The Erie Reader's 2024 Valentine's Day Mixtape

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Hey there. We stayed up late last night making a mixtape just for you 🥰

Nothing can quite put feelings into words like a good song – a simple lyric that can cut right to the heart of it and give you that deep sense that someone else out there gets it. Or a song can evoke a time and place when you were feeling particularly happy, heartbroken, or swooning. Here at the Reader, each Valentine's Day for the past few years, the staff, writers, artists, and editors collaborate to share our favorite love (or love adjacent songs) with you. Feel free to enjoy this playlist whenever the mood strikes you. Happy Valentine's Day.

"100 Years Ago" by The Rolling Stones – Jonathan Burdick (Contributing Writer)

"Heaven" by Mitski

It's so sweet and lullaby-ish and about that all-consuming feeling of being in love with someone who is a perfect match. –Edwina Capozziello (Contributing Writer)

"The Only Exception" by Paramore

Released in 2009 on Paramore's album Brand New Eyes, the song is an emotionally rich love ballad about vulnerability. – Julia Carden (Contributing Writer)

"Everybody Here Wants You" by Jeff Buckley –Anthony Carson (Contributing Artist)

"Run Away With Me" by Carly Rae Jepsen

It is the perfect encapsulation of the potential in a new, budding relationship. –Nathaniel Clark (Contributing Writer)

"Kiss" by Prince –Susannah Faulkner (Contributing Writer)

"Lovers Rock" by TV Girl

It's melancholic but sweet and perfectly honest. –Chloe Forbes (Contributing Writer)

"Lay, Lady, Lay" by Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan at his most sexy. –Brian Graham (Editor in Chief)

"Just Like Heaven" by The Cure  

This song forever feels just like a dream to me. –Jessica Hunter (Media Editor/Photographer)

"Everywhere, Everything" by Noah Kahan  –Ally Kutz (Contributing Writer)

"If It All Goes South" by Sammy Rae & the Friends

It rides that fine line between the anxiety and exhilaration of trying to enjoy the moment without dreading if, how, and when it's going to end. –Tommy Link (Contributing Artist)

"True Love" by Hovvdy –Aaron Mook (Contributing Writer)

"I Want To Know What Love Is" by Foreigner

It's the cheesiest 80's ballad I could think of.  When I think of romance, I think of couples skating together at the roller rink. –Brad Pattullo (Contributing Artist)

"The Weather" by Built to Spill 

My (now) husband and I first exchanged "I love yous" while sitting on a patch of grass outside the Beachland Ballroom waiting for a Built to Spill show to start. –Erin Phillips (Managing Editor)

"Make Out Club" by Unrest 

The signature track from a band that was twee before "twee" got annoying. –Dan Schank (Contributing Writer)

"Paradise in the Rough" by Bow Thayer –Melissa Sullivan Shimek (Contributing Writer/Artist)

"In Your Love" by Tyler Childers

"It is a beautiful, sentimental song with a sparse-yet-lush piano opening beneath Childers' emotional lyrics sung with a voice on the verse of cracking from the emotional weight only to be buoyed by light drumming that moves the story onward with hints of vibrato radiating a confidence in the message. What's more, the official music video, directed by Silas House -- a friend of Childers and Kentucky's poet laureate -- is just as poignant and powerful, telling the story of love's wins and losses and challenges through the lens of two coal miners in Appalachia. Finding and fighting for and loving love? Try that in a small town." - Ben Speggen (Contributing Editor)

"Make Me Say It Again Girl" by The Isley Brothers –Matt Swanseger (Copy Editor)

"All Your'n" by Tyler Childers

This is simply a beautifully, sentimental song about being completely and mutually in love with your person, courtesy of the best country artist of the 21st century. –Nick Warren (Contributing Editor)

"Slugs of Love" by Little Dragon

This seems like a great song for couples way into each other; we should all be so lucky. –Adam Welsh (Editor in Chief)

"In Spite of Ourselves" by John Prine featuring Iris DeMent

It's a quirky love song about how well a couple knows each other and accepts them for their foibles, with tongue and cheek lyrics. –Larry Wheaton (Contributing Writer)