These aren’t necessarily indicative of the picks below, but doesn’t it just get you into mixtape mood? Photo by Fabrizio Lonzini

Oh, Valentine’s Day. It’s an overblown “holiday” that could be wonderful in theory (because it’s a celebration of love! And love is lovely!) In reality, it’s kind of a drag. If you’re in a relationship—congratulations! You get to spend extra money on tokens of affection and expensive dinner reservations. If you’re single and upset about it, congratulations! You get to spend extra money on that bottle of wine (or liquor) that you’re going to finish on your own.

Whatever it is you’re doing tomorrow night, consult our handy Valentine’s Day playlist, which skews from from songs about love to the physical nature of relationships (we did try to avoid songs about total heartbreak, though):

The Ronettes – “Be My Baby”

It’s not just one of the best love songs in the history of pop music, it’s one of the best songs in the history of pop music. Although this is more lust than love, any Valentine’s Day playlist without it would be sorely incomplete. —Valerie Paschall

Brian Eno – “I’ll Come Running”

Because little gestures mean a lot, too. —Pat Padua

UGK featuring Outkast – “Int’l Players Anthem”

UGK/Andre 3000’s pledge to monogamy on “International Players Anthem” is of the best love/wedding song to come out in recent history. —Andy Hess

SOJA featuring Collie Buddz – “She Still Loves Me”

This is a really sweet reggae tune with a summer time lovers groove and lyrics that show the reality of love and relationships. SOJA lead singer Jacob Hemphill is quite convincing as he sings “You Should forget her, ’cause I’ve got her heart. She hates the way I tear it apart.” But my favorite lyric in the song is from Collie Buddz, who says “And every single time you break a girl’s heart in two, There’s a little less of it when it comes back to you.” —Andy Cerutti

The Mountain Goats – “No Children”

This is not a happy love song, but it is still a love song, insofar that the difference between love and hate is thinner than we care to admit. This tune is great for wedding sing-alongs, by the way (I’ve already participated in two of them). —Alan Zilberman

The Field Mice – “Coach Station Reunion”

This is a super twee song about seeing someone you haven’t seen in a long time and an ode to the long distance love affair. —Rohan Mahadevan

Brendan Benson – “Emma J”

“There’s this girl whose kiss is all I dream of. And I’m the boy who prays it’s with me that she’s in love.” #sappylove —Brandon Hirsch

Jessie Ware – “Tough Love”

This song sums up passion, desire and yearning so deep the narrator can’t keep it together. If that isn’t what love (at least in the start of the relationship is) then what is? —Rohan Mahadevan

Ginuwine – “Pony”

¯_(ツ)_/¯ —Alex Schelldorf

New Order – “Temptation”

This is for someone who knows who he is. —Rohan Mahadevan

Daft Punk – “Something About Us”

“Something About Us,” the unrequited love cool-down from the group’s 2001 classic Discovery, channels that fatal crush into a timeless slow jam. Simple, plainspoken language over digital Steve Winwood-esque keys allows the song some space to breath in an otherwise claustrophobic dance record. Oddly, the song’s soundtracking of a death scene in the companion anime film Interstellar 5555 made it even more powerful in the new setting. But the song didn’t need the extra weight. The fragile, robotic monotone sold it plenty. —Andy Hess

The Magnetic Fields – “Sweet Lovin’ Man”

There are so many quality Magnetic Fields songs that could work on such a list, and while “Strange Powers” and “Papa Was a Rodeo” may be the more obvious choices, there’s an earnestness to this one that makes it particularly special. —Valerie Paschall

Another Sunny Day – “I’m in Love With a Girl Who Doesn’t Know I Exist”

Who hasn’t been able to relate to this at some point? —Ahmad Zaghal

Frightened Rabbit – “The Woodpile”

This is the song for when you meet the person that makes you feel like you finally have someone in your corner. —Caroline Baxter

Bad Sports – “Can’t Just Be Friends”

Bad Sports are The Ramones if they drank more coffee and came from Texas. Like my other pick, the simplest lyrics tend to do the heaviest hitting when it comes to love songs. Friend loves friend, love happens. Bada-bing, bada-boom. —Tori Kerr

