Love songs have a lot of uses. They can be used as a mirror to reflect back your own feelings for someone else. They can be used to remind you of your own loneliness—to fill a void in your forsaken, longing heart. They can be a source of sadness, to remind you of what you lost in a broken relationship.
That's why there are so many damn love songs. For good or bad, it's an emotion we've all felt—a collection of sounds that can universally strike something in our hearts, to connect us to a specific time, place, or person. These physical moments come and go, but the feeling lasts forever, and these songs are a link to that human experience. These are the best love songs of 2017 so far.
Lana Del Rey - "Love"
I know, I'm starting it off with a song that is literally just called "Love," but it works here. Along with avocado toast, us millennials are really into love that's ominous and mildly creepy. And Lana brings it.
Kendrick Lamar - "LOVE."
I swear this isn't a list of songs that just have love in the title. Kendrick Lamar isn't necessarily one to write love songs or radio-friendly pop songs for that matter, but "LOVE." feat. Zacari does both. "If I don't got you, I got nothing," he sings. Damn, Kendrick, what emotion can't you sum up in less than 10 words?
Perfume Genius - "Die 4 You"
I totally could have stuck with the love in the song title thing and chose "Just Like Love" from this album, BUT I DIDN'T. Instead, we have "Die 4 You," a song that Perfume Genius's Mike Hadreas describes as "a love song with a lot of breath-control fetish language, to communicate a willingness to really give yourself to someone completely. I like that the lyrics can also be taken many different ways."
Tyler, The Creator - "See You Again"
Normally Tyler, The Creator isn't a sentimental guy—just the opposite, in fact. He's often trying to throw off his listeners, playing with them, hardly ever revealing his true self. But on "See You Again," he seems completely sincere when he sings, "I wonder if you look both ways when you cross my mind."
St. Vincent - "New York"
There are a lot of New York songs. It's a romantic place (when you're not dying of heat in a moist, rat-filled subway station). But everyone's experience is their own. And St. Vincent's "New York" does a beautiful job in summing up her experience. "New York isn't New York without you, love." It's a situation that, somehow, anyone anywhere can relate to.
Sampha - "(No One Knows Me) Like the Piano"
Love doesn't just have to be romantic. It can be love for family, love for childhood, love for nostalgia and the moments and objects that shaped you. That's the type of love Sampha is singing about.
Drake - "Teenage Fever"
Drake is a sentimental guy. And he's at his best when he's tapping into emotions reserved for a teen high school drama (*ahem* Degrassi *ahem*). And that's precisely what he's doing here, "Out of body / That's just how I feel when I'm around you shawty," the most sentimental guy in hip-hop raps.
The XX - "Brave For You"
Throughout their entire career, The XX's entire narrative has been facing stage fright and the public spotlight that comes with becoming one of the most critically acclaimed new bands of the 2000s. In "Brave For You," Romy Madley Croft finds a remedy for those fears, her new fiancée Hannah Marshall. Croft sings, "And when I'm scared / I imagine you're there telling me to be brave / so I will be brave for you."
Frank Ocean - "Chanel"
Much of Frank Ocean's 2016 masterpiece Blonde explored sexual fluidity and gender. On his first surprise release since that album, Ocean once again enters that territory, analysing the duality of life and love, opening the song with, "My guy pretty like a girl."
Alex G - "Bobby"
Love can also be about uncertainty. Sometimes monogamy and commitment can be the hardest part of a relationship. But, that confusion is natural, and something Alex G explores on the beautifully conflicted "Bobby."
