You've got mail! In the spirit of Valentine's Day, we have asked our readers to send us love letters about their favourite songs of all time. Or favourite songs right now. Whichever, really. The important thing is that the song made you feel something. Here are the letters! 💌
Drinking Age - Cameron Winter
I remember, very vividly, listening to Cameron Winter’s Drinking Age for the first time. It wasn’t just listening to that song, when I went through the entire record, it was being confronted by something that latched straight onto my heart. There had not been a song that touched me, so very deeply, in a very long time. In that involuntary, full-body way, where you forget yourself for a moment and just feel. From that first piano note I was hooked entirely, and could not stop looking at my wall until the final note had passed. What he does with his voice is something rare, almost mythical. There’s a kind of elasticity to it, a willingness to break and bend and risk ugliness in pursuit of emotional truth. Every time I return to the track, it feels like that first encounter all over again. He is so intensely talented in a way that I feel like we haven’t had in a while. And Drinking Age is one of those rare pieces that reminds you what it’s like to be undone by music, to be held captive by a voice that refuses to let you look away.
Francesca - Hozier
Oh Francesca.
"…Amor ch’a nullo amato amar perdona,
mi prese del costui piacer sì forte,
che, come vedi, ancor non m’abbandona.”
I can’t translate the feelings this quote from verse 103 of canto V in the Inferno of Dante’s Divine Comedy brings me. It’s what Francesca tells Dante, “Love, that exempts no one beloved from loving, seized me so strongly (with his charm) that, as you see, it has not left me yet.” Her and Paolo’s story has always been near and dear to my heart and Hozier translated it so perfectly into song with quotes like “If someone asked me at the end, I'll tell them put me back in it, darling, I would do it again. If I could hold you for a minute, darling, I'd go through it again.” And “When the heart would cease, ours never knew peace”. The feeling of finding a story so important to me put so beautifully and carefully into music is indescribable, it’s such a romantic, tragic, vulnerable story and Hozier’s Francesca, in my opinion, is in itself a masterpiece that I will always carry with me.
That's All I Ask (Cover) - Jeff Buckley
There’s this Jeff Buckley cover of a Nina Simone song – That’s All I Ask – and I’ve never quite been able to separate the two versions in my mind. Not because they sound the same, but because they occupy the same rarefied emotional space. They’re both such staggering musicians that comparison feels almost irrelevant; it’s like trying to differentiate between two different kinds of lightning. When you watch either of them perform, something happens to your body. You stop fidgeting. You stop thinking. Your eyes lock onto the screen as if held there by some invisible force. Nina has that regal, volcanic stillness - this sense that she’s summoning something ancient and unnameable. Jeff, on the other hand, performs like he’s on the edge of a cliff, like he knows every performance might be his last. Jeff Buckley is my favourite artist, and I think I chose this song because choosing from his own catalogue feels impossible.
'39 - Queen
I don’t remember the first time I listened to ’39 by Queen, but every time I listen to it, I’m reminded of that floating but melancholic feeling this masterpiece of a song makes me feel. She’s one of the least famous songs of the incredible album that is A Night at the Opera but she’s so precious to me. It’s ethereal, Roger Taylor’s falsetto makes you’re feel like you’re floating through space and time, truly conveying the song’s meaning. I have this incredible memory, at the Queen + Adam Lambert concert, on the stage was Brian May and his guitar and nothing else, I was surrounded by older people, a more “age appropriate” audience for Queen, maybe, but me and my friends were some of the very few people singing it back to him. I was sobbing, listening to my favourite Queen song live for the first and probably only time, it was magical and I will always carry the memory in my heart, just like I will always carry ’39 in my heart.
Young Heart - We Are The Ocean
“I can’t make it on my own, I need you by my side” Hit hard at 17 and even harder at 27.
I BELIEVE - Erin LeCount
I believe changed something fundamentally in me. Even though the song hasn't been released for long yet, I can't let it go. I listened to it the first time, a little drunk with my best friend and something in me clicked into place - as if there was a feeling I couldn't place and suddenly it made sense. As much as I love it sonically, I connected to the lyrics on such a deep and personal level, that I couldn't stop thinking about it. It is on constantly and opened me up to explore myself more. There is something about music that makes you hold onto it, makes you feel and confront yourself. It's almost magical and that song reminded me of that glorious adoration again.
Wild Grey Ocean - Sam Fender
When Sam Fender’s album dropped in 2021 I was truly obsessed with the entire record. I thought I couldn't love a record even more, but that changed (funnily enough) when the deluxe version dropped. I listened to it all the time, but every single time Wild Grey Ocean was on, I had to stop myself a little. Let myself feel everything, let go of where I was and just get into it. I was lucky enough to hear the song live in 2024 when for whatever reason the man himself decided to change up the setlist a little for my concert. When he started playing the first chords on his guitar, something inside of me was so elevated. The song means so much to me personally, I couldn't stop myself from crying and while all of that was a lot of feelings for one evening, my friend gave me a hug with the song in the background and it opened me up to so much hope. That’s something that makes music so incredibly special and I wouldn’t want to miss for the world.
World In My Eyes - Depeche Mode
The first time I listened to this song was 1990 with my first boyfriend and it is still my favourite Depeche Mode song of all time. The lyrics are so beautiful and I love dancing to it. It's such a wonderful love song.
Carillon - Sentralina
Carillon is an amazing love song that literally tears my soul from my body. Also the double voices on the bridge always give me goosebumps.