Oh Valentine’s day… the time of year where star-crossed lovers across the Western world are expected to prove their love to each other, smothering their partners with thoughtless gifts & mass produced cards full of sickeningly sweet & idealistic love propaganda.
At no other time of year, no matter how hard you try, will you ever be able to convey your love for another person more conveniently & commercially than on February 14th. Who knew love would be as easy as petrol station flowers & a bottle of Blossom Hill?
Despite the depressingly capitalistic nature of modern day Valentine’s, it’s origins are pretty cool. Valentine’s day was all about sex, sacrifice and Roman paganism until the 14th century poet Geoffrey Chaucer created the connection between Valentine’s day and the concept of courtly love in his poem ‘Parlement of Foules‘. Before then Valentines was literally the Middle Age’s equivalent to a swingers party where men picked girl’s names out of a bowl to decide who they’d fuck. Romantic right?
So without further ado, here’s a Valentine’s gift from CitR because we love everyone who supports the blog & inspires us to keep doing what we do. Play this mix of fuzzy lo-fi pop songs from the last 8 years to celebrate and/or mourn the feelings you get from the release of neurotrophins, serotonin, oxytocin, vasopressin, testosterone & estrogen. Hooray!
Click here to download the ‘Love Is A Commodity’ Valentine’s mixtape
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone – Young Shields
Black Bear – Black Bear
Deerhunter – Nosebleed
SKWBN – Loop Duplicate My Heart
Think About Life – What the Future Might Be
Moscow Olympics – Keeping the Avenues Open
Sweet Valley Slumber Party – Racing Hearts
Panda Bear – Atiba Song
Jeffrey Lewis – Roll Bus Roll
Bishop Allen – Flight 180
John Maus – Bennington
Fast Summer – Noble Oak
NB: All of these songs are freely available to download elsewhere on the web but if any of the featured artists has a problem with the free promotion then email us & we’ll be happy to remove your tune from this Valentine’s day playlist.