Osmosis Tones' Favorite Love Songs

To celebrate Valentines Day, the Osmosis Tones staff compiled a list of their favorite love songs. From Frank Sinatra and The Beatles to King Krule and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, here are the love songs that make our hearts feel.

"Be My Mistake" - 1975

This song is just sad as hell.  Matty Healy writes from the point of view of someone who is struggling to get over someone they cared about, but the song is written to the girl he uses as a "rebound" time and time again.  One of the few songs from the electro-pop powerhouse that is purely acoustic, The 1975 strips down everything grandiose for something intimate. “Be My Mistake” is one of their most emotionally devastating tracks, and Healy’s brutally honest lyrics are something that we can all shamefully relate to.  Moving on from a relationship is tough, and everyone makes questionable decisions during that healing process. This is a simple fact that Healy is able to encompass fully in “Be My Mistake.” Frankly, I could write an entire feature about how much this song made me self-reflect and feel guilty for choices that I’ve made, but I should wrap this up and say that this song, for its own special reason, is my favorite love song of all time. - Tommy Delone

"Anoche" - Arca

This list would be incomplete without some non-English love songs. Arca sings in her native language of Spanish on “Anoche,” and boy does it hit harder than anything. I didn’t even know what this song meant, but when I heard her baroque and powerful whimpers over this decaying glitched piano, I knew her heart was broken. Looking into the lyrics, we see Arca calling for a loved one after rejection. Alejandra seems to be comfortable with longing for the relationship, even though she knows it is not real. Most confident yet eerie breakup song I can think of. - Luke Robinson

"Something" - The Beatles

The first time I heard George Harrison's masterpiece, I had a prototypical punched-in-the gut feeling. It wasn’t even The Beatles version, it was Jim Sturgess’ cover in the movie “Across the Universe” (if any of you haven’t seen it yet I would highly recommend checking it out). The song is incredibly simple, both in melody and lyrics, but the raw emotion in the chorus is enough to make it remain in listeners’ ears 50 years after the fact. The Beatles’ version isn’t my favorite take, but “Something” is one of those special love songs that resonates with any fan. - Tommy Delone

"No Distance Left to Run" - Blur

One of the saddest songs I've ever heard, colored with the most despondent of blues riffs. The lyrics portray the rawest of breakups, as Damon Albarn digs deep into his highly publicized breakup with Justine Frischmann. What makes this song so incredible is its vulnerability. This is not some gaslight anthem about how his ex was a bitch, this is him accepting the breakup and staying rational with lyrics that send chills up my spine, such as “I hope you’re with someone that makes you feel safe in your sleep, being tonight/I won’t kill myself trying to stay in your life.” He avoids being histrionic and emotional and admits his faults in the relationship, while facing his grief and disparities that read like headlines. This is the most mature breakup song I can think of. - Luke Robinson

"(They Long To Be) Close To You" - Carpenters

No love song feels as spellbinding and celestial as the Carpenters’ 1971 classic Close to You. Karen Carpenter’s singular voice blends together with a gorgeous orchestral arrangement and perfectly layered harmonies, capturing at once the rose-tinted joy of love, and the melancholy of yearning. It’s a track that sounds like a late-night slow dance high above the clouds, or at least a dream of one. - Kenny Cox

"The Light" - Common

I get it, Common may have not aged well, with his ridiculous levels of positivity and self-love. People may now view him as corny or lame,  but that doesn’t stop him from being my favorite rapper ever and a more helpful tool than an antidepressant for lifting up my spirits. Armed with the tightest Questlove drum beat, and a classic Bobby Caldwell sample, Common is able to charmingly write an insanely earnest and positive love anthem. He constantly promotes growth and understanding and equalism in his relationship in a letter to his love. My favorite lyric that defines what I strive to be in my relationship is “of a relationship is effort, I will match your work.” Common shows himself as both emotional and real, and for the year 2000, when macho bling rap was at a peak, he stuck out like a sore thumb and for all the right reasons. - Luke Robinson

"Pickles from the Jar" - Courtney Barnett

This song is stupid, simple, and I love it. Love songs don't have to be serious, as is the case with “Pickles From the Jar,” where Courtney Barnett makes jokes over the same three chords, bringing a goofy, playful energy to the love song genre that really resonates with me. Sometimes love is just sitting on the couch, and that's what this song reminds me of. It is literally just her saying how her and her girlfriend don’t agree on anything, but they still love each other and they are having fun with their differences. Bonus points to the fact that my girlfriend loves this song and we are polar opposites, so it’s some real life lesbian shit. - Eleni Haberis

