As Valentine’s Day approaches, I’ve started to prioritize love songs. And since I’ve been reposting so many songs, I thought I should take the opportunity to update the playlists. My YouTube playlists always get the least amount of love. Today, I decided to create my Sexy Singles playlist for YouTube based on today’s song, “Sex on Fire” by Kings of Leon. The music video isn’t the sexiest on the playlist, but I thought that the lyrics are suggestive enough. I also included
Anberlin’s “Feel Good Drag,” just because it’s a song about feeling guilty about an affair. The video isn’t at all sexy, but I decided to include it when I got this message you can see to the left. None of the other videos I tried to play were censored including the scene from Pink Floyd’s The Wall, “Young Lust” which features female nudity. Censorship is hilariously frustrating. Some of the videos on this list are graphic, so please use discretion when watching.
After pursuing a music career together as founding members of NEEDTOBREATHE beginning in 2001, guitarist Nathaniel Bryant “Bo” Rinehart departed from his band. The band’s biggest hit, “Brother,” dealt with the tension of being family members in a band and their following record, H A R D L O V E furthered that theme. In 2020 the band released Out of Body, their first record without Bo. Replacing Bo on the record was future band member Tyler Burkum, a working Nashville musician who first cut his teeth in the ’90s Christian Rock band Audio Adrenaline and had been a part of bands such as Leagues and a touring musician for Mat Kearney.
I WANNA HEAR YOUR VOICE IN THE WIND AND RAIN. After listening to several recent NEEDTOBREATHE albums, I thought about a playlist that nobody asked for: Dad Rock Essentials. It’s a little bit country and a little bit rock ‘n’ roll. The songs chosen are loosely based on fatherhood and groups that dads tend to like. Maybe I’ll keep working on this and repost it for Father’s Day on Apple Music. So until then, remember socks and sandals are not a good look.
Director Luca Guadagnino approached Sufjan Stevens to provide narration to Guadagnino’s 2018 film Call Me By Your Nameand Stevens refused. Guadagnino reached out to Stevens again, but this time asking him only to provide music for the movie. Stevens accepted and provided three songs to the critically acclaimed film. He reworked a track from his 2010 album Age of Adz, “Futile Desires,” and wrote two new tracks, “Mystery of Love” and “Visions of Gideon.” The songs were used throughout the film along with classical, jazz, and early ’80s music as a backdrop to the setting of Northern Italy in the early ’80s.
FLEW UP TO YOUR ARMS. I often think of Elaine Benes stuck in the theater with her boss J. Peterman, forced to watchThe English Patient, a movie that received so much praise in the ’90s.Seinfeld‘s Elaine can’t stand the long, pretentious movie, despite everyone in her circle loving it. And yet twenty-one years later, a few of us in the LGBTQ+ community were scratching our heads about the movie that was supposed to be for us. Despite all of its accolades, some of us had a hard time getting intoCall Me By Your Name. The film is visually stunning. The music is breathtaking. The acting was good. It provided LGBTQ+ representation in the mainstream media. The story was sexy–a teenage boy’s fantasy. I personally have no problem with the film–my problem is with the baroque source material. The 2007 novel of the same name droned on and on about classical music, Italian art, literature, and food. The story reads as if Sandro Botticelli’sThe Birth of Venus were a novel, showing Venus and the others at their best at all times.
Sandro Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus
I HAVE KISSED YOU FOR THE LAST TIME. I might give the book another shot someday, but I felt that the film captured the characters and setting in a far better way than the book. The film techniques bring to life dormant emotions as Guadagnino tells the story of the romance between a 17-year-old Italian boy, Elio (Timothée Chalamet), and an American grad-school student, Oliver (Armie Hammer). While the book’s sequel, Find Me, has been scheduled to be filmed, the allegations against star Armie Hammer may have put the project on indefinite hiatus. While the love between a late teenager and a late twenty-something has been subject to criticism, the film portrays a realistic end for a time when same-sex love was taboo. The closing scene features Sufjan Stevens’ “Visions of Gideon.” A whispered final phone call between Elio and Oliver marking the end of their relationship, the crackling of the fireplace, the table being set, the snow in the background, and Timothée Chalamet fighting back tears before being called to dinner will have anyone who has ever experienced heartbreak feeling something.
Back to our somewhat weekly countdown of the top songs of last year ranked completely unscientifically by me. Now that we’re in the top ten, these songs either have some critical acclaim or I think that they are critically underrated. These are songs that resonated with me at a time when I wasn’t particularly in the mood to digest a boygenius record–no shade to the extremely talented musicians. So sorry Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker, and Lucy Dacus–I hope to get into the recordsoon. Also, sorry for the exclusion of Sufjan Stevens and Taylor Swift. I was too sad to listen to Javelinand I just dropped Taylor’s “I Can See You” in favor of a song that was actually new in 2023.
