Post-Punk Love – 14 Songs About Love

It’s been a while since I last posted a mixtape post, so…

Today I bring you, just in time for Valentine’s Day, the awesome Post-Punk Love mixtape playlist with 14 great songs by post-punk and new wave bands of the ’80s!

This mixtape has a good variety of slow and upbeat songs, along with different love themes.

All in all, if you dig post-punk and new wave bands, you’ll definitely dig this mixtape playlist!

Grab a bottle of wine, light some candles and incense, get cozy with your lover, and turn it up! <3 

 

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Lips Like Sugar – Echo & The Bunnymen

This is one of my favorite Echo songs and is a wonderful way to start this mixtape playlist!

Catchy and fun lyrics with Ian’s melancholy voice… so dreamy!

“Just when you think you’ve caught her / She glides across the water / She calls for you tonight / To share this moonlight”

 

Let Me Love You – Peter Murphy

Ahhhh… the one and only Peter Murphy. No post-punk mixtape is complete without him – especially a love-themed one.

I melt when I hear him sing… Peter sets the perfect mood for love with this song. 

“Oh let me love you in the morning light / Oh let me give you cover until it’s alright / Oh let me feel you come into my arms”

 

A Question of Lust – Depeche Mode

To go from Peter Murphy right into this Depeche Mode classic is heavenly!

It was a toss-up between this song and Stripped, but Question of Lust won out. Just listen to the lyrics and you’ll see why…

“It’s a question of lust / It’s a question of trust / It’s a question of not letting / What we’ve built up / Crumble to dust / It is all of these things and more / That keep us together”

 

Slave to Love – Bryan Ferry

Bryan Ferry had a great solo career after Roxy Music broke up that “officially” kicked off with this sexy tune. 

Bryan’s voice just takes you over the edge in this sultry song. It oozes sensuality and love. 

“The sky is burning / A sea of flame / Though your world is changing / I will be the same”

 

It Must Be Love – Madness

Most people, when they hear of the underrated post-punk/ska band Madness, automatically think of the ’80s hit, Our House. 

I catch myself singing It Must Be Love all day long once I hear it. 

“It must be love, love, love / It must be love, love, love / Nothing more, nothing less / Love is the best”

 

Inside Out – The Mighty Lemon Drops

Such a fantastically upbeat and fun song by a lesser-known ’80s band, The Mighty Lemon Drops.

You just can’t help but sway to the beat of this song!

“You can’t stop my heart from turning inside out / Just try and stop my world from turning inside out”

 

Violent Love – Oingo Boingo

I absolutely love this catchy short song from Danny Elfman and Oingo Boingo!

Filled with Ska and Punk elements, you cannot help but sing along and dance to this one!

“I want to make violent love, / To you by the moon above, / I want to make violent love to you.”

 

 

Come Undone – Duran Duran

One of my all-time favorite new wave bands, Duran Duran garnered the spotlight of my late childhood and early teens. I was so thrilled when they burst back onto the scene in the early ’90s with their seventh studio album, known as The Wedding Album. 

I still get chills hearing this song. So hauntingly beautiful, almost gothic. Simon puts the listener into a trance with his dreamy vocals.

“Lost, in a snow-filled sky / We’ll make it alright to come undone / Now we’ll try to stay blind to the hope and fear outside / Hey child, stay wilder than the wind and blow me in to cry”

 

Ghost in You – Psychedelic Furs

Speaking of dreamy vocals, Richard Butler of The Psychedelic Furs is at the top of my post-punk list for vocals. 

Love and pining for love lost are the meanings in this beautiful song. Not all love gets a happy ending. This is one of my favorite P-furs tunes and a great addition to this post-punk love playlist.

“Inside you, the time moves and she don’t fade / The ghost in you, she don’t fade / Inside you the time moves and she don’t fade”

 

I Melt With You – Modern English

One hit wonder, Modern English, hit a home run with this awesome and fun love song from the ’80s!

This was a popular dance song in the clubs, subject to a lot of remixes. If you don’t feel like getting up to dance when you hear this, you must be dead!

“I’ll stop the world and melt with you / You’ve seen the difference and it’s getting better all the time / There’s nothing you and I won’t do / I’ll stop the world and melt with you”

 

Pictures of You – The Cure

Love song or break-up song? You decide.

Off of The Cure’s best album (in my opinion, of course) Disintegration, this love song expresses so much love, love lost, and most of all, regret. You can’t get any more “Cure” than this song.

“If only I’d thought of the right words / I could have held on to your heart / If only I’d thought of the right words / I wouldn’t be breaking apart / All my pictures of you”

 

There is a Light That Never Goes Out – The Smiths

Leave it to The Smiths and Morrissey to add a bit of morbidity to love.

Nothing else needs to be said about this song. The lyrics say it all.

“And if a double-decker bus / Crashes into us / To die by your side / Is such a heavenly way to die / And if a ten-ton truck / Kills the both of us / To die by your side / Well, the pleasure – the privilege is mine”

 

Last Beat of My Heart – Siouxsie & The Banshees

A post-punk love playlist is not complete without Siouxsie & The Banshees! This gorgeous gem is off of their most popular studio album, Peepshow.

Siouxsie Sioux has to be one the most memorable post-punk female vocalists of the ’80s. So mysterious. You can hear the longing and devotion of love in her voice.

“How in the world / Can I wish for this? / Never to be torn apart / Close to you / ‘Til the last beat / Of my heart”

 

With or Without You – U2

One of the ultimate songs that defined the 80’s, and one of U2’s most popular releases.

There are so many great love songs, but none that fits the moodiness of the Gen-X quite like this one. This is quite possibly the greatest (post-punk) love song to ever come out of the ’80s.

“My hands are tied, my body bruised / She’s got me with / Nothing to win and / Nothing left to lose”