Around this time last year, we sent out feelers about the greatest breakup songs, which appropriately ranged from Neck Deep’s “December” to Mayday Parade’s “Miserable at Best.” This Valentine’s, we leaned more optimistic but still in our feelings, so we asked readers to tell us the best emo love songs. They fired back with intriguing choices, from early 2000s cuts to songs that may not even be emo. Whatever the season, though, these tracks can be screamed along to all year long. Find the top fan picks ranked below.
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5. Bring Me the Horizon – “Follow You”
When Bring Me the Horizon released That’s the Spirit in 2015, they stayed heavy and dark while forgoing the screams that defined their early days. That included an unexpected love song called “Follow You,” which Oli Sykes wrote about his wife. “When you’re in a relationship, you have those moments like, ‘Why am I putting myself through this?’” he said in a 2015 interview. “If they’re angry at you, you can’t go on with your life like it doesn’t matter. I carry it, so I carry whatever Hannah’s carrying. ‘Follow You’ is about not wanting to do it anymore but realizing that, no matter what happens, you’ll never turn away ’cause the alternative is worse.”
4. The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus – “Your Guardian Angel”
The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus came crashing out of the gate with their major-label debut, Don’t You Fake It, in 2007, which sold over a million copies. “Face Down” became inescapable, but at the other end of the pole, so did the acoustic-driven ballad “Your Guardian Angel.” Capping off the album, vocalist Ronnie Winter led us through a swell of emotion that still hits hard. To this day, the band keep the song in rotation, even dedicating it to a couple who lost their child during the 2024 edition of When We Were Young.
3. Yellowcard – “Only One”
Yellowcard’s Ocean Avenue is immortal, capturing a specific time and place within the golden era of pop punk. However, the lines between pop punk and emo can sometimes get blurry, which is why we’re giving our readers a pass for naming “Only One” as an essential emo love song. The early 2000s ballad featured violinist Sean Mackin heavily, whose strings complement heavy-hearted lyrics about feeling seen and understood. More than two decades later, “Only One” still makes the band’s setlists, having played it as recently as last night in Brisbane while on tour with Good Charlotte.
2. The Used – “I Caught Fire”
“They wrote from the heart. They weren’t thinking of anything else but writing from the heart,” Warped founder Kevin Lyman said of the Used for the 20th anniversary of their self-titled. For their second album, In Love and Death, they became unstoppable, wearing their heart on sleeve while diving headlong into pits. No one sang about toxic love better, painting brutal imagery (“I’m melting in your eyes”) that was irresistibly catchy on “I Caught Fire,” which readers singled out. Having just come off their 25th anniversary shows, which we celebrated with reissued vinyl and a collaborative special collector’s edition book, the song certainly holds up.
1. My Chemical Romance – “Demolition Lovers”
The top result couldn’t be anything else. My Chemical Romance’s “Demolition Lovers” concluded I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love on a bloodstained high note, becoming early proof of their storytelling chops. Taking us through a fiery six-minute journey, Gerard Way sang of two lovers who’d do anything to be together, even if that meant going out in a hail of bullets. In a fitting afterlife, they appear on the cover of the 2004 follow-up, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, revealing the song as its prequel — and cementing MCR’s flair for epic theatrics.