"Young Blood" - The Districts

It's funny how breakup songs can be the love songs you connect with most. This song is on one of my favorite albums ever, A Flourish and a Spoil, and it is definitely more about the spoil. In examining the pain of heartbreak, I think the band and the listeners can come to some interesting conclusions about why the flourish of love matters in the first place, even if it eventually rots. This song’s main line and main theme is “it’s a long way down from the top to the bottom,” an incredibly simple way to express how love is so fucking strong that you really feel like you are at rock bottom when it’s gone. Rob Grote proclaims that he feels like young love would ease his mind - a beautiful concept that illustrates that you can still long for love even after its left you broken. This is a love song for love; that even in the midst of heartbreak, the thought of new love can pull you out. Oh, and it fucking slaps. Nothing like head-banging for love. - Eleni Haberis

"The Way You Look Tonight" - Frank Sinatra

I grew up dancing with my mom to this song at parties when I was a kid, so this song holds a special place in my heart.  That being said, I’ll be blunt: if you can’t like this song or the buttery-smooth voice of my boy Frank, then I just don’t know what to say. His iconic baritone, paired with a feathery-light big band, is the perfect combination. Throw this into the mix at a wedding?  Please. Sinatra’s perfect night with the perfect girl will echo forever in ballrooms forever, as hopeless romantics wonder to themselves, “When will I get a girl that’ll make me feel like that?” - Tommy Delone

"20 Minutes/40 Years" - Isis

I love how powerful and building this song is. Instead of overt love references, my personal god Aaron Turner discusses love from an empowering philosophical stance. It isn’t clear and it isn’t in your face, but dig through the lyrics and the crushing, uplifting sludge riffs, and you will find some of the most beautiful lyrics of love I know. Aaron states that “chance has graced me with a gift, grasp at gold before dark descends”, indicating how amazing it is to be connected with the love of your life. The end has some of my favorite lyrics ever - “twin arteries flow with the pulse of one mighty heart.” True love is symbiotic, it is two humans being twined into one spiritual entity, and that is beautiful… Fuck, I sound like a gentrifying yoga nerd, oh well. - Luke Robinson

"I'm Gonna Find Another You" - John Mayer

In my opinion, this 2007 live performance is one of the best breakup songs ever. John Mayer gets a bad wrap, but whether or not you think he’s an asshole, the guy is in talks for the best guitar player in the last 25 years. His background in the blues is evident in “I’m Gonna Find Another You." The song takes a selfish look at a break-up, and displays the subject’s hypocrisy in what they say and how they feel. Mayer’s lyrics say they’ll be fine and they don’t need their lover, but his voice and his guitar speak to the contrary. Aside from excellent playing, this song is filled with a spine-tingling display of emotion that paints Mayer in a completely different light than he has been in his entire career. - Tommy Delone

"Baby Blue" - King Krule

Man I love this minimal and drowsy ballad. This song covers love from the puppy love, rejected angle. Poor Archie seems to be striking out hard, but man does it lead to one of the best love sick songs of the 2010s.  “Girl I could have been someone to you, would have painted the skies blue” points heavily towards the obsession we can have to someone we love, but can’t quite get. It brings me right back to my high school days, where my chubby acne ridden dollar store Justin Bieber got more strikes than a steroid less Bonds. - Luke Robinson

"Baby's Arms" - Kurt Vile

The way Kurt Vile plays the guitar makes every slow-picked string sound like it could be a love song. So much so, that I think if this one had no words at all, you would still get the same feeling. This song feels like safety: “I get sick of just about everyone and I hide in my baby’s arms”. Kurt, I am also a big baby, and thus I LOVE the thought of getting held by my lover when I don't want to deal with life. I remember once trying to learn this on the guitar just to impress a girl - like all my musical forefathers have done before me - and I don’t think she gave a fuck (lmao). Even if she didn't think so, this song breathes ROMANCE and I still feel warm when I listen to it. - Eleni Haberis

"Fade Into You" - Mazzy Star

I mean really, what did you expect? The song that has soundtracked countless teen rom-coms, sunset montages, and first dances seems like an obvious no-brainer for Valentine’s Day. But what is it about “Fade Into You” that keeps us coming back? Is it the timeless sound of slide guitars, tambourines, and three chords looping on into infinity? Hope Sandoval’s voice subtly echoing throughout the track, sounding halfway between reality and a dream dimension? The ambiguous, yet sweetly romantic lyrics? Whatever it is, Mazzy Star’s classic is, and probably will always be, an unforgettable Valentine’s staple. - Kenny Cox

