Cottagecore isn’t merely an aesthetic, it’s a moodboard for a lifestyle many lesbian and bisexual women aim to womanifest. It’s about women rejecting consumerism and capitalism and living together in domestic bliss.
The songs associated with cottagecore are often about yearning, perhaps because reaching the lifestyle goal — or finding a female partner to share this type of life with — is as much a dream as it is a potential reality.
These five cottagecore songs have declarations of love, domestic vibes, fields of grass, abandoning the city, and — you guessed it — yearning.
1. Mitski – ‘Strawberry Blond’
Mitski’s ‘Strawberry Blond’ is quintessential cottagecore folk music. If the peppy, charming sound isn’t enough proof that this is a song to escape to the country and live in domestic matrimony with another woman, then let’s take a look at the lyrics:
It’s got fields of grass: “I love everybody because I love you / When you stood up, walked away barefoot / And the grass where you lay left a bed in your shape / I looked over it and I ached.”
It’s got abandoning the city: “I don’t need the city, and I don’t need proof / All I need, darling, is a life in your shape / I picture it, soft, and I ache.”
It’s got more grass and bumblebees: “Look at you, strawberry blond / Fields rolling on / I love it when you call my name / Can you hear the bumblebees swarm?”
And, most of all, it’s got love: “Watching your arm / I love it when you look my way.”
2. girl in red – ‘we fell in love in october’
The dreamy sound and soft spoken lyrics make girl in red‘s ‘we fell in love in october’ cottagecore. It’s got the vibe of two teenage girls secretly smoking cigarettes and manifesting their cottagecore future together.
Equating your lover’s beauty with a romantic view? “You look so pretty and I love this view.”
Declarations of love? “We fell in love in October / That’s why I love fall / Looking at the stars / Admiring from afar.”
Taking off somewhere, living alone – together – and not looking back? “Don’t bother looking down / We’re not going that way / At least I know, I am here to stay.”
Manifesting a life devoted to your partner? “My girl, my girl, my girl / You will be my girl / My girl, my girl, my girl / You will be my world.”
3. dodie – ‘She’
If the yearning wasn’t enough in ‘Strawberry Blond’ and ‘we fell in love in October’ then luckily we have dodie’s ‘She’, with its violin and sensual lyrics.
Okay, the yearning: “Am I allowed / To look at her like that? / Could it be wrong / When she’s just so nice to look at?”
More yearning: “I’d never tell / No, I’d never say a word / And oh, it aches / But it feels oddly good to hurt.”
And more yearning: “And I’ll be okay admiring from afar / ‘Cause even when she’s next to me / We could not be more far apart / And she tastes like birthday cake and story time and fall.”
The cottagecore domestic senses: “And she smells like lemongrass and sleep / She tastes like apple juice and peach / Oh, you would find her in a polaroid picture / And she means everything to me, oh.”
4. WILLOW – ‘Female Energy, Part 2’
Yeah, I’m a little obsessed with Willow Smith’s edgy — but very romantic — gay music. ‘Female Energy, Part 2’ is honestly something else. It’s cottagecore. It’s today. It’s tomorrow. It’s everything. Just sit under an enormous river-side tree on a warm day, listen to this, and get back to me.
The romance: “Oh, and I’m falling into the arms of naked truth / Not surprised to see the sky and only think of you.”
The sensual introspection: “Am I to feel bolder ‘cause / All of my pumping blood? / I am human, I am woman.”
The wistful yearning: “Drifting down my life / Light up this time, light up this time.”
5. Phoebe Bridgers – ‘The Garden Song’
‘The Garden Song’ is perhaps the most weighty on the list, with its confessional lyrics and Bridgers’ delicate voice. It’s about manifesting goodness in a world that feels dark at times. Just like how cottagecore is about manifesting the life you want now — creating a comfortable life — rather than dwelling on things going on in the world you can’t singlehandedly change.
Manifesting a cottagecore house and girlfriend: “Someday, I’m gonna live / In your house up on the hill.”
Gardening: “And when your skinhead neighbor goes missing / I’ll plant a garden in the yard, then.”
Returning to the rural areas you once abandoned: “I don’t know when you got taller / See our reflection in the water / Off a bridge at the Huntington / I hopped the fence when I was seventeen / Then I knew what I wanted.”
Cottage wate? Ain’t cottages expensive tho? U need capitalist many to buy a cottage. Or they squatting? Carry on tho imagine not hate on it. Rural sux tho not enough ppl nor clubs. Unless its burning man I guess. But that costs a fortune I heard. Thanks for educating me never ever heard of cottage core. Out da loop