Sultry playlists for an evening for two

A good sultry playlist follows the rhythm of the evening: soft over drinks, warm through dinner, more sensual after midnight. Here are three selections of nine or ten well-known songs, to build together on Spotify or Deezer so each of you adds something of your own.

How do you build a playlist for a romantic evening?

Think of the night as a film in three acts. Volume and tempo rise gently, then ease off towards the end. Leave out songs tied to memories of someone else, and keep the length sensible: two hours per mood is plenty, so nothing plays twice.

• Start the music before the other arrives, so the room already feels lived in.
• Keep it low enough to talk without raising your voice.
• Turn shuffle off: the order matters.
• Silence notifications on the phone playing the music.

Mood 1: early drinks, low lights

Soft voices and light guitars, to set the scene without drowning the conversation.

• Sade, Smooth Operator
• Norah Jones, Don’t Know Why
• Air, La femme d’argent
• Françoise Hardy, Le temps de l’amour
• Chet Baker, My Funny Valentine
• Lana Del Rey, Video Games
• Christine and the Queens, Tilted
• Massive Attack, Teardrop
• Daft Punk, Something About Us

Mood 2: dinner

Soul and great voices, with a little more warmth to go with the meal.

• Etta James, At Last
• Nina Simone, Feeling Good
• Al Green, Let’s Stay Together
• Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, Dream a Little Dream of Me
• Barry White, Can’t Get Enough of Your Love, Babe
• Alicia Keys, If I Ain’t Got You
• Juliette Armanet, L’amour en solitaire
• Sade, No Ordinary Love
• Marvin Gaye, Let’s Get It On

Mood 3: after midnight

Slow tempos, deep bass lines and a few sensual classics for the end of the night.

• Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, Je t’aime… moi non plus
• Marvin Gaye, Sexual Healing
• The Weeknd, Earned It
• Portishead, Glory Box
• Chris Isaak, Wicked Game
• D’Angelo, Untitled (How Does It Feel)
• FKA twigs, Two Weeks
• Lana Del Rey, Born to Die
• Beyoncé, Drunk in Love
• Sade, Cherish the Day

Why make the playlist together?

Both Spotify and Deezer let you make a collaborative playlist: one of you creates it, invites the other, and you each add songs on your own. Half the fun is then finding out what the other picked, and why. Use this selection as a base, then each add three secret songs: the one from when you met, the one that reminds you of the other, and the one you have never dared play to them.

Which mistakes should you avoid?

• The dance track in the middle of dinner, which breaks the mood in one go.
• Adverts on free accounts: if you don’t have a subscription, download the playlist in advance or pick a radio hour with no breaks.
• The break-up song, beautiful but sad, which pulls the conversation back to the past.
• Unexpected silence: check the total length and plan one mood more than you need.

One last tip: give it a test run the night before, at low volume, while you tidy the living room. You will spot the song that jars straight away.

How do you turn the music into a proper evening?

The playlist sets the scene, but someone still has to send the invitation. A simple message works, or you can send it as a flirty SendLove letter, an invitation in a wax-sealed envelope written in your own words, which the other answers with “I accept”, “Let’s postpone” or “I decline”. And once the music reaches the after-midnight mood, a game like Rekindle the flame, with its three moods, takes over quite naturally.

Frequently asked questions

How many songs should an evening playlist have?
Aim for around thirty songs per mood, roughly two hours. The selections above are a starting point to add to.

Should we include songs in French?
A few, yes. A French song in the middle of an English selection catches the ear and often gets you talking again.

What if we have different tastes?
All the better. Take turns adding a song each to the collaborative part, and keep the selection above as common ground.

What speaker should we use?
Whichever you have. Put it at table height rather than on the floor, and away from the bed if you want to keep the after-midnight part discreet.