When it comes to Valentine’s Day, the saying, “if music be the food of love, play on” should definitely be uppermost in your mind. But what are the best romantic albums and the most romantic love songs? From the albums inspired by love to iconic heartbreak albums (if Cupid has shot his arrow elsewhere this year…), here’s our pick for your playlists on 14th February.
Whether you’re streaming or buying a CD or vinyl for your loved one, there’s a huge range of classics and contemporary love song albums, from record-breaking Adele and Whitney Houston to Father John Misty’s wit and wisdom, and iconic titles by Fleetwood Mac, Al Green and Marvin Gaye.
Best Romantic Albums
- Let’s Stay Together – Al Green
- 69 Love Songs – The Magnetic Fields
- Room for Squares – John Mayer
- 21 - Adele
- The Love Below – Andre 3000
- Love Deluxe – Sade
- I Love You, Honeybear – Father John Misty
- Hounds of Love – Kate Bush
- The Lexicon of Love – ABC
- Come Away with Me – Norah Jones
Let’s Stay Together – Al Green
Rolling Stone noted that, ‘Green’s voice is something to marvel at. Let’s Stay Together is, like its predecessor, an indispensable treat.’ Included in Q magazine’s ‘Best Soul Albums of All Time’, in 1999, they wrote that the album, ‘shows him as the authentic voice of love’s pain and purity’ and ‘his cover of the Bee Gees’ song [‘How Can You Mend a Broken Heart’] took the soul ballad to new levels of artistry and refinement.’
‘Let’s Stay Together’ is the perfect track for a wedding playlist and has been a classic ever since it was released on the Hi label in 1972. The fourth album by soul singer Al Green was recorded in Memphis and claimed the No. 1 slot on the soul album chart for ten weeks. It was also reissued in 2003.
Albert Leornes Greene, also known as The Reverend Al Green, scored his only Billboard No. 1 single with ‘Let’s Stay Together’, which praises unconditional love and sticking it out through good times and bad. Green’s signature warm delivery opens the album on a soulful, gentle, mellow note and the song pours straight from his heart. If you’re looking for an expert blend of soul, funk, R&B, pop, blues and jazz, then you won’t find one that’s stood the test of time as well as this 50-year-old classic.
In the mood for heartbreak instead? Check out the grittier tracks, ‘So You’re Leaving Me’ and ‘What is This Feeling’, which references Green’s frustration about his relationship falling apart.
69 Love Songs – The Magnetic Fields
Want to really go big? This six-disc box set of 69 love songs is the one for you. The American indie poppers’ sixth studio album was released in 1999 by Merge Records. The three-volume concept album, comprised of the titular 69 love songs, was all written by Magnetic Fields’ frontman, Stephin Merritt.
The inspiration for the collection came from Merritt sitting in a Manhattan piano bar, listening to Stephen Sondheim songs and deciding that he wanted to get into theatre music. Interestingly, Merritt has said that 69 Love Songs is ‘not remotely an album about love. It’s an album about love songs, which are very far away from anything to do with love.’ The album spans songs in genres as varied as country, punk rock (‘Punk Love’), Scottish folk (‘Wi’ Nae Wee Bairn Ye’ll Me Beget’), synth pop, free jazz (‘Love is Like Jazz’) and mournful ballads (‘Busby Berkeley Dreams’, ‘The Book of Love’).
Music critics loved it – The Guardian hailed it as, ‘an album of such tenderness, humour and bloody-minded diversity, it’ll have you throwing away your preconceptions and wondering how you ever survived a broken heart without it.’ Others compared Merritt’s lyrics with Cole Porter and, proving its quality, in 2021, NME placed it at No. 213 on their list of all-time greatest albums.
Merritt combined forces with four other vocalists, and brought in a dizzying array of instruments, from ukulele, banjo and accordion to cello, mandolin, piano, flute, guitars, a selection of percussion and his more usual synths and effects.