"Sometimes" - My Bloody Valentine

Seven words: "I close my eyes, feel me now." There's a lot of things that can be said about "Sometimes," perhaps the signature song by the Irish shoegaze icons. But what I'll say is that this song is the definition of intimacy. The blissful, psychedelic distortion the band creates covers the listener in a silk blanket, as a graceful melody that ascends beneath the layers entrances further. Shields' lyrics, in his typically fragmented fashion, are rife with as much passion and soul-entwining as they are forlorn, sad-boi sentiments. No other song I know captures the feeling of locking heads and staring deeply into the eyes of your partner than "Sometimes," and I'll be forever thankful for the moments of my romantic life I associate this song with. - Zach Zollo

"I Need My Girl" - The National

This song holds a special place with me. I’ll never forget hearing this for the first time: it was 2014, and I was struggling with my emotions and my sexuality. I remember being terrified to open myself up to girls, and thinking I wanted to go through things alone because it would just be easier. I was sitting in my room when this song came on my damn Pandora Radio, and I remember listening to the words and just crying. It was so earnest and direct: “I need my girl” being chanted over and over. I was like damn, me too! Even with all that you might struggle with on your own, knowing you can open yourself up enough to that Miss Someone is a beautiful thought to me. A love song for myself, I think this might be one of my most played songs of all time. - Eleni Haberis

"Untitled" - O.A.R.

I love O.A.R. and I don't care who knows. They’re one of those bands that bring out the whitest parts of me.  I hear them, and my mind instantly goes into “2013 Kan Jam Champion, Vineyard Vines shorts wearing” Tom Mode.  “Untitled” is a little different, though. It definitely still has the band’s folky, light-reggae sound, but the storytelling is unlike any other song by them.  A song about a relationship with a close friend and how that relationship ripped them apart; it’s a story as old as time. One side is having fun, while the other side is internally struggling with the on-again, off-again ride they’re on.  Probably the least-known song out of my list, but I believe, to its core, is the most relatable. - Tommy Delone

"somethinG about your love." - Phony PPL.

"somethinG about your love" is my favorite song of the 2010s, and it isn't even close. It captures a simple sentiment - being in love with someone that is wrong for you - and elevates it to the heavens with an air-tight arrangement, instrumental prowess, evocative lyrics, emotive singing, and crystalline production. But above all else, this song features my favorite guitar solo ever, a Prince channeling, slow jam-meets-power ballad shred fest that should soundtrack 10,000 rom-coms. - Zach Zollo

"I Love My Dad" - Sun Kil Moon

I’m both blessed and fortunate to have the relationship I do with my father. While we’ve had our fair share of arguments, we’ve always come to terms that we can agree on, and each person takes each other for who they are. I find that no other song captures the love for your old man better than Sun Kil Moon’s aptly titled “I Love My Dad.” Not only are the anecdotes of life lessons taught hysterical, they’re relatable and heartwarming, demonstrating the craft Mark Kozelek possesses in taking his upbringing and making it resonant for all. - Zach Zollo

"Maps" - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Not only the best song to play on Rock Band in 2007, but easily one of the best love letters indie rock ever produced, “Maps” hits like nothing else. With a chorus as simple as a few words, Karen O created an anthem for love-lorn music fans to scream along to in the car, blast in their bedrooms, and sneak into mixtapes for someone special for years. Coming up on 17 years since it’s release, every jagged note, vocal waver, and drum crash still holds an emotional wallop unlike anything else. - Kenny Cox

"A Song About Apples (Always Love Yourself)" - Reggie Watts

The final semester of my associates degree, simply put, fucking sucked. After the toxic relationship I was in came to an end, I went down a rabbit hole of depression and self-hatred that led me to utterly disregard my own health and safety. I felt more alone than I had ever been in my life, and locking myself up in a dorm room to keep from seeing him on campus didn’t help. It was inside this cavern of wallowing that I came across “A Song About Apples,” performed by Reggie Watts in his Netflix special Spatial. I firmly believe that this song is the single most empowering and enlightening ode to interpersonal relationships, self-love, and the human condition ever conceived, and if it weren’t for listening to this at least ten times a day during that period, I don’t think I’d be where I am today. There’s a love song for every kind, but this love song offers the most important message you can hear: always love yourself. - Zach Zollo