One (anti-)romantic guide to the arts

Valentine’s Day is a holiday that can cause wildly varying emotions. To some, it is a celebration of love. It is a sacred day filled with warm, sweet emotions that swell and bubble inside. To others, it is a terrible reminder of their inability to find the right partner. In going through the day, I was inspired to write out some choices of entertainment that can help on both ends of the spectrum.

For those in love, making a Valentine’s Day playlist is very easy. Musicians are most inspired by the powerful feelings that come with love. Within any given genre, there are thousands of albums centered around relationships. While everyone is entitled to their own opinions, I believe that R&B is undeniably the soundtrack to the purest love.

Being able to play some great music is a phenomenal confidence boost, and having a good go-to playlist of smooth, sweet, soulful R&B is a game changer in a relationship. In my opinion, the king of relationship music is currently D’Angelo. All three of his projects are great music to casually put on in your room while talking to that special someone. He also makes great music for lovemaking. The track “Untitled (How Does It Feel)” is pure sex.

There are other obvious choices. Marvin Gaye is at the center of all great relationships. While I already wrote a glowing review, I want to take some time to again reinforce how good Yes Lawd! by NxWorries is. It’s a great piece of music to listen to casually with a significant other.

One more note about the “romance” playlist: The intensity of the songs should be very tightly monitored. I have a specific moment on my playlist that distinguishes the relaxed section from the pointedly sexual part — it’s the moment that “Or Nah,” the Ty Dolla $ign collaboration with The Weeknd, Wiz Khalifa and DJ Mustard, comes on.

The best television for a romantic evening with a loved one is undoubtedly some sweet, not-too-raunchy sitcom. Dramatic television requires too much concentrated attention, while shows like The Office, Parks and Recreation and Modern Family are great conversation sparkers and quick routes to inside jokes.

Reality television is an another sleeper pick. There’s nothing better to talk over than some random reality TV shows. My personal favorite is Chrisley Knows Best, a pointless, aimless show about a millionaire family that does insane things. Every episode concludes with some greater moral about family life, pulled out of thin air.

Movies are also great to set the mood. I really recommend Moonrise Kingdom from Wes Anderson. I feel like it’s the perfect casual romantic film. It has comedic elements, some sweet drama, a general feeling of nostalgia and a sweet, innocent romance.

I understand that it is much simpler to pick a film. Picking something slightly quirky and off kilter with themes of love and romance is a bolder, and more interesting step. Wes Anderson is perfect for that. His quaint, cute cinematography and scene direction will undoubtedly impress both you and your loved one.

That should be a recipe for a great day with a lover.

Now for the other end: how to handle a sorrowful, lonely day... That playlist is much more complex and varied. Some of us enjoy lingering on the pain and hurt of past love.

One of my best friends from high school made a long playlist dedicated to a girl that he loved, which included music that they listened to together. He used it to pore through his emotions. A dreary, sad playlist can definitely help with coping.

Quiet, painful indie can be great for playlists like that. The sweet high voices of artists like Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes or Sufjan Stevens are tearjerkers. Some more electronic but nonetheless equally emotionally wrought, music can be found in The xx’s catalogue. Majid Jordan fits somewhere on that spectrum as well.

There are others who deal with lack of love in a more aggressive, angry way. If you are the type to pull all of your frustration out through passion and then fall back into normal life, rap is the way to go.

Dr. Dre, the Game, YG — all of the West-Coast artists have a great (but slightly hedonistic) worldview that can do wonders with confidence. In Houston, many artists (Z-Ro, Trae the Truth, etc.) have a similar mindset, ignoring romantic love while focusing on materialistic gain. I’m not saying that this is the proper way to deal with emotional suffering, or the proper mindset to have generally, but it does help at the time of greatest pain.

Albums of choice for some of these artists are The Game’s The Documentary as well as its sequel Documentary 2.5 (with key songs like “Step Up” (featuring Dej Loaf and ShaSha) and “Up on the Wall” (featuring Ty Dolla $ign, Problem and YG). YG’s album, Still Brazy (which was ranked the third best rap album of 2017 by the Arts Section) is another safe bet in his strong discography. Songs like “Why You Always Hatin?” (featuring Drake and Kamaiyah) and “Who Shot Me?”

Dr. Dre’s array of classics stretch from The Chronic to his most recent album, Compton which features the crazy pseudo-posse cut “Genocide” (featuring Kendrick Lamar, Marsha Ambrosius and Candice Pillay). Or you could look back at any one of his songs that were forming for hip-hop entirely, like “Still D.R.E”. (featuring Snoop Dogg).

For heartbreak, movies and television shows unrelated to love are perfect. Comedies can be phenomenal, lifting you up from the blues into peals of laughter. For a contemporary pick, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is a great, depraved choice.

The show is hilarious and irreverent. Also, watching almost anything by Eric Andre can bring me near to tears. Movies with dense, thick atmospheres are also good, pulling you out from the pain of normal life into the tumultuous world of someone else. Stuff like Saving Private Ryan or Dead Poets Society can be good watches in times like these.

So there you go. Here are a couple of ways to deal with the rough-and-tumble forest that is romance. Shows like, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and maybe even some of the musical options here, give you alternative romantic options.

Hopefully this helps at least one moping sap or one sweet couple missing that special spark.