Bernell DorroughValentine’s Day, it seems, is either the worst day of the year or the best day of the year, depending upon whether or not a person has a special someone to share it with. It is either seen as the most romantic date on the calendar, when people in love can fully express themselves in lovely and sweet ways, or a crass attempt by large greeting card corporations to take the money of unsuspecting lovers, a holiday created for mass market consumption and the over-marketing of the romantic ideal.
Whether you have someone or not, music should play a large part in your Valentine’s Day. Here are albums for those of us who will be celebrating Valentine’s Day by kissing a lover, and albums for those of us who will be celebrating Valentine’s Day by kissing the bottle.
Lovage
Music to Make Love to Your Old Lady By
75 Ark Records
Lovage is a collaboration between producer Dan the Automator (Gorillaz, Dr. Octagon, Deltron 3030), vocalist Mike Patton (Faith No More, Tomahawk, Mr. Bungle, Fantomas), and indie chanteuse Jennifer Charles (Elysian Fields). The feel is that of a smoky lounge, with alternately spare and lush instrumentation over sultry hip-hop beats. Patton and Charles croon like a Vegas lounge act mainlining aphrodisiacs, singing, speaking and imitating orgasm with equal frequency. The lyrics are tongue in cheek and the songs are often funny, but sexy at the same time. In this way, Lovage’s “Music to Make Love to Your Old Lady By” is like a really good porno movie-sometimes hilarious, sometimes sexy, sometimes disgusting and sometimes just plain weird. If your significant other has a good sense of humor and a sense of adventure to go along with it, this album could be the soundtrack to a wonderful Valentine’s night.
Marvin Gaye
Let’s Get it On
Motown Records
All right, you all should know about this one. If you don’t, now you do, end of story. After exploring social issues on “What’s Going On,” it was time for Marvin to delve back into exploring his libido. The result is the slow jam album of the century. If this music can’t make your Valentine’s night successful, you probably deserve to be alone, listening to Big Black.
Magnetic Fields
69 Love Songs
Merge Records
If Valentine’s Day has you seeking out quantity as well as quality in songs of love, love and more love, this three-disc set is what you need. The brainchild of studio master Stephen Merritt, the Magnetic Fields are one of six-kajillion band names he records under. This is Merritt’s crowning achievement, spanning genres and structures. This isn’t just a clever title-there really are 69 love songs. Of course, not all of them are great, but most are good, and some are spectacular, particularly the transcendent “All My Little Words.”
HIM (His Imperial Majesty)
Razorblade Romance
BMG
This goth-metal power trio from Finland once recorded an album called “666 Love Songs,” and “Razorblade Romance” follows in the same vein. What listeners get here is a strangely sweet mix of doom and gloom with genuine romantic longing. A lot of it is cheesy, especially their cover of Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game,” but for the most part it works well, especially the single “Right Here in My Arms.” And Valentine’s Day’s supposed to be a little cheesy, isn’t it?
Big Black
Songs About Fucking
Touch & Go Records
While this album is centered around sex, it certainly isn’t about romance. Steve Albini’s Chicago noise group made this magnum opus during their mid-80s heyday, when punk rock’s spirit was still willing to be misanthropic and just plain angry. If you’re spending Valentine’s Day alone, songs like “Fish Fry”-about a young Christian man who beats his girlfriend to death for being a slut after she has sex with him-and “The Power of Independent Trucking”-about a trucker who has a black book filled with the names and numbers of easy women in every truck stop town in America-will make you feel better about yourself, if not about the sleazy, sometimes utterly awful world around you.
Marvin Gaye
Here, My Dear
Motown Records
More Marvin, but this one isn’t for the bedroom. Served with divorce papers, the result of which would give his ex a cut of the profits for his new album, Gaye made “Here, My Dear,” a painful double-album confession of the deterioration of his marriage. This isn’t Gaye at his smoothest, but it is Gaye at his most personal-at some moments, his perfect voice is so cracked by emotion that it can’t hit the notes he’s so famous for. If Valentine’s Day has you blue, Marvin understood, and he put it on record for all of us to share.
Jawbreaker
24 Hour Revenge Therapy
Tupelo Records
Early to mid-90s punk outfit Jawbreaker are often blamed for creating what is now termed “emo,” annoyingly cloying pop-rock with heart on sleeve lyrics. But Jawbreaker are far above the rest of their followers, and this album brims with hooks, heart and anger. Songs about broken relationships feel real and relatable in this context, and Blake Schwarzenbach’s lyrics say a lot without saying too much. This is punk’s best breakup album, and the perfect soundtrack for drinking alone.
Bright Eyes
Fevers and Mirrors
Saddle Creek Records
Omaha’s Bright Eyes is really just one-man indie folk machine Conor Oberst, well-known recently for his political stances and the “new Dylan” tag he received after the release of his latest album, “Lifted.” “Fevers and Mirrors,” the album that preceded “Lifted,” is a far more consistent work and one that is far better suited for lonely Valentine’s Day listening. It can be a bit overwrought in its details of love lost, but its emotional honesty works on a number of levels, and he is far more eloquent and mature than the other one man band he is often compared to, Chris Carrabba/Dashboard Confessional. If you’re already kissing the bottle, why not drop a few tears in your beer. If this album works for you, you might also want to try “Domestica” by Oberst’s Omaha compatriots Cursive, a sort of indie rock attempt at making “Here, My Dear.”