5 of the Best Songs for Romantic Slow Dancing With a Loved One

We’re a few months from Valentine’s Day, but who says it has to be a holiday to plan a romantic night? Romance is timeless—one minute you’re doing the dishes and the next, your significant other is dancing you around the living room to their favorite song. Maybe you’re dancing with your partner, and maybe you’re dancing with your dog. Either way, you’ll need a good playlist. We chose a handful of songs for slow dancing that are sure to put you in the romantic mindset.

Fleetwood Mac’s 1969 single “Albatross” starts the list off with slow-dancing gold. This guitar-forward track features gentle cymbal rolls and a groovy beat perfect for swaying to. It was released on the album The Pious Bird of Good Fortune and even inspired The Beatles to write “Sun King.” This track stays slow and benign throughout, creating a hazy, dreamlike space to express pure romantic feelings. Merely listening to “Albatross,” there seems to be a bit of Hawaiian soul to it as well, reflections of Don Ho’s “Tiny Bubbles” in the guitar sound.

Next, “Fade Into You” by Mazzy Star is the epitome of 90s alternative romance. It’s the sound of slow-dancing at a dimly lit house party, of feeling like the only two people in the room. “Fade Into You” calls to mind girls with choppy bob haircuts and black-painted fingernails, boys with ripped jeans and flannel shirts hanging off skinny arms. They wrap each other up in an embrace, stare into each other’s eyes, and kiss sweetly as the song fades out.

Songs for the Lost Art of Romantic Slow Dancing, from Mazzy Star to a Track from Nick Cave’s Breakup Album

While “Into My Arms” does indeed come from Nick Cave’s 1997 album The Boatman’s Call, which was inspired by his breakup with PJ Harvey, it’s still a great song for slow dancing. The lilting piano paired with Cave’s recognizable baritone creates a romantically melancholy atmosphere, perfect for all you goths. “Into My Arms” is, ultimately, a love song even as it came in the wake of a devastating split.

The Magnetic Fields’ 1999 song “The Book of Love” is equal parts cynical and celebratory of love, a combination that doesn’t seem like it would work. But, it does, and it’s great for slow dancing. “The book of love is long and boring,” the song starts, but shifts to, “But I love it when you read to me,” going from derisive of the outdated nature of love to elated at the prospect of being in love.

It’s a bit on the nose title-wise, but “Slow Dancing” by Aly & AJ is still one of the best songs out there if you want to get romantic. It paints a picture of the speaker seeing her lover for the first time in forever, and the two of them slow-dancing together after they “move the kitchen table out to the lawn” to make a dance floor. That’s all the speaker needs, she says—”I don’t need anything fancy / I just need me and you slow-dancing,” and, really, what’s better than that?

Featured Image by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Coachella