10. “Chasing That Feeling” by Tomorrow X Together. I just added this song because it’s been one of my recent favorites. While K-pop girl groups FIFTY FIFTY and NewJeans and BTS soloist Jung Kook had a big year in international acclaim, I feel like TxT was a little lower-key than a few years ago. To be fair, the group did headline the third day of Lollapalooza last year. “Chasing That Feeling” chases two feelings. The verse chases the feeling of a mysterious ‘80s new wave synth track. Then, in the chorus, the song chases a feeling of clean-cut boyband teen pop.
9. “One That Got Away” by MUNA. After a big year in 2022 releasing their self-titled third album, MUNA’s 2023 was all about riding a wave of success. From opening on Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour to boygenius at the height of their fame crashing “Silk Chiffon” at Coachella to several features including on The Japanese House’s sophomore release, In the End It Always Doeson “Morning Papers.” MUNA seems to be becoming an indie darling much needed in the industry. As for their own discography, though, MUNA released the single “One That Got Away” early in the year. Is it a B-side to the third record? A bonus song, perhaps? An early single for LP 4? Let’s see what 2024 holds for MUNA.
8. “Bad Idea, Right?” by Olivia Rodrigo. Ryan Gossling may have not saved jazz, but it seems that Olivia Rodrigo may have saved rock. That’s probably an exaggeration because the genre had been making a slow comeback after receding from pop’s influence throughout the 2010s. “Bad Idea, Right” is a song about casual sex, and it follows the formula of a song that should absolutely suck. Olivia isn’t Nickelback. Maybe we see this song as satire or it’s our collective rebellion against how purity culture even controlled the pop stations. Or maybe we forgive the lyrics by the campy delivery or the Tom Morello-styled guitar solo. Fuck it, it’s fine.
7. “Meltdown” by Niall Horan. I have to say that I was charmed by Niall last year. And I didn’t actually know who he was before “Meltdown” happened to my Spotify recommendations. My heart fluttered a little bit each time I saw the album cover. Maybe my fangirl tendencies clouded my judgment, but I still think that even if he were 20% less attractive, The Showwas maybe the most criminally underrated album of the year. While “Heaven” and “You Could Start a Cult” are good tracks, the frenetic energy with beautiful harmonies on “Meltdown” made the song feel like it should have been a top 10 hit on Billboard. Unfortunately, my listening preferences mean nothing in what makes a hit. Ok, so the album might be a little bland by a straight-white-cis man in 2023, but it really feels like Horan and his team love music.
6. “Boyhood” by The Japanese House. What a beautiful album was In the End It Always Does was. There were a lot of cred. albums in 2023–Sufjan, boygenius, Lana Del Rey, John Bellion. But The Japanese House was one that I could listen to without feeling the weight the others sometimes give me. The aforementioned acts will probably impact me one at a time later the way that I couldn’t digest Carrie & Lowellin 2015 when all I wanted to do was listen to Carly Rae Jepsen, but eventually, Carrie & Lowell fed my soul in a way that E-MO-TIONcouldn’t. But back to 2023. “Boyhood” was a casual statement about gender in a very divisive time. Can non-sis-gendered boys also have a boyhood? Ten years ago, many would think about “tomboys” and how biological females socialized to be female sometimes tend toward what many stereotype as male behaviors. But while I feel like the discussion of this song is interesting, I’m probably not the best person to lead this conversation. So I’d rather just leave it to speak for itself.
5. “Blame Brett” by The Beaches. This was another Spotify find for me. Girls are killing it for rock lately, by the way. The Beaches is a Canadian band that seems to have cracked the code to cross over into the American alternative charts. The song peaked at number 17 on the Alternative Airplay chart, which is pretty impressive for a Canadian band in America. The melody is fun, like a day at the beach, despite the lyrics of the protagonist who has sworn off love in favor of casual relationships. Something about this all-girl band reminds me of what The Donnas were doing back in the ‘00s, though I prefer the smoother sound of The Beaches. The difference is that the female rock revolution is ready to rule to radiowaves and no male-fronted rock band can stop them!
