The Kind Of Music That Makes You Fall In Love

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“What is love like?”
“You know how when you’re listening to music playing from another room? And you’re singing along because it’s a tune that you really love? When a door closes or a train passes so you can’t hear the music anymore, but you sing along anyway… then, no matter how much time passes, when you hear the music again you’re still in exact same time with it. That’s what it’s like.” – Danny, Music From Another Room

Whenever I think about the people I could have loved, I always think about a song, their song. Their song was Teenage Dreams and You and I and Next To Me, and so many more of these. I would play their songs on repeat and my heart would be free to imagine their love.

The kind of music that makes you fall in love aren’t always love songs. But love songs are the kind of music everyone wants to fall in love to.

I found myself feeling that way – falling in love – when I saw Amel Lerrieux live in concert in Chicago a few weeks ago. As a matter of full disclosure, I was invited to attend her concert and received a bottle of her amazing She hair and skin moisturizer.

Her music was the kind that makes you want to fall in love, but also consisted of many love songs that made you feel like you already were – in love, that is. The kind of music that makes you realize that love and falling in love is not just something that you give to other people, specific people. It’s something that you can give to yourself.

What kind of music makes you fall in love? With others? With yourself?

Perhaps what I loved most about Amel’s music – her sound, her words, the melodies, the atmosphere she created as she sung – was the strength that went alongside with the subtlety. Her music wasn’t loud but it was powerful. This is my favourite kind of love too – powerful but with no need for loudness.

In a time where love is on display for all to see, it seems almost a rare act to maintain a love that is quietly beautiful. A love that doesn’t need to be on stage, doesn’t need a performance, doesn’t need recognition. But a love that is always still consuming and filling and entire.

The kind of music that makes you fall in love will always say a little bit about who you are, where you are in the moment, and what you want. But so will the love songs that you listen to. Pick your love songs wisely. But never negate what your heart chooses.

There’s room, I think, for all kinds of music that you love to love, just as there is room for all kinds of love. Maybe your love is loud. Maybe your love is soft. Maybe your love is quiet. Maybe your love is fun. Maybe your love is all of these or none of these – but maybe it’s so much more, or different, or something. Whatever it is, I hope your love is real.

“If music be the food of love, play on,
Give me excess of it; that surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.”
– Duke Orsino, Twelfth Night (William Shakespeare)