Double-Sided Love

Valentine’s Day — a Hallmark day to commemorate the clubbing, stoning and eventual beheading of a priest in the early third century. Also a day of love and joy and puppies for those who dig that kind of thing. Music, however, is an impartial judge and an equal-opportunity emotion enhancer, as always. It’ll turn a sad afternoon into an existential crisis with the right phrase and turn of a melody. But it can also make you embrace the saccharine happiness that accompanies happy couples on a day that internationally celebrates their success over others’ failures. Your choice.

So Treeswingers are leaving it to you to decide: five heart-wrenching, slow-drowning, wrist-slitting laments against the cruelties of love. Or five songs to remind you that sometimes it’s fun to have a crush. And cutesy music. And it’s kind of nice to listen to cutesy music with your crush on a sunny lawn on a February afternoon (hey, it’s California — that’s normal).

Happy Valentine’s day, everyone. Kiss, cry, eat, drink, be merry, send a nostalgic text to an ex. Remember, sometimes hearts are just organs. But they can skip beats, and lovers can listen to them thump. It just depends on your point of view.

KILLING ME SOFTLY WITH YOUR SONG

–Leave it to Stars’ frontman Torquil Campbell to breakdown melancholy and heartache. From his side project, Memphis, comes this song, where Campbell sings of a lover who’s already contemplating the possibilities of breakup before it’s even happened.

Memphis- I Dreamed We Fell Apart

–Where would heartbreak be without the influence of country twang? With slide guitar in tow, The Shins tell of a homicidal lover, hellbent on getting back at an ex whose done him wrong.

The Shins- Gone for Good

–The game of love sucks. Especially when you lose.

The Decemberists- The Sporting Life

–Hipsters have feelings too. Case in point: The xx. Backed by a percussion that mimics the human heart, singers Oliver Sim and Romy Madley Croft play the parts of estranged lovers who’ve taken too long to realize that they’ve made a mistake.

The xx- Heart Skipped a Beat

—Here’s a sad scene from Alex Turner and Co. You’re sitting in an airplane, ready to take off and just before you put the miles between yourself and bad memories, it hits you. Did that really happen? Is she really gone? Well buddy, you can’t do anything about it now. Fasten seat belts and place trays in their upright positions, please.

Arctic Monkeys- Despair in the Departure Lounge

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HAPPINESS IS A WARM LOVE SONG

–Peace, love, flowers, hippies, and sunny skies — Rachael Yamagata channels some groovy licks into the swingin’-est love song. Carefree love and a pretty hapa’s husky voice: all you need for a windows-down car ride down Highway 1 with a lover.

Rachael Yamagata – 1963

–The French rock. Tahiti 80 holds its roots in Rouen, and their cute, lispy accents add European hints to this light-hearted love song, with little splashes of guiro (best percussion instrument ever). “I’ll never find another way to say / I love you more each day.”

Tahiti 80 – Heartbeat (Cornelius Remix)

–Wilco, Wilco, Wilco, love of my heart. There’s nothing complex about this straight-forward chant of a song — he’s got you, and it’s all he needs. It’s the end of the century, and he can’t think of anything but you. That’s it. What more does love need?

Wilco – I’ve Got You (At the End of the Century)

–A smooth lovin’ beat and — hands down — the best analogies ever, delivered with such a laid-back feel that you barely experience their cheesiness. “I’m gonna flood you like a love river / Oh, baby, the postman is about to deliver.” Also, the only song that makes love handles sound sexy.

Animal Liberation Orchestra feat. Jack Johnson – Girl, I Wanna Lay You Down

–And to round out the set, for those who are true sentimentalists at heart, and for any girls who may have been offended by the straightforward nature of the previous song, here’s something for the heartstrings. Bright Eyes redirects the energies he usually reserves for emotional tragedy toward a song that can only be described as… sweet.

Bright Eyes – First Day of My Life

And a secret eleventh song, to celebrate the other day today is. It’s not just Valentine’s Day… It’s a Sunday, and oldies always know how to tell it best. Hit it, Etta.