4. “Rose Colored Lenses” by Miley Cyrus. “Flowers” just won a Grammy for Record of the Year. I got sick of that song early. I thought it was not original enough like it was riding the success of the song it was based on, Bruno Mars’s “When I Was Your Man.” But then I listened to Miley Cyrus’ Endless Summer Vacation, and I thought the album was the best of the year. Picking the best song from the cohesive heartbreaking album is tricky. “Jaded” is my favorite of the other songs that became somewhat of a hit–though everything was eclipsed by “Flowers.” Many of the songs are melodically interesting and fun. But “Rose Colored Lenses” gives us the title of the album. It’s a sticky, sexy song about good times that eventually went sour. It’s a song about falling in love before the euphoria wears off. It keeps you in the moment, though you know it’s going to end, so if you listen to the song, the moment lives on.
3. “C’est Comme Ça” by Paramore. I picked this song as the best Paramore song of the year for its flaws. It’s fun. It’s bombastic. But overall, I think that it touches on the heart of what Paramore is trying to say through their thesis of an album This Is Why, a record that justifies the band’s existence. The band has seen so many splits and so much drama in their 20 years together. And yet, This Is Why is about the compulsion to make music together. “C’est Comme Ça” isn’t a serious song or a serious single, but a jam track. Haley Williams says all that she needs to in the verse, so the chorus “is what it is,” only it’s said in French.
It’s time to share my annual Valentine’s Day mixtape. Today’s song “The Bones” is a romantic song about the endurance of love. The song comes from Maren Morris‘ 2019 album GIRL and Morris wrote the song about her then-husband Ryan Hurd. The couple finalized their divorce early this year. “The Bones” talks about the foundation of a solid relationship. The song compares a relationship to a house’s structure and a human’s bones. Focus on the Family‘s Plugged In magazine praised the song for portraying a stable marital relationship. Unfortunately, Morris’ marriage ended leaving listeners to wonder how solid the foundation was. But ultimately, “The Bones” is a song about a good relationship, even if it was just a period in a relationship. Even though, for Morris and Hurd, love didn’t last, the song doesn’t doom all relationships and maybe even holds a key out of the hard times.
Harry Styles‘ third record Harry’s Housegrabs listeners with a funky ’70s-Jazz-influenced track, “Music for a Sushi Restaurant.” The avant-garde production, scatting, horns, and minimal (though somewhat complexly layered in meaning) lyrics are simultaneously the most and least pop way to start a record. Harry’s House is a record that jumps all over the place stylistically track to track, yet “Music for a Sushi Restaurant” is a bombastic-themed track–horns, ’70s-inspired tracks–to an otherwise laidback singer. But the imagery of a girl so hot you could fry an egg on her? What a bizarre way to open an album, and possibly a little unappetizing.
MUSIC FOR A SUSHI RESTAURANT, MUSIC FOR WHATEVER YOU WANT. Musicologist
Nate Sloanand songwriterCharlie Hardingtalked about the horn themes onHarry’s House on their podcastSwitched on Pop. The duo made the connection between Styles’ recent inclusion of horns on the record with Styles’Peter Gabrielinfluence, particularly on his massive 1986 hit “Sledgehammer.” During aninterviewwithHoward Stern, Styles said that the overall mix of the song made it one of his favorites of all time. Styles then performed a cover of “Sledgehammer” on Howard Stern’s show. What Sloan and Harding noticed, though, was how Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer” was really about horns blaring when to heighten the melody. Then then proceeded to give a musical history of the zeitgeist of horns in ’80s music, starting withLionel Richie‘s 1983 mega-hit, “All Night Long.” The difference between these two songs, though, is that whereas “Sledgehammer” has punctuated horns throughout the chorus, “All Night Long” is a slow build-up of momentum, each chorus building from a synth pad to synth horns to real horns and finally going all out on the final chorus of the original 6-minute non-single version of the song. Styles recorded some of his records at Peter Gabriel’s studio and seemed to take a cue from “Sledgehammer” by going all in on the horns on the album’s opener.
IF THE STARS WERE EDIBLE AND OUR HEARTS WERE NEVER FULL, COULD WE LIVE WITH JUST A TASTE? Harry Styles has a bit of an oral fixation, at least in his writing. Later on the record in “Daylight” Styles says, “You’d be the spoon / Dip you honey so I could be sticking to you.” On “Keep Driving,” the second verse describes a breakfast. Sometimes, food and sex are interconnected, but not in a George Costanza way. Recall the oral pleasures Styles sang about on his last record, Fine Line, in “Watermelon Sugar.” “Music for a Sushi Restaurant” takes a more savory approach, but the idea of having “just a little taste” seems a little more actual than metaphorical in a Harry Styles context. In the introduction to Violet Blue‘s The Ultimate Guide to Fellatio, Mary Roach descriptively describes the unique flavors she experienced eating in a Chinese restaurant in Tokyo and she related the uniqueness to performing oral sex. In the first chapter of the book, Violet Blue reminds readers that “it’s an undeniable fact that my mouth is a sex organ.” The author goes on to explain that she, like many others, gets sexual pleasure merely from giving oral sex and that exploring why the act itself gives the giver pleasure is both healthy to understand and healthy to explore. And if we think about how sushi and fish are often euphemisms for female genitalia, the song makes a bit of sense.