I Spy – “Sixty Billion Served”

It’s the stuff we love we’ll fight the hardest to protect. That applies to people, of course, but it also applies to the ethereal junk in our lives we need to make us feel whole. I Spy’s ode to punk music and punk principals captures what so many folks I know have said, more or less, over the years: “This music saved my life, so I’ll be dead and fucking gone before its bought and sold.” It’s a heartfelt love song if I ever heard one, from one of the world’s all-time great punk bands. —Ron Knox

Yeasayer – “I Remember”

This is a melodious love poem that twists the chest and sends the mind into the vault of “that person.” —Emma Watters

R. Kelly – “Bump n’ Grind”

How can you have a love song playlist and not have R. Kelly on it? —Rohan Mahadevan

Type O Negative – “Love You To Death”

A lurid tale of gothic lust, woven by lumbering, downtuned heavy grooves and the baritone voice of the late Peter Steele. The alternating dominant and submissive overtones drive the sensuality of this song, as Steele first pleads, “I beg to serve, your wish is my law / Now close those eyes and let me love you to death,” then promises that “…the beast inside of me is gonna get ya…” The beautiful harmonies of the chorus lift the song higher, and the genuine passion of Peter Steele makes this one a must for your sweetheart in black. —Jon Pacella

Kylie Minogue – “Can’t Get You Out of My Head”

Over 14 years later, this is still such a jam. This is for when your mind is playing one person on repeat. —Dalton Vogler

The Blow – “Parentheses”

What is better than spending time with your loved one in a grocery store? This cute song is what domestic life is all about. —Rohan Mahadevan

The Weakerthans – “The Reasons”

There are plenty of songs about feelings in John K. Samson’s catalog. You could, arguably, make this playlist for Valentine’s Day using only Weakerthans songs. The group falls alongside fellow under-the-radar Canadian power-pop bands like Sloan that make faceless rock-and-roll sound necessary, The wry, cutting approach on “The Reasons” is an exercise in economic songwriting. Samson succinctly wraps up the thoughts of a couple that’s been settled for some time – the inside jokes, the charming annoyances and the comforta that comes with a long-term relationship – calling it quits just before you’ve gotten sick of the winking, literary posturing. —Andy Hess

Animal Collective – “Winters Love”

This is possibly the most joyful song on here and it’s proof that Animal Collective can even make acoustic songs sound like lush layered somersaults. Once again, Noah Lennox’s stunning voice ultimately steals the show. —Valerie Paschall

William Elliott Whitmore – “Pine Box”

In terms of life and death, we’re all on our way out, probably faster than we’d like — nothing to do about that. The question, of course, is what carries on when these crude sacks of meat and bones we schlep around stop working. Ask Will Whitmore, and he’ll tell you: Love, and not much else. It’s one of the overarching themes of his catalog, that love perseveres above all, even when we’re sunk into the cold, black earth. For those of us left to toil here after the people we love have died, their deaths leave us hurt, broken, lost and angry. Without love, we wouldn’t feel much at all. —Ron Knox

Florence + The Machine – “Cosmic Love”

It’s a pretty song with pretty lyrics, and the live versions are even better. —Krystina Brown

Yo La Tengo – “Our Way to Fall”

f this song doesn’t make you want to fall in love, then I don’t know what to tell you. YLT repeat the simplest lines over and over to tell a tale as old as time: someone secretly, bashfully loves someone else and is waiting for something, anything to happen. It’s hopeful, but frustrating. It’s the story of Luke and Lorelai. —Tori Kerr

Caribou – “Can’t Do Without You”

There’s probably a bit of recency bias with this pick, but Caribou’s raw confession towards the tail end of this track is easily one of the most poignant, love affirming endings I’ve heard not just in electronica, but across the entire music spectrum. —Dalton Vogler

Michael Jackson – “Love Never Felt So Good”

There are so many options to choose from the King of Pop, but let’s highlight one of the few posthumous releases that hearkens back to his Off the Wall days and reminds us of that feeling of falling in love. —Dalton Vogler