Every good holiday should have a soundtrack. To be sure, it just wouldn’t seem like Christmas without repeated playings of “Jingle Bells,” “White Christmas” or even the dreaded paean to that deformed deer of yore, “Rudolph.” Likewise, there are plenty of ghoulishly fun songs to coincide nicely with Halloween, while Easter gets its own share of goofy, often awkward dedications to that sacred Sunday in the spring. Somehow Valentine’s Day is the one major holiday that doesn’t come ready-made with its own songbook.

Yet there are countless songs about love in all its forms; the subject has inspired songwriters and composers through the ages. Of all holidays, it seems that Valentine’s Day should be the one in which music plays the greatest role. After all, how are you going to sweep your sweetie of his or her feet without some sexy or romantic sounds coming through the stereo? To provide a little assistance, Artvoice’s music writers have selected a few choice musical offerings that are sure to fit every stage of your relationship.

Getting Started: New love takes time. Like infants, new lovers have fragile ears; they need soft and subtle sounds to sway them into the bedroom. It’s best to go with something soothing and classic for the soundtrack to your first holiday evening together. Keep it simple—you don’t want to scare your new flame away with a song selection that hits the wrong note.

Suggested listening:

Nick Drake – Pink Moon: Sure, the song “Pink Moon” was co-opted for a car commercial and Nick Drake’s biographical legacy of career-long obscurity and premature death doesn’t immediately raise the banner of romance. Still, those factors do not make Drake’s music any less effective when it comes to loving. While his lyrics are bleak at best, the tasteful arrangements and the soothing tone of Drake’s voice will immediately put you in the right mood (whether you own a Volkswagen or not). —mark norris

Al Green – Call Me: In 1974, Al Green’s ex-girlfriend broke into his house, threw boiling grits on his back and shot herself to death. After hearing Green’s trembling, sensually explosive performance on this 1973 soul masterpiece, her actions seem almost plausible. Call Me is one of the sexiest records ever made because it’s so damn desperate. Al never sings about actually having sex; he’s wanting and yearning, begging his love to take him, telling her “you ought to be with me.” This isn’t just unrequited love; it’s unrequited passion, and because it’s executed so perfectly, Call Me just might make you lose your mind. —joe sweeney

Billie Holiday – Lady In Satin: It can be argued that Lady In Satin, Billie Holiday’s last major recording, isn’t romantic at all. At the age of 43, Holiday’s voice was destroyed. She sounded at least 20 years older, and nothing like the acrobatic vocalist that changed the face of jazz. On the opening “I’m A Fool To Want You,” these limitations are clear, but her voice is imbued with such emotion that it doesn’t matter—the faltering notes enhance the mood. And with the orchestra swelling behind her, she owns the sadness, sweetness and regret of the lyrics, without ever denouncing love itself. Billie Holiday knew that her life was ending (she died the following year, with only 70 cents in the bank), and yet on Lady In Satin, love’s power still brings the listener to his knees. —j.s.

Mazzy Star – She Hangs Brightly: Don’t waste any time waiting for “Fade Into You”—Mazzy Star’s only radio hit would not appear until their next album, So Tonight That I Might See. But the psych-folk outfit’s debut is chock-full of the same woozy, dreamlike melodies, and features more variety than its follow-ups. Singer Hope Sandoval always sounds one Quaalude away from an OD, but her voice perfectly suits both the tambourine pop of “Halah” and “Give You My Lovin’” and the edgier, Doors-esque cuts like “Blue Flower” and “Ghost Highway.” Truly, you can’t go wrong with any Mazzy Star CD, but you might as well start at the beginning. —jennifer behrens

Frank Sinatra – Songs for Swingin’ Lovers: It may sound corny to some but, given the right circumstances, the sound of Ol’ Blue Eyes’ voice can still melt the pants off even the most tenuous lover. Half a century after its official release, the best description for this album is still neatly wrapped up in the record’s title. Containing the romance-standards “You Make Me Feel So Young,” “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” and “Pennies From Heaven,” the record is a classic for any season but really comes to life o Valentine’s Day. —m.n.

Further Listening:

Coldplay – Parachutes

Galaxie 500 – On Fire

Richard Hawley – Late Night Final

Iron and Wine – The Creek Drank the Cradle

Yo La Tengo – Fakebook

Getting It On: Once you’ve had the chance to get to know each other, it’s time to kick the music up a notch. After a little quiet time together, there’s no reason you can’t “tear the roof off the sucka” and get down and dirty to some appropriately lusty music. Like any fire, passion needs ample fuel. Now’s the time to find music that will keep the home fires—uh—burning.

John Coltrane – A Love Supreme: Finding God has never been so steamy. A Love Supreme is John Coltrane’s signature album, a four-part exploration of a personal struggle to achieve spiritual enlightenment. For most of the record, Coltrane’s playing is furious and fractured, eschewing warmer tones in favor of fat, honking runs and the occasional dissonant squeak. Along with McCoy Tyner (piano), Jimmy Garrison (bass) and Elvin Jones (drums), Coltrane exhibits an astounding dynamic range, especially the shift from the cacophony of “Pursuance” to the towering affirmation of “Psalm.” All dogma aside, this is a concept album about looking inward, knowing yourself and thereby achieving a higher understanding of life. Coltrane was looking for God, but his greatest album could just as easily be about looking for love. —j.s.