Before “Shape of You,” Ed Sheeran was known primarily as a singer-songwriter. His albums + and Xtook clear influence from The Beatles, Carole King, Elton John, James Taylor, and the ballad writers of yesteryear. But he had a knack for throwing in a few rap bars along the way. With every record, Sheeran gained more acclaim. His sophomore record produced the mega Billboard #2 hit, “Thinking Out Loud,” which won two Grammys including Song of the Year. The final single from the album, “Photograph” was written in collaboration with Snow Patrol‘s Johnny McDaid. Sheeran drew inspiration from his long distance relationship with singer/songwriter Nina Nesbitt (the featured musician on Kodaline’s acoustic version of “Brand New Day”). The two spent five months apart. They would eventually break up, but the song remains a gem on Sheeran’s second best-selling record.
LOVING CAN HURT. “Photograph” was the song that introduced me to the talent of Ed Sheeran. Unfortunately, because of the hit “Shape of You” on his next album, Divide, I cast Sheeran aside and forgot about the truly inspiring lyrics on the X album. Songs like “Even My Dad Does Sometimes,” “Tenerife Sea,” and “Afire Love,” and the song I chose today, “Photograph,” show tenderness without gushing with sentimentality. The music video doesn’t address the topic of the song. However, it shows young Sheeran with his first love–music. The video is a collection of old footage of Sheeran playing music throughout his childhood and teenage years. This song was especially impactful to me in 2016. I had taken on the responsibility of coordinating the native English department at my Christian school. I was the only native English teacher who remained that year, so I was left with the task of assembling a new team. One coworker was particularly disrespectful and hard to manage. I was learning to work in a Korean system. But one other aspect of this year was particularly stressful. In February of 2016, my boyfriend of six months was conscripted. Korea has a mandatory military service that all Korean males must complete before the age of 30. This meant very limited phone conversations and not seeing him for six weeks at a time.
LOVING CAN HEAL. I don’t photograph well. I never know where to look, my smile looks forced, and I close my eyes. I’m not particularly gifted in visual aesthetics. I do, however, enjoy art. But there are so many photographs I wish I took throughout the years. The problem is I don’t want to be bothered to pull out my phone, and once I do the lighting isn’t right. The problem is that I eventually realize that I’ve gotten to be almost 37 and I don’t have photos to look back on the good times. In 2022, I decided to buy the iPhone Pro 14 to have a really good camera. I had started making Instagram reels to accompany my blog based on my daily song. It was a new artistic challenge. But the following school year, life got busy and I wasn’t living a life that was photograph-worthy. Life was routine with nothing special to eat, nowhere no to travel, and work as usual. But when I went to England this winter, I promised my mom I’d take lots of pictures. The problem with that promise was that I was going to England with my partner, and I’ve been putting off my coming out for years. But what I decided to do was just to post the pictures. It’s a soft coming out. I didn’t post the more intimate photos, but I thought that if I couldn’t tell my truth, even part of it, is life really worth living?
In March 1976, two university students from Argentina fled a politically turbulent country to Brazil, taking their infant daughter, and were granted political asylum in Sweden. The González family settled in Gothenburg, where their son José González was born in 1978. Influenced by his family of academics, José entered a Ph.D. program in biochemistry but ultimately followed his heart for music. Raised on Latin folk and pop music to Bob Marley and Michael Jackson, José incorporates folk sounds in his classical guitar-picking indie folk sound. However, folk music wasn’t where González started his musical career. In the early ‘90s, he played in a hardcore punk band in his hometown of Gothenburg called Back Against the Wall. He continued to play with rock bands–bass and guitar–throughout the ‘90s.
WHILE THE CROWD IS WAITING FOR THE FINAL KISS. In 2003, José González released his debut solo album Veneerafter signing to the Swedish label Imperial Records. The album was an eventual success, being released in the rest of Europe and the United States in 2005. The biggest song González has released was a cover of a song by fellow Swedish band The Knife, “Heartbeats.” The song reached number 6 on the UK singles charts in 2006 and featured in many US television shows, particularly in key emotional scenes. In 2006, the song appeared in the teen drama One Tree Hill. It was used in a season 7 episode of Scrubs. It was also used to express a key plot point in season 2 of This Is Us. This moment came after the episodes preceding Episode 10 teased the guitar motif in the series’ soundtrack. Many other shows featured the song. González and his band Junip were also featured on the soundtrack to the 2013 Ben Stiller film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.
