As a hopeless romantic, I listen to love-songs all year long. My top Spotify genres were “hopeless romantic” and “wistful.” Every single playlist I create has at least 4 lovey-dovey Taylor Swift songs, one of them usually being the long pond studio session version of “peace” (it’s her best love song, and I will argue this to the day I die.)
However, as much as it pains me to admit it, sometimes, it’s good to give the Taylor Swift albums a break. When you’re experiencing one of these moments, or if you aren’t a Swiftie and want some new love songs, here are 7 more songs that I believe are both underrated and underhyped to keep you in the spirit!
1. “3 Small Words” – Misterwives
This entire album slaps, and this song in particular is a new find for me. It’s a touching, sweet song about being scared to tell someone you love them, wanting time to stop, and just feeling thankful for this new person in your life. It’s adorable and deserves every single award. “3 Small Words” for the EGOT!
Favorite Lyrics: “That night that you colored my hair / I knew something real special was there / but I was scared. / Three small words are so big when they’re for you”
2. “Chateau Lobby #4” (In C for Two Virgins) – Father John Misty
This song blew up on my TikTok (as it deserves) but it doesn’t appear to have the same hype as recent songs, which is criminal! I cannot think about it for too long without imagining dancing to it at a wedding. It’s so expressive and creates strong images with few words. It’s perfect.
Favorite Lyrics: “You left a note in your perfect script / ‘stay as long as you want!’ / I haven’t left your bed since.”
3. “Nicholas Sparks” – Kinda Collective
First of all, the cover art for this one makes me so happy. It’s the band, plus a dog, studying various Nicholas Sparks books. I recognize the covers from my bookshelf. (I said I was a hopeless romantic and I meant it.)
It’s one of my favorite “feels like it belongs in a movie montage” songs. The song is about feeling like you and your lover are one of these idealized stories already on the market. It’s about truly understanding the love songs on the radio, and the feeling that goes with it.
Favorite Lyrics: “’Cause we’re straight out of a Nicholas Sparks, / straight off an R&B love song, just without the blues / straight off a Taylor Swift song that you made me listen to”
4. “It’s Always Sunny with You” – {Parentheses}
Part two of songs that feel like they belong in a movie montage belongs to “It’s Always Sunny with You” by {Parentheses.} There’s a happy, peppy little interlude between choruses and verses that make me imagine a whole couple dance off of this. It’s about being surprised to find someone makes you feel this way, and that being with someone can bring you so much joy. Is it sustainable to think “it’s always sunny with you” about a romantic partner? Not at all. Does it make my hopeless romantic brain happy? Very much so.
Favorite Lyrics: “And I’ve been waiting for a pretty face / to walk right through the door but now I found / you came in through the window”
5. “Remind Me” – Emily King
This song speaks for the moment right before you start to fall for someone, feeling the familiar flaps of butterfly wings in your stomach. It starts off softly and builds, reminding me of that lyric from The Fault in Our Stars that made my 14 year old heart sob “I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, then all at once.”
Favorite Lyrics: “Like a heartbeat racing, / like a new beginning, / you remind me of something else. / Something that I used to feel- / something like what I’ve been missing”
6. “928 Miles” – Ellie Banke
This song, for all my hopeless romantics in LDRs (are you okay??) by Ellie Banke is a stunning piano ballad about just wanting your love next to you.
Favorite Lyrics: “I need you now/ your embrace, your lips on my face, / your cigarette tainted love infectin’ me. / Oh, but no matter how hard I pray, / you’re still nine hundred twenty-eight miles away”
7. “Run Away with Me” (Live) – Aaron Tveit
This song has been covered by every musical theater tenor-hunk out there, but this version is by my childhood crush. And it’s on Spotify. So it’s superior. Written by Kait Kerrigan and Brian Lowdermilk, this song follows the singer begging the listener to run out of town with them, abandoning all other responsibilities.
A sustainable relationship model? Perhaps not. But gosh darn it, I get misty eyed whenever I listen to it.
Favorite Lyrics: “I know this is fast. / What else can I do? / Call it crazy, but I’m much crazier for you. / I have these plans, / I have all these plans / for a house that we’ll build on a bay / when we run away”
Now that I am sufficiently mushy-hearted after thinking about all these songs again, give them a listen!