(photo by Te NGuyen on Unsplash)
Love may indeed make the world go around but it also has a profoundly impressive influence on the types of songs we get to hear.
Case in point are these five gems from artists who know their way around a beautiful song, forging intimate lyrics with quietly powerful melodies to create musical love letters to love itself.
They’re a joy and a quiet slice of bliss to listen to, but more than that, they remind you of how wonderful life can be when someone truly special is in it, and taking them in will be one of life’s great pleasures if you haven’t heard them already.
“At Your Worst” by Calum Scott
(courtesy official Calum Scott Facebook page)
Channelling real unconditional romantic love into a song is always a little tricky, with the temptation to overshoot into gushy tweeness too much to resist for the loved-up musically talented.
Thankfully gay singer-songwriter Calum Scott has neatly and affectingly sidestepped that treacly trap with “At Your Worst”, a song that soars on the back of heartfelt lyrics, a mid-fi pounding beat will feel just upbeat enough to do the job and vocals that absolutely nail the intensely beautiful emotive nature of a track that, as Attitude reports, really goes to the heart of loving someone no matter what.
‘At Your Worst’ was born from a feeling that sometimes it might be hard for someone to love me because of my anxieties, my time away, my self-doubt, said Calum of the song in a statement. But also from the realisation that we are all worthy of being loved no matter our flaws or insecurities.
This could be a song reassuring someone that you’ll love them no matter what,” he continued. “But it’s also song to yourself. A reminder that you should love yourself at your worst, because self-love is the most important.
It’s a gorgeous declaration of love that really hits the spot in your heart that’s crying out for someone to just love you without limits, conditions or overdone sugary pop.
“Glory” by Yuna
(courtesy official Yuna Facebook page)
There’s an exquisite beauty to Yuna’s “glory” that affects you the moment the first notes hits your ears and you realise that here is a song full of powerful fragility that will definitely not leave you unaffected.
And that a lot to do with the ideas that drove the creation of the song for the Malaysian singer as Soul Bounce reports.
‘Glory’ is all about Yuna wanting to be everything to the one she loves. She turns to producers Sweaterbeats and Different Sleep to help execute her sonic vision. They give her a curious, mysterious backdrop filled with twinkles of synth piano and echoing bass tones coupled with quiet snaps. The quiet only breaks at the end of the chorus, with things diving deeper into buzzier, more distorted sounds.
This is another track that dives deep into some lushly full-on emotions that nails its intent lyrically and musically and which makes love of the unconditionally unreserved kind feel like the most wondrous journey of all.
“Are You Awake?” by Lauren Mayberry
(courtesy official Lauren Mayberry Facebook page)
Do you ever hear the soft keys of a piano-driven song intro and feel almost instantly like someone is about to capture the contemplative depths of your soul with a thoughtfully intense veracity that no one else has ever managed?
It’s a rare and precious thing and it arrives with softly quiet force on Lauren Mayberry’s song “Are You Awake?”
The vocalist and percussionist of Churches delivers a resonantly torching song that draws heavily on a heart tugging melody and vocals that seem to distill every emotion you’ve ever felt about romantic love into one slowly-building dream of a track that might feel ethereally lush but which addresses some very real, desperately important emotions.
It’s a piano ballad with presence that started, as you might expect, on one of those non-sunny days that seem to get us thinking, and importantly for this song, feeling.
Mayberry co-wrote ‘Are You Awake?’ with Tobias Jesso Jr. and producer Matthew Koma, and Mark “Spike” Stent mixed the track. “‘Are You Awake?’ is a song that started on a rainy day last December with Tobias Jesso Jr.,” Mayberry said in a press statement. “I was thinking a lot about loneliness and homesickness, and as soon as Tobias started playing the chords, the lyrics and melody came to me really quickly. I finished the song with my friend Matthew Koma, who really understood what I was trying to say.” (Pitchfork)
“Working Hard” by Fujii Kaze
(courtesy official Fujii Kaze Fa ebook page)
Talk about creating a rich and sensually beautiful sense of place and musical time.
“Working Hard” by Japanese singer-songwriter and musician Fujii Kaze, which brings together Japanese and English lyrics and vocal soulfulness that really sways you, is one of those songs that feels like a full and gorgeously enveloping moment all its own.
It sweeps in quietly but then builds and builds into a song that pours u=its heart and which has music that matches every heartfelt lyric that fills the song that would fit a 2 a.m set at a cosy club to absolute perfection.
The 26-year-old has been at this since 2019 when debut single “何なんw (WTF LOL)” dropped and it’s clear that his musical diet of jazz, classical music, pop and a particularly Japanese genre enka has paid dividends.
It all comes together on this gem of a track that will soothe your soul, revive your spirits and make you feel, in that perfect bubble of pop, that everything is going to be perfectly okay.
“The Day I Met You” by Matilda Mann
(courtesy official Matilda Mann Facebook page)
There is such an air of wistful loveliness to British indie folk musician Matilda Mann’s exquisitely gorgeous track, “The Day I Met You”.
It captures that moment when life feels bereft and empty and then, quite magically, it is not, something the singer talks about when discussing this most affecting of songs.
The world can suck. And some days it feels more like a constant than temporary. But then you meet someone, and the hand life dealt you, suddenly doesn’t feel so bad … (Ones to Watch)
The same site captures the essence of this arrestingly intimate song so well.
[‘The Day That I Met You’] lives in the place where tears get caught in your throat, halfway between a cry and calming breath. Matilda Mann is a master of casual emotion, lacing her lyrics with the warmth of lingering admiration while contrasting them with wistful melodies. The arrangement tiptoes around the crossroads of jazz and pop, waltzing rhythmic lines over light acoustic guitar chords.
Listen to this track and you’ll fall in love with falling in love all over again.