BEFORE WE GET TIRED. “Hints” is a simple song from José González’s debut album Veneer. Not as smooth as “Heartbeats,” the song adds dynamics to González’s sometimes lullaby-like songbook. The brash plucking of nylon strings is softer than steel but in the context of a calm album, the indie folk singer calls for the listener’s attention. The lyrics are simple, as are many of José’s songs, but as with yesterday’s song, a song doesn’t need long verses or verbose choruses to be profound. González talked about his writing process with Paste in 2021. While he considers Spanish and Swedish his “mother tongues,” José prefers to write in English, a language that he experimented with writing in as a teenager. Besides music, González is interested in philosophy and science, which often inform his lyrics. A staunch atheist, the singer-songwriter incorporates themes from evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins and ethicist Peter Singer into his songs. From 2009 to 2011, José participated in the Gothenburg String Theory, an artistic project that linked artists in Gothenburg with classical composers in Berlin, Germany. While José González may not be an artist that many know by name, his music has soundtracked some important moments in film and television. José González blends elements of folk, classical, and rock to create a unique and captivating sound. His thought-provoking lyrics, influenced by his background in philosophy and science, explore themes of human existence, love, and loss.
If I could describe the music of last year in one word, I would say that the music of 2023 has been derivative. To some extent, music is always derivative and we could argue that there has been nothing in music since [pick a date]. But a year of derivative music isn’t necessarily a bad year in music. The music from quarantine in 2020 until last year drew on familiarity and nostalgia. Maybe last year’s familiarity peaked with the shameless credited interpolation.
KINDA MISS USIN’ MY BODY. I discussed the shameless interpolations of David Guetta with “I’m Good” (Blue) and “Baby Don’t Hurt Me” and Jason Derulo’s “When Love Sucks” last year. I talked about how both of those artists’ uses of the original material felt like they were forcing nostalgia onto their listeners rather than letting it happen organically. But today, we’re looking at Troye Sivan’s “Got Me Started,” the second single from Something to Give Each Other. The song borrows the hook from a 2010 song by Australian electro duo, Bag Raiders’ “Shooting Stars.” Sivan only uses the first part of the midi riff of the song which went viral in 2017 as a musical meme, but fills out the song throughout the track from adding additional instrumentation and ebullient vocals as the song builds. “Got Me Started” begins with listeners remembering the meme, but the song actually transcends the meme. What starts out as a kind of music joke builds into seriousness. The nostalgia wraps the track, but ultimately the song becomes something new so subtly that by the end of the track, the meme is forgotten.
INCHIN’ TOWARD SUNRISE. With Troye Sivan’s Something to Give Each Other release last year, listeners have a fuller view of the singer’s comeback to the album format. Both Pasteand Pitchforkhave reviewed the album favorably, the latter giving the record a score of 8/10. Paste, in particular, points out that Something to Give Each Other accomplishes what Bloomset out to be: Sivan’s sex album. Sam Rosenberg, the reviewer argues “Bloom as a whole felt too muted and restrained for what it was trying to accomplish.” Something to Give Each Other is a much more explicit journey into a certain queer experience. Personally, I’m not ready to give my opinions on Something to Give Each Other. So far the three singles, “Rush,” today’s song “Got Me Started” and the latest single “One of Your Girls,” a song about Sivan hooking up with a straight boy and the video featuring Sivan in drag, are pretty solid. There is definitely a new push toward the explicit. I love it, but I also feel that the Troye of Blue Neighbourhood—the queer kid writing non-explicit love songs–is a genre of music that is desperately needed too. LGBTQ+ people need more diversity in representation. This is in no way saying that I wish that Troye or any artist would write inauthentically, and it’s certainly fun to live vicariously through these club songs.
As Valentine’s Day approaches, I’ve started to prioritize love songs. And since I’ve been reposting so many songs, I thought I should take the opportunity to update the playlists. My YouTube playlists always get the least amount of love. Today, I decided to create my Sexy Singles playlist for YouTube based on today’s song, “Sex on Fire” by Kings of Leon. The music video isn’t the sexiest on the playlist, but I thought that the lyrics are suggestive enough. I also included
Anberlin’s “Feel Good Drag,” just because it’s a song about feeling guilty about an affair. The video isn’t at all sexy, but I decided to include it when I got this message you can see to the left. None of the other videos I tried to play were censored including the scene from Pink Floyd’s The Wall, “Young Lust” which features female nudity. Censorship is hilariously frustrating. Some of the videos on this list are graphic, so please use discretion when watching. 
Mixtapemotions 