happy/pissy vd!
Music: Antony and the Johnsons: The Crying Light (2009)
It's that time of year again, and you know, I always come through for you. If you want my love, I deliver. If you want my cynicism, I deliver. I deliver it all unto you. Yes, bitches, it's time for the annual VD mixes! Didn't get a Valentine this year? No worries, I have a dose of sonorous affection for you! Did your significant other fail to properly commercialize your commitment by buying you clichéd shit? I have the song for you. Are you coming off of a bad relationship? I have ditty to make a fist to. I've got all the bases covered! (Although I should underscore some of this stuff is not safe for work or the virgin-eared.)
First up, I have the most popular annual volume, Philophobia 2009. This mix taps into all of love's unpleasantness, and only one song is particularly naughty ("Good Bye Mary Lou," which sports the chorus "Good bye Mary Lou, fa-fa-fa-fa-fuck you!"). You can download a CD-length MP3 file here. You can also download and print-off the CD-insert art here. The tracklisting is as follows:
- hall & oates: maneater
- benji hughes: you stood me up
- dresden dolls: lonesome organist rapes page turner
- black kids: hit the heartbreaks
- dear & the headlights: i’m not crying, you’re not crying are you?
- xtc: i’m the man who murdered love
- this is ivy league: love is impossible
- martha wainwright: you cheated me
- aimee mann: looking for nothing
- magnetic fields: not that crazy
- editors: smokers outside the hospital doors
- and also the trees: stay away from the accordian girl
- angels of light: good bye mary lou
- antony and the johnsons: the crying light
- chris pureka: dryland.
Next is the less popular yet nonetheless enjoyed mix of love songs, lil' heart-shaped beasties 2009. Can you believe I've been doing these mixes since 1996? And for these lo thirteen years, the pro-love CD has never been favored! This year I dipped into a little lust to perhaps change the popularity of this lesser mix. With the exception of the Whale song, this is mostly work safe. You might gag on the m83 "rocket" metaphor (heee-larious if ob-vious!), but if you like the film Barbarella you'll love it. Download the MP3 file here. Download and print off the CD-insert here. Tracklisting is as follows:
- timothy leary: root chakra
- sigur ros: godan daginn
- beach house: heart of chambers
- m83: up!
- sebastien tellier: kilometer
- justice: valentine
- the faint: get seduced
- whale: i’ll do ya
- old 97s: the fool
- ulrich schnauss: as if you’ve never been away
- u2: with or without you
- the watson twins: just like heaven
- american music club: all my love
- antony and the johnsons: one dove
Look, the commercialized holiday is really just that, and we should critique it. At the same time, my inner-Plato says we ought to recognize, every now and again, the affects that make this whole thing go. Music captures this affect the best. Let's deal . . . and have some fun! Or as Marvell said, "though we cannot make our sun stand still, yet we will make him run!"