Valentine's Day, Vol. 7

Let's get some love up in this world, please and thank you. Even if you're a Valentine's hater, it's a great day to just sprinkle some extra love of any type around. Friends, family, partners, pets, kids, everyone deserves some love, and our 2026 Valentine's Playlist, collected from the Master Playlist available on Apple Music @audioaesthetics, is a good backing track for the day. Let's jump in and start listening!

Then by Brad Paisley (written by B. Paisley, C. DuBois, A. Gorley)

Featured on Paisley's 2009 album American Saturday Night, this song will always mean the world to me because it was my husband and I's first dance at our wedding. It's a beautiful reminder that true love blossoms with time.

I remember trying not to stare the night that I first met you/You had me mesmerized/And three weeks later in the front porch light, taking forty-five minutes to kiss goodnight/I hadn’t told you yet, but I thought I loved you then/Now you’re my whole life, now you’re my whole world/I just can’t believe the way I feel about you, girl/Like a river meets the sea, stronger than it’s ever been/We’ve come so far since that day, and I thought I loved you then

Who Are You When I'm Not Looking by Blake Shelton (written by E. Lee, J. Wiggins)

Featured on Shelton's 2010 EP All About Tonight, this romantic ballad felt goofy to me when I first heard it, but it's really grown on me in the years since. Part of the beauty of love is getting to know every single tiny little thing about your partner, not just what the public gets to see.

My, oh, my, you’re so good looking/Hold yourself together like a pair of bookends/But I’ve not tasted all your cooking/Who are you when I’m not looking/Do you pour a little something on the rocks/Slide down the hallway in your socks/When you undress, do you leave a path/Then sink to your nose in a bubble bath

Shape of You by Ed Sheeran (written by E. Sheeran, J. McDaid, K. Burruss, K. Briggs, T. Cottle, S. Mac)

Featured on Sheeran's 2017 album Divide, this song is iconic even if it's been vastly overplayed. Once again, we see that theme of the excitement of new love.

The club isn’t the best place to find a lover, so the bar is where I go/Me and my friends at the table doing shots, drinking fast and then we talk slow/And you come over and start up a conversation with just me, and trust me, I’ll give it a chance now/Take my hand, stop, put Van Morrison on the jukebox and then we start to dance/And now I'm singing like, "Girl, you know I want your love, your love was handmade for somebody like me/Come on now, follow my lead, I may be crazy, don’t mind me"/Say, "Boy, let’s not talk too much, grab on my waist and put that body on me/Come on now, follow my lead, come, come on now, follow my lead, mmm"/I’m in love with the shape of you, we push and pull like a magnet do/Although my heart is falling, too, I’m in love with your body/And last night you were in my room, and now my bedsheets smell like you/Every day discovering something brand new, well, I’m in love with your body/Oh, I, oh, I, oh, I, oh, I, I’m in love with your body/Oh, I, oh, I, oh, I, oh, I, I’m in love with your body/Oh, I, oh, I, oh, I, oh, I, I’m in love with your body/Every day discovering something brand new, I’m in love with the shape of you

As Long As You're Mine by Idina Menzel & Norbert Leo Butz (written by S. Schwartz)

Featured on the 2003 original cast recording for Wicked, Menzel and Butz do an incredible job bringing the steam level up here. This is both a great musical duet and a great romantic ballad.

Kiss me too fiercely, hold me too tight/I need help believing you’re with me tonight/My wildest dreamings could not foresee/Lying beside you with you wanting me/And just for this moment, as long as you’re mine/I’ve lost all resistance and crossed some borderline/And if it turns out it’s over too fast/I’ll make every last moment last as long as you’re mine

Fire Escape by Miranda Lambert (written by M. Lambert, H. Lindsey, L. McKenna, L. Rose)

Featured on Lambert's 2019 album Wildcard, this feels like a nostalgic nod to a new love. It's the anticipation, the curiosity, and in this case the slow burn that can make new love feel so exciting.

We’ll smoke like a couple in the 1960’s/Lit up like a pair of Woodstock hippies/Looking down on a town where it don’t seem wrong/To be a bonfire blaze where it don’t belong/Meet me on the fire escape, meet me on the fire escape/Don’t let me wait, I wanna start up this flame/Meet me on the fire escape, meet me on the fire escape/When the building's burning, baby, we're to blame

Here by Rascal Flatts (written by J. Steele, S. Robson)

Featured on Rascal Flatts's 2007 album Still Feels Good, this is a gorgeous tribute to a love long searched for. I know I can say I feel similarly about my husband, and it's quite the feeling.

There's a place I've been searching for/That took me in and out of buildings, behind windows, walls, and doors/And I thought I found it, couple times even settled down/And I'd hang around just long enough to find my way back out/I know now/The place that I was trying to reach was you right here in front of me/And I wouldn't change a thing, I'd walk right back through the rain/Back to every broken heart on the day that it was breaking/And I'd relive all the years and be thankful for the tears/I've cried with every stumbled step that led to you and brought me here/Right here

Bad Liar by Selena Gomez (written by S. Gomez, I. Kirkpatrick, J. Michaels, J. Tranter, D. Byrne, T. Weymouth, C. Frantz)

Released as a single in 2017, this song is one you'll find yourself humming long after it's over. It's a boppy little number all about not being able to get someone off your mind.

I was walking down the street the other day, tryna distract myself/But then I see your face, oh, wait, that’s someone else, oh/Tryna play it coy, tryna make it disappear/But just like the battle of Troy, there’s nothing subtle here, aah, aah/In my room, there’s a king size space bigger than it used to be/If you want, you can rent that place, call me an amenity, ah, ah/Even if it’s in my dreams, aah/Ooh, you’re taking up a fraction of my mind/Ooh, every time I watch you serpentine/Oh, I’m trying, I’m trying, I’m trying, I’m trying, I’m trying/Oh, I’m trying, I’m trying, I’m trying, I‘m trying, I’m trying/Not to think about you/No, no, no, no, not to think about you/No, no, no, no, I’m trying, I‘m trying, I‘m trying, I’m trying, I’m trying/Oh, I’m trying, I’m trying, I'm trying, I‘m trying, I’m trying/Not to give in to you, no, no, no, no, not to give in to you/Oh, with my feelings on fire, guess I’m a bad liar

To those celebrating this weekend, happy Valentine's Day! Happy listening, and see ya'll next week!