Happy almost Valentine’s Day my friends. FYI I am not a Valentine’s hater nor do I have time for people’s smug and annoying yearly trot out of their “this is capitalist holiday” proclamations. Every day is a capitalist holiday because we live in a capitalist world (on Etsy this morning there was a toggle for “arrives by Ramadan!”) so your task is actually to reclaim joy and free celebration wherever you can. The holiday is a day of not just love but also devotion. So what are you devoted to? (Charli actually snapped when she said “Everything is romantic,” make it so).
Me personally I love love, and I especially love love songs. (Do I think that all love songs are essentially love songs about god because love is ultimately a projection of the divine onto the other? Yes but but we don’t have to unpack that right here right now). I love that there are so many kinds of love songs for all stages and games, songs of limerence and songs that further seduction, songs that invoke the feeling or pure new love and songs about the rotten desiccated corpse of a relationship, songs for situationships with alcoholics or cavernous unrequited yearning or friends with benefits that maybe want to be more. I tried to include all of those in the collection of 99 love songs I made for you last night when I was moved by the spirit to do so (you have to answer the call when it comes). I’ll list them all out here. But first let’s talk about how to make a good mix:
A good mix, whether physical, on a tape or CD (harder of course, side A/B sequencing comes into play and CDs have time limitations), or via a digital platform (easier, but this old man is not going to yell at the clouds about it), should tell a story. Whether that story is literal (through song titles or lyrics) or something that is experienced through the pacing of the music is up to you. I like to marry the two because it’s a more of a challenge. Another approach is going for a unifying thematic concern, whether it be lyrical or vibes-based (I’ve been working on a mix of songs that feature some iteration of my favorite type of lyric, “Calling out your name,” for a while but haven’t quite nailed it yet). Also! You should listen to the mix you made all the way through a few times before you hand it over to anyone else. It’s kind of like how you should always read a thing you wrote out loud to yourself to catch errors or sentences that don’t flow. You can hear those places in your mix as well and do some edits. Effort is romantic. (But overthinking is not. Do not succumb to choice paralysis!).
One should of course make a mix more or less appropriate to the relationship in question BUT I do think you can err on the side of going too hard emotionally because this is art after all plus you sort of have plausible deniability because it’s not like YOU said the words, Jim Reid or Janet Jackson or David Matthews did. Let it rip a little! It’s love, take a risk.
Another way I like to use mixes is to cast a little spell on your own life. Tell a story you want to live out and use all the songs that imbue you with the feelings you want to experience in the world. (Manifestation is really less about getting things and more about how you want life to feel).
Now for the list. This was 98% hand guided by God (okay maybe 97% that and 1% manic episode) plus 1% asking a few trusted people for input and 1% refining. It’s not exhaustive nor is it even the 99 BEST love songs of all time, it’s just the 99 I felt drawn to compile for you this Valentine’s Day. I hope you enjoy them and I really hope you get some use out of them in a mix for someone else. You will dare.
The link for the playlist is at the bottom:
99 “Love” Songs
1. Got You (Where I Want You) - The Flys
2. Love Song - Madonna
3. Let My Love Open The Door - E. Cola Mix - Pete Townshend
4. I Love You - Spacemen 3
5. Sonnet - The Verve
6. Call Me Maybe - Carly Rae Jepsen
7. Only You (feat. The Notorious B.I.G., Mase) - 112, The Notorious B.I.G., Mase
8. Want - Jawbreaker
9. Drain You - Nirvana
10. crush - 2hollis
11. Favourite - Fontaines D.C.
12. Head On - The Jesus and Mary Chain
13. Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World - Ramones
14. Carousel - blink-182
15. Janitor - Suburban Lawns
16. Bad Reputation - Freedy Johnston
17. Sweetest Thing - The Single Mix - U2
18. Stay - Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons
19. This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody) - Talking Heads
20. Absolutely Cuckoo - The Magnetic Fields
21. fineshrine - Purity Ring
22. Lay My Love - Brian Eno, John Cale
23. All I Need - Radiohead
24. Tears Are Cool - Teenage Fanclub
25. Sick of Myself - Matthew Sweet
26. Slide - The Goo Goo Dolls
27. So Far We Are - French Kicks
28. Love Will Never Do (Without You) - Janet Jackson
29. Hands Down - Dashboard Confessional
30. Hybrid Moments - C.I. Recording 19... - Misfits
31. Train in Vain (Stand by Me) - Remastered - The Clash
32. Web in Front - Archers Of Loaf
33. Everywhere - 2017 Remaster - Fleetwood Mac
34. Left of the Dial - 2008 Remaster - The Replacements
35. Is This Desire? - PJ Harvey
36. Throw Your Arms Around Me - Eddie Vedder, Neil Finn
37. In a Jar - Dinosaur Jr.
38. First Love / Late Spring - Mitski
39. 47 - Remastered - Sunny Day Real Estate
40. Off You - The Breeders
41. The Beautiful Ones - Prince
42. Rearrange Me - Criminal Hygiene
43. Black Metallic - Catherine Wheel
44. Savory - Jawbox
45. Cherry Waves - Deftones
46. Fever - The Cramps
47. Brand New Love - Sebadoh
48. Summer Babe - Winter Version - Pavement
49. Lover Lay Down - Dave Matthews Band
50. I’ll Try Anything Once - Live From Electric Lady - Julian Casablancas
51. Within Your Reach - The Replacements
52. Blue Light - Bloc Party
53. Combat Baby - Metric
54. Sugarcube - Yo La Tengo
55. Divan - Smudge
56. Driveway to Driveway - Superchunk
57. Silly Girl - Television Personalities
58. Temptation - New Order
59. Peculiar - Twerps
60. Late At Night - Buffalo Tom
61. The Scientist - Aimee Mann
62. Baby - Warpaint
63. Tugboat - Galaxie 500
64. The Mercury Girl - The Cleaners From Venus
65. Call to Love - Crooked Fingers
66. Dyslexic Heart - Paul Westerberg
67. Beautiful Girl - INXS
68. So Alive - Love and Rockets
69. Love On The Outside - Wishy
70. Wait all Week - Kora Puckett
71. Let’s Go - The Feelies
72. Pure - The Lightning Seeds
73. All Of Me - Tanlines
74. waterlily - crushed
75. Genesis - Grimes
76. Laid - James
77. Shake the Disease - Depeche Mode
78. Drown - The Smashing Pumpkins
79. Fountain And Fairfax - The Afghan Whigs
80. I’ll Catch You - The Get Up Kids
81. Stars - Hum
82. Only You - Yazoo
83. Hang On Me - St. Vincent
84. The Ghost In You - Live At KBCO, Boulder, CO/1990 - Counting Crows
85. Shaker - Cosmonauts
86. Allison Road - White Fence
87. Some Jingle Jangle Morning - Mary Lou Lord
88. Save Tonight - Eagle-Eye Cherry
89. Five String Serenade - Mazzy Star
90. Glory Box - Portishead
91. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) - The Beatles
92. I Could Have Lied - Red Hot Chili Peppers
93. Imagining My Man - Aldous Harding
94. Thirteen - Big Star
95. Maps - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
96. Plainsong - 2010 Remaster - The Cure
97. A Case of You - Joni Mitchell
98. Thank You for Being You - The Pastels
99. Both Hands - Ani DiFranco
All 99 songs are on this playlist.
xx
Dear Yasi, thanks for this most excellent mixtape. Happy Valentines Day to you! Sincerely, reply guy.
queen yasi should we listen in order or shuffle it!??