“At my most beautiful” is indeed a love song and a really nice one at that, lyrically, with attention to detail and a probably original narrative in a world infested by cheap and vulgar “I love yous” of all kinds. The narrator is noticing small things he’s in love with, but being delicate and considerate about them, not obsessing.
“Be mine” has verses that could be interpreted as deeply romantic, of course, but when paired with the others, you see that depth goes down to dangerous levels, because the narrator is clearly extrapolating what would be reasonable. You start with an imperative – be mine! – and end up with stuff like “I want the finger with the ring” and wanting to become the other person’s religion, and pretty much “I want to be the everytjing in your life and nothing else comes in. Breathe me, worship me, see only me, me, me”.
“The one I love” is clearly ironic. You don’t love someone you call a prop to occupy your time.
I think “Strange currencies” is not much of a “love song”, but it’s a song about love – unrequited love, like “Losing my religion” also. The dude is desperate to be noticed and liked by the other person, who is mean to him, and he considers himself a fool for feeling all that (who hasn’t?), but he’s determined to have that other person “whatever it takes”, for some reason (again, haven’t we all been there?).
And I’m not at all into “You are the everything”, so I’ll skip that one here.
I haven’t investigated some other songs to get to know if Michael was being really romantic in his lyrics, but maybe I should!
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