Staff Pix 2/11: Valentine's Day
The Milk Crate staff considers their favorite songs for Valentine’s Day: the love songs, the anti-love songs, and Adam Sandler’s contribution to the holiday. Tune in Fridays from 1-2 EST to the Staff Pix radio show.
Sophie Severs
Anyone Else but You by The Moldy Peaches
The Moldy Peaches capture something special with this track. Many will recognize the endearing song from the soundtrack of the 2007 film, Juno. With the help of sweet lyrics and relaxed guitar strums, the song conveys what it is like to be in love; you remember and treasure the little things. As the song says, it doesn’t matter if someone is your part time lover or full time friend— everyone needs someone in there life who will tell them: “I don't see what anyone can see in anyone else/But you”
Izzy Desmarais
Grow Old With You by Adam Sandler, from The Wedding Singer soundtrack
The Wedding Singer is one of my favorite movies of all time. Robbie (Adam Sandler) sings this original song to Julia (Drew Barrymore) while on a flight to Las Vegas, professing his love for her and, in turn, stopping her from getting married to her two timing fiance. This is the perfect love song. No joke, I will be having my first dance to this song at my wedding and if my future husband can’t accept that, then we simply are not meant to be together. I mean, just take a look at the first verse: “I wanna make you smile whenever you're sad / Carry you around when your arthritis is bad / All I wanna do is grow old with you.” It’s such a simple song, but that’s what makes it so profound to me. Ugh, what can I say? Way deep down inside, I’m a hopeless romantic.
Will Ingman
Luna by Smashing Pumpkins
Buried within the liner notes of 2011’s Siamese Dream reissue, among the egotistical ramblings of frontman Billy Corgan, lies a paragraph that describes “Luna” as a love song, in a way better than I ever could. “I am in love with someone that doesn't love me. My songs are better than hers. This is my way to prove a point not worth making. I sing a love song in an empty room. It is for the moon. It can never be for the one you love.”
Karenna Umscheid
I Want You to Love Me by Fiona Apple
The idiosyncratic style of Fiona Apple’s “I Want You to Love Me” doesn’t make for your run-of-the-mill love song, yet it is phenomenal in its uniqueness. Rife with syncopation and an intense passion in her voice, Apple’s desire for love says more about herself than the person she wants. She sings for the derangement of living life as it is while so desperately wanting to be loved. I feel understood when Apple sings “I know that time is elastic/And I know when I go/All my particles disband and disperse/And I’ll be back in the pulse/And I know none of this’ll matter in the long run” because she understands the illogic in love and desire, she recognizes it and still knows what she wants. I admire her ability to acknowledge that two things can be true at once; life can be arbitrary and love intangible, impossible, irrelevant to the course of science of nature, but in the end it’s what she really, really wants. She captures the delusion of desire perfectly. I don’t want any normal-sounding love songs, I want Fiona Apple’s beat, her anger, and her dolphin noises; she just gets me.
Julia Norkus
Be Your Boy by Medium Build
This has recently entered my repertoire, just in time for arguably one of the happiest holidays of the year. “Be Your Boy” is one of the many bangers off of the 2019 album Wild by artist Medium Build, and it encompasses the feeling of wanting to be with someone, and wanting to get it right. There are so many questions asked throughout the song, about how to love and the artist is asking someone to teach you how to be right for them. The line “Would you still read me, baby, if I weren’t required,” is so genius, and I think about it as I try to fall asleep at night because how could you not be obsessed with that line? It’s a more eloquent way of asking “Would you still choose me? Am I what you want in this life?” Overall, it’s such an interesting take on love, and a perspective that isn’t often discussed in love songs. It’s so relatable, because we all have these thoughts and fears about what we might be doing wrong or right, and I love it for all of these reasons.
Lydia Aga
Time (You and I) by Khruangbin
“Time (You and I)” is an unleashed whirlwind of funk, disco, and soul. The Texas trio abandon their psychedelic roots on this track and make their way towards the dancefloor. Lyrically, the song is quite simple, the song is an endless loop of, “That’s life / If we had more time / We could live forever / Just you and I / We could be together.” Yet, the song defies time. The lyrics latch onto the future and all the possibilities that could be if we simply had more time together.
Adora Brown
There’s No Insurance for a Broken Heart by Ryan Woods
My personal favorite anti-love song definitely makes a return this Valentine’s season. Ryan Woods tackles the pain of heartbreak in his own unique way. The beginning is primarily dominated by a repetitive acoustic tune – a more melancholy take. But in the final minute of the song, Woods screams “‘Cause we’re all gonna die!” and allows an electric guitar to take over.
Everly Orfanedes
God Only Knows by The Beach Boys
This 60s classic goes against the norm for love songs with a haunting chord progression followed by even more haunting lyrics. In “God Only Knows” the Beach Boys tell a story of a tragic, unbreakable love, in the romantic form of a letter. Songwriter Brian Wilson expresses within these love letter lyrics that there is simply no point of life without this person, and that god only knows what he feels about them, this love described is so strong it simply cannot be expressed enough through words or song.
