It’s that time of the year, we’re rapidly approaching the dreaded day: whether you’re spending it with a Val, Gal or a Pal, Varsity’s eclectic music writers have you covered with an equally eclectic mix of songs, for the smitten, the heartbroken and the purely platonic. Listen here!

‘Lovesong’, The Cure. A quintessential cusp-o’-the nineties classic. Abound with love-sick echoes and the Cure’s early-doors poppish jangles, this track remains an anthem for the forlorn, side-by-side with the love-stricken.

Looking to roll back the tempo? Finley Quaye’s ‘Even After All’ hums with a warm, shimmering reverb that communes right to the heart. With a topping of Quaye’s highly personable spoken word halfway through the track’s mellow and melodic four minutes, this song vibrates with that sort of perfect peace the luckiest find in that special someone.

‘Wild Is the Wind’, written in the middle of Bowie’s highly controversial Thin White Duke era, closes one of his most experimental albums. After the rollercoaster epic ‘Station to Station’, and wah-y, raucous ‘Golden Years’, ‘Wild Is the Wind’ with its tender guitar and lyrics full of yearning comes almost as a surprise. Whether you read it as lamenting a love that’s always tortuously here and there, or a paean to a transcendent relationship, Bowie’s new language of love is as moving as it is innovative.

Wolf Alice’s anthemic ‘Don’t Delete the Kisses’ sounds like blurry polaroid pictures and getting drunk in the park. It is the perfect encapsulation of the intensity and anxiety of teenage love. It is one of those songs that surrounds you; turn up your headphones to maximum volume and brace yourself for a nostalgia trip.

Written by Prince, but made into something magical by Sinéad O’Connor, ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ captures post-break up agony with devastating effect as O’Connor swings from an almost conversational timbre to the top of her range. Freedom feels pointless, the world opens for the speaker but ‘nothing can take away these blues/ Because nothing compares to you’.

The Ben Folds Five boast an already stunning discography, but there’s a particular ray of sunshine that emerges for the love-sick. ‘Kate’ is a piece of prime Americana, of unflinching bravado balled up with a childlike infatuation, a piano-charged praising of pot-smoking, drum-playing, dandelion-adorned Kate.

‘Guys’ has all the trappings of a too-twee indie love song, but it’s all about the deep love we have for our happens. Platonic love so often goes unsung, but The 1975 are clear about their friendship: ‘you’re the love of my life… you guys are the best thing that ever happened’. It’s a song about the sudden urge to call your friends late at night, or, a few beers deep, to bring out the ‘I love you’ speech’.

The fluid, sun-soaked basslines of Bel Cobain’s ‘Leader’ seem to mimic those first fledgling stumbles of summer romances. Winding along with wine-fuelled (wrong?) decisions, this song glistens with the heady heat of that someone you just can’t quite forget.

Bricknasty’s ‘Boyfriend’ takes the other road. Anguish rides alongside catastrophically cascading drum beats. The Irish five-piece thunder out a tune laden with virulent emotion (all the more palpable in the live version from London’s Bush Hall), lurching between emotional equilibrium and overspill. The result is a tune that’s just as catchy as those first feelings.

If it were possible to sum up an entire philosophy of life in a single song, The Beatles’ ‘The Long and Winding Road’ must come pretty close. McCartney’s manages to capture in his voice a simultaneous feeling of hope as well as despair at waiting since ‘a long, long time ago’. Love is presented as a kind of fate, a guiding light that will bring the speaker home ‘to your door’. It’s just a masterpiece.

These are just a few of our favourites but there are many more minutes of listening in our playlist!