Pitchfork described the huge variety of genres on the album: ‘As a prism refracts light into a spectrum of colours, 69 Love Songs not only refracts love into a spectrum of emotions, but also refracts the love song itself into a spectrum of musical forms. There’s a duet between a dysfunctional Sonny and Cher (‘Yeah! Oh Yeah!’), a country-gospel tune confusing religious and secular love (‘Kiss Me Like You Mean It’), and an amusingly light-hearted tale of a soldier’s drunken tryst (‘The Night You Can’t Remember’).
‘There’s giddy lust (‘Let’s Pretend We’re Bunny Rabbits’), romantic longing (‘Come Back from San Francisco’), sleazy leering (‘Underwear’), and resignation and despair (‘No One Will Ever Love You’).’
Seems that whatever romantic mood you want to channel, 69 Love Songs will have you covered.
Room for Squares – John Mayer
Soulful guitar and a soft vocals ensure that Mayer’s melodic album about young love cuts straight to the heart of the matter. Whether you’re currently caught up in first love or reminiscing and going on a nostalgic rummage through your romantic memories, the tracks on Room for Squares make an excellent soundtrack.
The American singer-songwriter’s debut album was released in 2001 on both Aware and Columbia Records. Single ‘Your Body is a Wonderland’ earned Mayer a Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.
There are sweeping, classical strings on ‘City Love’ and pure pop guitar on ‘Back to You’, plus some funky bass on ‘Neon’. The result? A slick collection of infectious tunes with moving vocals and honest sentiment.
21 – Adele
Well, you can’t have a run-down of the best albums inspired by love and leave out Adele’s record-breaking 21, can you? The singer-songwriter’s second album debuted in 2011 on XL Recordings in Europe and Columbia Records in the US.
In the canon of heartbreak albums, has there ever been one that’s more ubiquitous than 21? Adele began writing the album when she was still in the relationship whose break-up subsequently inspired the record. The Queen of Breakup Belters collaborated with songwriters and producers including Rick Rubin, Paul Epworth, Ryan Tedder, Jim Abbiss and Dan Wilson.
21 topped the charts in more than 30 counties and became the world’s best-selling album of the year for both 2011 and 2012. Want an even bigger stat? In the UK, it’s the best-selling album of the 21st century. Yes, you read that right, the whole century. It’s also the best-selling album by a solo artist of all-time and won the Grammy for Album of the Year.
Adele’s performance of ‘Someone Like You’ at the BRIT Awards in 2011 blew everyone away and cemented her reputation not only as a performer, but also as the lyricist for the lovelorn.
If Valentine’s Day is giving you grief, then channel either vengeful feelings through ‘Rolling in the Deep’ (‘don’t underestimate the things that I will do’), your inner piano-vixen lounge singer (‘Rumour Has It’) or, of course, go full-on ‘I’m not giving up without a fight’ and bellow ‘Someone Like You’ into your second tub of Ben and Jerry’s of the night. We’ve all been there.
The Love Below – Andre 3000
Looking for a jazzy, funky Valentine? This 2003 release on Arista Records by half of Outkast is just the thing. ‘The Love Below (Intro)’ is a gorgeously old skool piano piece that could easily have slotted into either the soundtrack for When Harry Met Sally or La La Land.
The album, which Uncut magazine called, ‘an avant-soul concept album’ features guests including Rosario Dawson, Kelis, Norah Jones and Fonzworth Bentley, who examine the emotions of falling in love and of loving oneself. It was suggested that Andre 3000’s breakup with Erykah Badu influenced the album’s lyrics, many of which are concerned with the search for true love.
The Love Below’s claim to ultimate Valentine’s day album? Well, track four is titled, ‘Happy Valentine’s Day’. Or why not have a joyous dance about to ‘Hey Ya!’ to celebrate the giddiness of love.
Love Deluxe – Sade
Sade’s fourth studio album was released by Epic Records in 1992. If you’re after an album that surges with emotion, but without all the bombastic bells and whistles, then this is the one for you. The first track ‘No Ordinary Love’, shows off Sade’s gorgeous voice, and the spare arrangements on the other tracks follow the signature style of earlier classics Diamond Life and Stronger than Pride.