Lauren Larking
Heart Basel by The Drums
The Drums have a place in most surf rock fanatics' hearts and especially mine. There is a home for this song on almost all my playlists. “Heart Basel” is lighthearted pining love song fun. Reverb layered over harmonized vocals, The Drums hit the nail on the head with this track off their critically acclaimed 2017 album Abysmal Thoughts. The line “Oh, the tropical weather / It must've softened your heart” is lyrical and heartache genius from frontman Jonathan Pierce. A beach song in its truest form even in the bitter cold.
Harry Bates
Forever by the Little Dippers
This song is just it for me. It’s the soundtrack of eyes meeting and adjusting to see the person across in a completely different light, then transitioning to a romantic dinner overlooking a roaring rainstorm outside. It captures the experience of love. Hotter than the sun: It’s a warmth that can only be communicated through the angelic harmonies of the Little Dippers.
Sara O’Connell
I’m Not In Love by Kelsey Lu
Kelsey Lu’s cover of 10cc’s “I’m Not In Love” is a haunting take of the original.. Taking inspiration from her own heartbeat, Lu uses the bass drum to take the listener on an intimate journey. This is not a typical shout-from-the-roof-tops-I’m-in-love-song, this is about repressing the feeling of excitement of a budding romance. It’s the feeling when you don’t want to put so much pressure on a new relationship, so you’re fighting with yourself to repress your excitement of what could be.
Nora Onanian
Safe From Heartbreak (if you never fall in love) by Wolf Alice
A change from their more rock-leaning tracks, Wolf Alice pair a serene soundscape with a strong anti-love sentiment in their track “Safe from Heartbreak (if you never fall in love).” The lyrics are a declaration of self-worth. “I ain’t a play thing, to make life exciting” Ellie Roswell first comes in singing, her vocals effortlessly smooth and angelic. Finger-plucked acoustics carry the backing. There is something powerful about the calmness radiated sonically while the lyrics are charged with a not so quiet vulnerability. “You fucked with my feelings,” Roswell sings at the most impassioned moments, the simple words and her vocal delivery speaking to my heartbreak in all the right ways.
Lily Hartenstein
Never in My Wildest Dreams by Dan Auerbach
I often deny myself of my inherent romanticism but this song breaks down all my inhibitions against love in less than three minutes. The gentle acoustics, layered with the steel guitar twang and slow-building horns, creates a warmth that is irresistible. It feels like falling into one of those naps so good it leaves markings from the pillow on your face. The final bridge in the song’s mellow crescendo is the simplest of all: “Carry my laundry bin/ Take my recs for a spin/ Watch daytime TV”. It breaks my heart in the tender simplicity of a love you could never have imagined, sitting right there in your living room.
Maura Cowan
Summertime by My Chemical Romance
If you are very lucky, I firmly believe that you can enter a love affair with a piece of music. This is my soulmate in a song, and it was love at first listen. I was twelve years old, conventionally disaffected and desperate for escape, and from the very first notes of Summertime’s soaring bass line, I knew that I would be letting this track guide my notions of romance for the rest of my life. It is perhaps a simplification to say that it has been my favorite song for the past 7 years, but it has always fulfilled the fantasy of free and wild love that it promised me so long ago. When I look into my partner’s eyes, after all this time, this is still the tune I hear.
Adri Pray
You’re Special by NF
I recently rediscovered NF in March of last year following his release of CLOUDS, his 2021 mixtape. This five-minute song encapsulates the initial feeling of uncertainty that comes with entering a serious relationship with your partner that eventually unfolds into the undying love of the only person you can imagine living the rest of your days with.
Sarah Fournell
You Are In Love by Taylor Swift
I’ve always felt as though making breakfast together is one of the greatest acts of love. Maybe it’s just the serenity of a still morning, or the lighthearted jokes that arise when the pancakes don’t flip right and you burn the toast, but you eat it anyway because the love of your life made it. For me, the intimacy of mundane moments is where true love lies. Love you can feel radiating “in the silence, on the way home, and with the lights out.” “You are in Love” encapsulates a world-building love—a world in which only you and your partner exist. As if “You two are dancing in a snow globe, 'round and 'round.”
Allie Hughes
Forever Love (Digame) by Anna Nalick
Anna Nalick is one of my nostalgia artists and this song encapsulates my childhood wonder of love. My parents often played her 2005 album, Wreck of the Day, when we rode in the car when I was younger. Throughout the song she sings, “Forever love, say it love / Digame, Digame / Tell me so, I can hold you in my soul / And if I go, I’ll know.” I’ve recently become more cynical about love, but this song brings me back to the foundation: creating love that you can rely on and build upon.