DJ Mag USA presents your official Valentine's Day playlist

WORDS: Dani Deahl

Love’s a complicated feeling, you know? There can be butterflies, jealousy, adrenaline-pumping highs and crushing lows. Anyone who says that love is singularly an all-around good feeling, we think, simply hasn’t been in love. To that end, our selections for Valentine’s Day show love for what it is: euphoric, melancholy, longing, intimate, and, yes, sometimes a little ugly. It’s a roller coaster of emotions ahead, so strap in and prepare for feels. All of them.

Delaise ‘Let Me Feel'
A new release from Russian artist Delaise, ‘Let Me Feel’ is a slow, deep ode to that special person that makes you feel like you’re the only person in the room. With strings and gentle, plucked synths widened with echoes, it’s dreamy through and through. It’s one thing to have a crush on someone, but to crush on someone who reciprocates like that? Yes, all day long please.

Sam Feldt ‘What About The Love’
It happens – there are relationships where one party is done with things but the feeling isn’t mutual. This is what Feldt captures here, with lines like: “What about the love we fell into/ What about the nights I gave to you?” Unfortunately, the answer to those questions is sometimes simply a shrug, but at least here it’s backed by a pristinely produced house track with uplifting keys.

Steve James ‘In My Head’ feat. RKCB (Z3N Remix)
This is a heady, metaphysical track wrapped in a tidy future pop package. ‘In My Head’ almost feels hopeless at times, wondering about the meaning and self-importance we gain when we are paired with the right person, but pulls itself out of doom and gloom with high-soaring melodics that let you know things are good in the end, after all.

Armin van Buuren & Garibay ‘I Need You’ (feat. Olaf Blackwood)
Love is not a new topic, feeling like you need someone is not a new topic, but both can be revived time and again with the right combination of message and melody. Here, Armin van Buuren delivers a slow-burning tune that has radio-friendly tropical undertones and balances the line between soft despair and sweet longing in the lyrics.

The Chainsmokers ‘Setting Fires’ feat. XYLØ (Sigma Remix)
While the entire remix package for this song spans from intense big room to plodding growls, it’s Sigma’s take that seems to pay homage to the song’s heart the best. The choruses are bright, with rolling builds that almost belie the soft, poolside drops that happen after, in tone with the message of push and pull that lies at the tune’s center.

Aeroplane & Purple Disco Machine ‘Counting On Me feat. Aloe Blacc'
This collab is an exciting exploration into the blend of nu-disco, house, gospel and soul. They describe it as a “modern vocal disco house track” and we couldn’t give it a more apt summation ourselves. A simple vocal hook, “Your love is taking me higher/ Taking me higher than before” is hands-raising joy, especially against heaps of stompy percussion and trickling piano keys.

Black Coast ‘Feel Something feat. Remmi'
Beginning with deep piano chords, ‘Feel Something’ is a song that has gravitas from the get-go. Remmi’s dusky vocals are the perfect weight to compliment the brooding, warm bass tones underneath, and both at times fade away to sparse sonic landscapes. Where other artists are usually allergic to restraint, this song finds the beauty in taking away, not adding.

Seven Lions & Jason Ross ‘Higher Love feat. Paul Meany'
‘Higher Love’ is built for a classic main stage experience, with massive synths that sweep to nothingness, drawn-out, vocal-laden breaks, and said massive synths banging back in. Listen to this with your SO in the thick of a crowd and we’re pretty sure you’ll understand the meaning behind ‘Higher Love’ once the feel-good electro drop hits your chests.

Mielo & Ieuan 'Pretty When U Cry’
The notion of complicated love is expressed most perfectly in ‘Pretty When U Cry’, a song that touches on jealousy, being wronged, taking pleasure in other’s pain, but also, still being devastatingly in love. Backed with fuzzy, stretched chords and watery blips, it’s a modern emotional ride that is at once haunting and exquisite.