Setting the Mood: Music for Valentine's Day

Here at Bostonist headquarters, the staff may not agree on whether Valentine's Day is legit or whether it is just the creation of a card company to create a profit, (mostly due to the relationship status of the individual), but we do love music and have compiled some suggestions for you and yours on this special day.

Find below a few suggestions from our staff for your evening of love, like, or lust.

Josh
Although happily married, Josh still prefers songs of heartbreak for Valentine's Day... He voted for "Sometimes I Rhyme Slow" by Nice n Smooth.

It has a great Tracy Chapman sample, a catchy refrain, and tells the (actually sad) story of a guy who was in love with a girl who couldn't shake her cocaine addiction. (Also, it's funny: When she tells him she hasn't kicked the habit ("At first she said 'no,'/ then she said 'yo, Smoove I'm sorry, but I keep having visions of snow/ I need blow"), he says, "Whoa, little hottie/ I'm not De Lorean, Gambino, or Gotti." I'm sure that's the only hip-hop reference to failed automotive businessman John De Lorean, and it should be savored, not just on Valentine's Day, but every day.)

Stefan
Stefan weighed in with the always perfect Ben Folds, "The Luckiest". People get too caught up in creating some huge dramatic production and finding creative ways to express their love, Folds simply declares that he is the luckiest guy, and that my friends, is perfection.

Katie
There are certain choices you can't go wrong with, and Katie represented with one such selection, Al Green's "Let's Stay Together". You can't mess with Rev. Al Green's love classic, we loved this song even after it was featured as Julia Stile's and Freddie Prinze Jr.'s love song in some horrible movie from the late 90s. Even a bad teen movie can't change the fact that this is just an incredible love song.

Charley
Staff photographer Charley weighed in with a hefty list of suggestions, even giving you categories, proving there is music for everyone on Valentine's Day.

Cheerful: Pizzicato 5 "Baby Lovechild", Moldy Peaches "Anybody Else But
You", Heavenly "C is the heavenly option"
Sexy: Garbage "#1 Crush", NIN "Closer" Portishead "Sour Times"
Mopey: Arab Strap "One Day After School", Dresden Dolls "Coin Operated
Boy" (or really, I could give you my whole Onanarama playlist here),
Magnetic Fields "Epitaph for My Heart",
Funny: Miss Piggy "Never Before, Never Again",
Indie: Sleater-Kinney "Heart Factory", Pixies "Gigantic" (or "La la love
you"), Bartlebees "Safety pin stuck in my heart"

Joel
Joel gave his suggestion and along with it included an educational moment, With the upcoming documentary on Daniel Johnston soon out I've revisited a lot of his old recordings, and a cover album that came out not too long ago. A lot of great bands doing "produced" versions of his songs. WIth that, Daniel Johnston "Living Life".
OR a great cover of that song by Eels off the "Late Great Daniel Johnston" compilation+cover double disc.

Jon
We could have expected nothing less from Jon than his suggestion of Biz Markie's "Just a Friend." Why you ask?

I was so in shock my heart went down south
So please listen to the message that I say
Don't ever talk to a girl who says she just has a friend

Josh echoed with his own lines of choice, "Oh, snap! Guess what I saw?/ A fella tongue-kissing my girl in the mouth/ I was so in shock my heart went down south".

Alex
Keeping it real, keeping it tight, Alex decided to take it to the late and great Bob Marley for a little definition of love and V-day with "Is this Love?" We all know the hard part is answering that question.

And with that.... a Happy Valentine's Day to all the lovers and haters out there from the Bostonist staff.

Image courtesy of Flickr user: Belle Devotchka.