Cynical crowd of singles and angrily committed others, bless February 14, because the day also known as Valen-doom’s day has gotten its sexy self back in 2011. Gone are the days of ancient Rome, when citizens celebrated Juno the Goddess with a festival, where young boys chose a girl to court by drawing names out of a jar. Although, looking back on Ellen Page and Michael Cera’s adorable and awkward relationship in the movie Juno, one could argue the dating game has barely changed.
Regardless of your relationship status or lack there of, this sensually stimulating playlist will surely bring the highlight reel of your love life to the forefront of your mind. Each song has been selected to move you through the experience of longing for love, finding it, feeling it, and being done with it. So grab some wine, some friends, and hide your cell phones before your interpretive “love dance” goes viral on YouTube.
1. “I wish he knew my name,” also known as the insecure period. What if your eye candy has chronic bad breath, or sounds like a bulldozer when he sleeps, or likes to be called by his or her mom’s name in bed? Everyone says to be yourself, and honestly, it’s emotionally and physically exhausting to try to be anything else. Confidence is key, and putting yourself on the line shouldn’t be scary, because knowing what you want and going after it is fundamentally sexy. Regardless if you are looking for love or could care less, remember that dating is like shopping: He may look good from afar, but when you try him out, you may wish you’d return him to the very spot you found him. If you find yourself pining over anyone on Valentine’s Day, it should be the man behind this soulful song.
Do you feel me? by Anthony Hamilton
Anthony Hamilton – Do You Feel Me (New)
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2. Sweet beginnings sounds like a cute name for a bakery, or for the title of a short film about the cliché joys of relationships. This lusty period of a relationship, however, never lasts as long as it should because once you’re going steady, there’s no going back. Not. This is the point when you relish in anticipation and adrenaline ebbs and flows from your head, to your heart, to your hands, and every text is heavily edited before submission. You see fellow love birds canoodling on the street, and it seems they are warmer together, shielding each other from the cold by their energy, and you could smile about everything. Bonobo is a master of the downtempo genre whose linearly developed songs could send you out the door with no direction or into the bedroom with no sense of time. Savour.
Nothing Owed by Bonobo
3. The Honeymoon Period is the exact same feeling you get from learning about new things. The guarantee of “everlasting” surprises and freshness seems so tangible and promising during this time. So, let the music do the speaking, and do give your honey the honor of listening: “Sometimes it feels like you could be one of my senses / Sometimes it feels like we could do so much more / Together.”
Long White Cloud by Shapeshifter, featuring Joe Dukie
4. “I love you, but I hate you,” is what I took this song to be saying quietly, with booming fematle vocals soaring over guitar twangs, cradled in a net of cymbal-heavy percussion. The ladies of Warpaint have been an omnipresence in the indie scene for over eight years, but only in the most recent four have they been acclaimed as such. Their style is everything that aims to emulate indie, which sometimes carries a negative connotation, but the fact that four women instrumentalists are at the heart of the music makes it all better. This song starts out sentimental at face value, but the longer the verse, the deeper the lyrics go into exemplifying this stage of a relationship where one person begins to notice new, and most times annoying, intimations about his or her partner: “Better not to be the first one diving in / Though you caught me and you know why / They breathe in the deepest part of the water.” I think this song’s notions speak volumes about the feeling of taking responsibility for one’s happiness, and also, how one person’s actions or act of pursuit could falsely enrapture the other. “What’s the matter? You hurt yourself? / Opened your eyes and there was someone else? / Now I’ve got you in the undertow.”
Undertow by Warpaint
5. At one time or another, you may have experienced riding the emotional fence about whether or not you should invest wholeheartedly in something, or someone. Facebook would deem this the “It’s complicated” phase. This song is from the first album Sufjan Stevens released in 2010—the “All Delighted People EP”—and is a subdued ballad with guitar twangs that will dip you around the haunting lyrics, sincerely asking for the truth to come out. “Don’t carry on carrying efforts, no no, oh oh oh oh / Somewhere there’s a room for each of us to grow / And if it pleases you to leave me, just go, oh oh oh oh / Stopping you would stifle your enchanting ghost.”
Enchanting Ghost by Sufjan Stevens
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6. Because this producer is so hot right now, and because this song was released on the stroke of midnight on the first day of 2011, this song is on the list to pay homage to the pop-culture craze and phrase, “Your time’s up, New York!” If you remember the ridiculous and promiscuous nature of Flavor Flav and his women-pets on the VH1 reality TV show, “Flavor of Love,” the reason this stage references them is because this is the time immediately after you’ve chosen the single-side of the fence. Although you may acknowledge that your emotional investment has lead you to continue loving the person on some level, the excitement of something new may be what you are truly looking for, or maybe just another not-so-crazy-chick you can call “Hoopz,” because she calls the shots. Season one, anyone?
Everyday by Rusko
7. The bitter ending, is like a big gulp of dry hot chocolate mix: sweet, minus the coughing, tearing up, and the comfort of milk. For Bright Eyes front man Conor Oberst, the bittersweet feeling of ending an era could be the reality for his band once and for all, with the release of the new album The People’s Key on February 15. In order to sustain any relationship, whether it be between lovers, critics, fans, or bandmates, all parties must be attentive, or else one person’s feelings could fall by the wayside. Perhaps that’s what happened between the bandmates of Bright Eyes, but if you find yourself singing the lyrics, “All I do is follow you. All I do, all I do is follow you. Is follow you around,” I’m afraid that it may be the bitter ending for you.
Approximate Sunlight by Bright Eyes
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8. Once you’re ready to retire the Snuggie, wine, and tissues for a night of shaking what your parents gave you, change your status and attitude to single and ready to mingle! The badass woman vocalist in La Roux has been remixed, dubstepped and synthesized to death, but this french DJ smacked the funk onto this version of “I’m Not Your Toy,” guaranteed to turn your hips out and your smile up like no man ever could.
I’m Not Your Toy (Data Remix) by La Roux