on shared experiences and mutual understanding and is a perfect depiction of how love doesn’t always need to be vocalized, sometimes it’s just felt in the space between words, in the way you hold hands or exchange glances, in the moments of being together, even in silence. There’s a kind of magic in that, the quiet certainty that comes with knowing someone and feeling at home with them.
Favorite lyrics: “And so it goes / You two are dancing in a snow globe, ’round and ’round / And he keeps the picture of you in his office downtown / And you understand now why they lost their minds and fought the wars / And why I’ve spent my whole life tryin’ to put it into words”
