Day 6: Countdown of my favorite love songs (pour your heart out)

Welcome to day six of my ten-day series of Valentine’s Day-inspired blog posts. Yesterday, I wrote about my favorite non-romantic love songs. Today’s songs are all about pouring your heart out.

These are expressions of love that involve an element of desperation. An element of begging someone to love you. An element of pleading with them not to leave you or asking that they let you love them. All because your life feels incomplete without them. You miss them.

1. “London Rain” written and performed by Heather Nova (1998).
This is one of the songs mentioned in my novel (planned April 2018 publication), Jordan’s Sister. I love the emotion and message to her lover that he heals her. That’s how Taylor feels about Layne in my novel.

I’m coming, I’m coming home to you
I’m alive, I’m a mess
I can’t wait to get home to you

She admits she’s a mess, but she’s alive. She can’t wait to see him. He is home to her.

Nothing heals me like you do

Nothing else she does heals her like his love.

And when I’m home, curled in your arms
And I’m safe again
I’ll close my eyes and sleep, sleep
To the sound of London rain

Home in his arms is where she feels safest. She’s able to sleep because she feels safe in his arms. The rain helps wash away all the pain.

2. “Hanging by a Moment” performed by Lifehouse (2000), written by Jason Wade.
I adore Jason Wade’s solo music and the music he makes with Lifehouse. I’ve been listening to them since 2000 when this song blew me away.  I still remember what I was doing when I first heard this song. I was standing in a Maurices clothing store, and it played over the store radio. I stopped my shopping and just stood there listening as chills overcame my entire body. It caught my attention due to the guitar music in the opening, and when the lyrics began I was hooked and a life-long Lifehouse fan.

Here’s a bonus video of Lifehouse that I recorded when I saw them in concert for the first time last year with my husband on our 12th wedding anniversary.

There are theories that Wade wrote this song about his relationship with Christ. That may be so, but it meant something different for me.

Desperate for changing, starving for truth
I’m closer to where I started, I’m chasing after you

He wants her to know that he’s changed and he’s back to the man he’s supposed to be.

I’m falling even more in love with you
Letting go of all I’ve held onto
I’m standing here until you make me move
I’m hanging by a moment here with you

He falls more in love with her every day, letting go of everything else. He wants her to know that he’s there for her. Hanging onto every single moment. It’s beautiful and meant so much to me when I heard it for the first time because of what I was going through in my life at the time.

3. “I Try” performed by Macy Gray (1999), written by Gray, Jeremy Ruzumna, Jinsoo Lim and David Wilder.
Talk about raw emotion. Wow, this song has it. It’s about desperation and missing someone so badly your world falls apart without them.

I believe that fate has brought us here
And we should be together babe
But we’re not

She feels drawn to him in such a way that fate must have brought them together for a reason. They’re not together, but she feels they should be due to the connection she feels to his soul.

I try to say goodbye and I choke
Try to walk away and I stumble
Though I try to hide it, it’s clear
My world crumbles when you are not here

She’s trying to be strong, and let him go. She can’t because her whole world is tied up in the feelings she has for him. Everything comes crashing down when he’s not around.

Honorable mentions (listed alphabetically):

• “All This Love” Angus and Julia Stone.
• “Always” Bon Jovi.
• “Be the One” Haerts.
• “I’m With You” Avril Lavigne.
• “Leather and Lace” Stevie Nicks and Don Henley.
• “Lose Your Way” Sophie B. Hawkins.
• “Please Don’t Leave Me” P!NK.
• “Right Here Waiting” Richard Marx.
• “Stay (I Missed You)”  Lisa Loeb.
• “Stay With Me” Sam Smith.

Be sure to look for the next post tomorrow featuring songs with messages to new lovers after past heartache.

Thank you for reading. What’s your favorite pour out your heart love song?

-Brandi Easterling Collins