Serge Gainsbourg – Initials S.G.

Can’t speak French? Who cares! The dirty old man of 1960s French pop, Serge Gainsbourg, had a gravelly voice that might not seem ideal for putting lovers in the mood. Still, take one listen to the charged delivery on Gainsbourg’s duet with Jane Birken, “Je T’Aime…Moi Non Plus,” to understand why his music was considered so wildly scandalous upon its initial release. —m.n.

Marvin Gaye – Let’s Get It On

Not the legendary Motown’s singer’s best album but certainly one of his greatest songs. Let’s Get It On followed the eco-political-issues album What’s Going On (notice the similarity of the titles?) with less topical concerns. With song titles like “You Sure Love to Ball” and the title track, the vocalist/songwriter clearly wasn’t pulling any punches in the innuendo department. One can feel the steam and sweat emanating from the grooves, and the album’s lusty performances are memorable, sensual and, to turn a phrase, “Totally Gaye!” —m.n.

Prince – The Hits 2

Really, pretty much any album from Minneapolis’ tiniest troubadour will do the trick when it comes to keeping things funky in the bedroom, but The Hits 2 has Prince’s raunchy, nasty best. “Cream,” “Sexy MF” and “Kiss,” are all present and accounted for, and the combination of hard funk, psych-rock and soul balladry is attention-grabbing enough that you won’t doze off immediately afterwards. —m.n.

Ravel – Boléro. In the film 10, Bo Derek was the spliff-smoking, braid-wearing, freeiloving object of Dudley Moore’s desire. Of course, when Moore gets to know Derek’s character a bit better, he realizes that the girl of his fantasies falls far short in the department of real-life wisdom. Still, she was right on the money when it came to music that’s perfect for love-making. Rhythmic, repetitive and sometimes overly long, the piece represents everything that is right and wrong about sex. —m.n.

Further Listening:

Nick Cave – Let Love In

Aimee Mann – Magnolia

Van Morrison – Astral Weeks

Nina Simone – The Soul of Nina Simone

Stevie Wonder – Songs in the Key of Life

Getting Over It: If things have gone awry, don’t despair: there is plenty of music to accompany your misery. Indeed, a good weepy ballad is the perfect salve for a troubled heart. So what if you screwed things up. You’re human, right?

Chet Baker – The Best of Chet Baker Sings

Chet Baker’s falsetto croon can bring the most hardhearted to tears. Often derided by critics for his notoriously flat singing tone, Baker’s somber renditions of “The Thrill Is Gone,” “I Fall in Love Too Easily” and, naturally, “My Funny Valentine” easily make up for any vocal quirks. Good music for rainy days and breakups. —m.n.

The Buzzcocks – Singles Going Steady

Rarely have odes to masturbation, love gone wrong and angry lust come in such a catchy and convincing format. This is required listening for any teenager (or really any-ager) who has just been dumped. —m.n.

Elvis Costello – Blood and Chocolate

Released in the mid-1980s, Blood and Chocolate proved that Elvis Costello had lost none of his cynicism, jealousy and self-righteous ness. Often referred to as his divorce album, Blood and Chocolate frequently proves difficult listening, but songs like the tremblingly outraged “I Want You” and vitriolic “I Hope You’re Happy Now” will become familiar friends to the brokenhearted after a few listens. —m.n.

Ani Difranco – Dilate

“I’m just about done with the oh-woe-is-me shit,” DiFranco snarls in the last 15 minutes of this record, but it takes her a while longer to get there. The disc which propelled Buffalo’s own Li’l’ Folksinger into the nationals is an arresting account of love gone haywire, with DiFranco navigating first wounded pride (“Untouchable Face,” “Superhero”), then barely controlled rage (“Outta Me, Onto You”), and finally the utter devastation (“Done Wrong,” “Adam & Eve”). Ten years after its release, Dilate remains a shining example of the familiar notion that great art comes from painful places. —j.b.

Tom Waits/Crystal Gayle – One From the Heart Soundtrack

This soundtrack to a widely panned Francis Ford Coppola film seems like an oddity from the get-go. What’s Tom Waits, the gravel-voiced “Nighthawk of the Diner,” doing recording an album with long-haired, smooth-singing country chanteuse Crystal Gayle? A musical case of “you’ve got your peanut butter in my chocolate,” this soundtrack contains a classic take on the “he said/she said” theme and remains highly enjoyable when separated from its film. —m.n

Further Listening:

Beck – Sea Change

Bob Dylan – Blood on the Tracks

Sinead O’Connor – I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got.

Lou Reed – Berlin

Richard and Linda Thompson – Shoot Out the Lights

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