The lyrics are loosely inspired by the ups and downs of Sade Adu’s six-year marriage to Spanish film director Carlos Pliego. For evocative love songs, look no further than ‘Kiss of Life’ and ‘I Couldn’t Love You More’, or the soaring ‘Cherish the Day’, the final single released from the album, which Sade confessed was her favourite track on the album. ‘I think it’s really quite deep, but at the same time it’s a love song.’
I Love You, Honeybear – Father John Misty
If you find some aspects of Valentine’s Day a bit cloying, then Father John Misty is the perfect choice. I Love You, Honeybear is full of sardonic wit and is romantic almost in spite of itself.
Folk musician Josh Tillman’s second album since his departure from Fleet Foxes came out on the Bella Union label in 2015 and was described by the artist as a concept album about himself. The songs explore his relationship with his wife, Emma, and aspects of his personal life that saw him ‘engaging in all manner of regrettable behaviour’.
The album’s last song, ‘I Went to the Store One Day’, chronicles Tillman and his wife’s relationship from the day they met in a store and up to their deaths. Alexis Petridis of The Guardian particularly loved the album’s lyrics: ‘There are moments when, if you’re listening closely, the constant lyrical shifts from caustic irony to plaintive declarations of love can really knock you for six, not least on the title track.’
Pitchfork called it, ‘an album by turns passionate and disillusioned, tender and angry, so cynical it’s repulsive, and so open-hearted it hurts.’ This is definitely an album for the ‘it’s complicated’ crowd.
Hounds of Love – Kate Bush
For everyone who’s discovered Kate Bush thanks to ‘Running Up that Hill’ on Stranger Things, Hounds of Love should definitely be on your playlist for Valentine’s Day.
The album debuted way back in 1985 on EMI Records and as well as ‘Running Up that Hill’, there were three further singles, ‘Cloudbusting’, ‘The Big Sky’ and title track, ‘Hounds of Love’. Sounds called the album, ‘dramatic, moving and wildly, unashamedly, beautifully romantic’, while Spin hailed it as an, ‘art-pop classic’. Rolling Stone ranked it at No. 68 in their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2020.
Dive into ‘Cloudbusting’s lush strings for full-tilt romance (‘you’re here in my head, like the sun coming out’) and use the album as a jumping-off point to segue into today’s big, bold artists such as Florence + the Machine, St. Vincent and Anohni.
The Lexicon of Love – ABC
Another concept album, this 80s debut from ABC tracks singer Martin Fry’s heartache as he tries and fails to have a meaningful relationship. If you’re currently in the throes of unrequited love, then mooning over the object of your affection on Insta seems a lot better soundtracked by ‘Tears are not Enough’, ‘Poison Arrow’, ‘All of My Heart’ and ‘The Look of Love’.
You can particularly wallow in the talky bit on the latter: ‘And all my friends just might ask me / They say, “Martin, maybe one day you’ll find true love”/ And I say, maybe, there must be a solution to / The one thing, the one thing we can’t find’ – there’s a satisfyingly big sigh you can indulge in, if you’re feeling particularly dramatic.
Come Away with Me – Norah Jones
Come Away with Me celebrated its 20-year anniversary last year. At the time Norah Jones burst onto the international scene, she was an unknown artist. But her unique blend of jazz, blues, country, folk and pop instantly made her a global star.
Blue Note Records’ newest chart-topper hit the No. 1 slot on the Billboard 200 and received Grammy Awards for both Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album. ‘Don’t Know Why’ also won Song of the Year, Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Jones was supported by jazz musicians including Kevin Breit, Bill Frisell and Tony Scherr on the mix of jazz standards and folk infusions.
If you’re yearning for relaxed romance on the 14th February, then chill out with Come Away with Me – it’s like a gorgeous, jazz-tinged caress.
If Music Be the Food of Love…
Can’t get enough romantic music? Listen to our hand-picked playlist, then dive into our selection of the most romantic movies and their soundtracks, together with the movies’ best love songs. Alternatively, explore our latest albums for the best in high-quality original music to license.
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