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Love is, apparently, in the air; certainly there’s a floral buzz about the atmosphere at Paddington Station, where DiS likes to lunch almost every day (except pay day, obviously, when we go down the Thai… tasty). To mark Valentine’s Day, we asked a number of artists for their favourite songs of either love or hate. Simple. Easy. List. Read and DiScuss and submit your own via our comments board below. Happy snoggings!

Name / Band: Andrew Falkous, Future of the Left
Song Choice: ‘Pollywannacracka’, Public Enemy
Because: I am a black woman who is attracted to white men
Romantic Status: Married
My worst Valentine’s Day memory is: Tish and Piff.

Name / Band: Martin Noble, British Sea Power
Song Choice: ‘Time Has Told Me’, Nick Drake
Because: This song always makes me feel like an idiot. It makes me realise what a good thing I have and that I should cherish it more. Unashamedly soppy.
Romantic Status: Attached
My worst Valentine’s Day memory is: Aged 11, I dumped my girlfriend for a girl who gave me a bigger Valentine’s Day card. A bastard, at 11. How fickle.

Name / Band: Christopher Porter, GoodBooks
Song Choice: ‘Christobel’, Joan As Police Woman
Because: I think it's a good choice because it's full of melancholy, which is what love's all about really, isn't it? And it was once out on a mixtape for me so I'm paying it forward. Oh, and the crazy guitar solo!
Romantic Status: Currently my own man
My worst Valentine’s Day memory is: My worst Valentine’s memory is from two years ago, sat in a pub in Cambridge with Max (vocals) and JP (keys) in complete silence for a number of hours.

Name / Band: Barry Hyde, The Futureheads
Song Choice: ‘I Only Have Eyes For You’, Flamingos
Because: It’s possibly the most romantic piece of music I’ve ever heard.
Romantic Status: To be married in July (!)
My best Valentine’s Day memory is: It's not a romantic memory but getting our debut EP '1-2-3-nul!' mastered at Abbey Road on Valentine’s Day was great.

Name / Band: Jeffrey Lewis
Song Choice: ‘Love is a Fist’, Mr. Bungle
Because: I like the way Mike Patton sings "knuckle sandwich".
Romantic Status: Attached
My worst Valentine’s Day memory is: Thankfully completely repressed deep in my subconscious.

Name / Band: Victoria Bergsman, Taken By Trees, formerly The Concretes.
Song Choice: ‘Love Is In The Air’
Because: The title and the lyrics speak for themselves, it's just the perfect Valentine’s song
Romantic Status: Love is one of those things you can never get enough of, so I guess I am always looking for love.
My worst Valentine’s Day memory is: I think I was 10 or 11 when I fell off my bicycle in the middle of the rain and injured my knees and elbows really badly. I was cycling in anger after seeing the boy I wanted being taken by another girl. That wasn't a very good Valentine's Day.

Name / Band: Simon White, (ex) Menswear and now in management (Bloc Party, Les Savy Fav, Broken Social Scene)
Song Choice: ‘Poison Cup’, M Ward
Because: A little bit of love is never enough.
Romantic Status: A miner for a heart of gold
My worst Valentine’s Day memory is: Falling over in front of two ex-girlfriends in a pub on Valentine’s Day 2001.

Name / Band: Adam Green
Song Choice: ‘Erase You’, ESG
Because: I laugh about romantic dysfunction on Valentine’s Day.
Romantic Status: Attached
My worst Valentine’s Day memory is: Elementary school weird bullshit: what does it mean to give the girl a card? And all that kind of thing.

Name / Band: Aristazabal Hawkes, Guillemots
Song Choice: ‘Disco Damaged (Dub KULT remix)’, The Catz
Because: I think it's a good choice because it is SExy AS FUCK!!!!! with a super grind and wind sub bass action packed love FEST bassline. no joke!
Romantic Status: Engaged!
My worst Valentine’s Day memory is: My best memory is this morning..... because ...........well, thats for me to know and you NOT to.......ha ha ha.

Name / Band: William Frederick Bowerman, I Was A Cub Scout
Song Choice: ‘Soco Amaretto Lime’, Brand: New
Because: I think it's a good choice because the lyrics are all about being young and enjoying yourself. "I'm going to stay 18 forever, so we can stay like this forever". It reminds me of a relationship I was in at the time.
Romantic Status: Attached
My best Valentine’s Day memory is: Probably playing with mewithoutYou last year, I have never done much for Valentine’s Day!

Name / Band: Owen Brinley, Grammatics.
Song Choice: ‘Miss America’, Blur
Because: I've been single for a while now. Despite Valentine’s holding very little relevance to me, I don't think I'm going to be in the mood for 'Get Off' by Prince or any shag-anthems of a similar ilk... they may be a bit, erm, self-indulgent considering my status? I'm choosing 'Miss America' for its woozy drunken charm. Damon sounds so withdrawn and lovesick, the whole track seems to warp and sway throughout. The lyrics are cryptic and delivery louche until the absolute sincerity of the “I love only you” line... I suppose that's the moment you realise you are listening to a love song.
Romantic Status: Looking for love / playing the field (attempting with limited success!)
My best Valentine’s Day memory is: I had a good one during my second year of comprehensive school and got a couple of anonymous red envelopes through the post. I remember that being pretty bewildering at the time...

Name / Band: Jules, The Presets
Song Choice: ‘Sexual Healing’, Marvin Gaye
Because: Sure, it's the obvious, cheesy, clichéd choice. But when you hear it, you realise how amazing it is (and it WORKS).
Romantic Status: Attached
My worst Valentine’s Day memory is: I have never ever received a Valentine’s card from anyone (boo hoo), including my girlfriend. We think Valentine's Day is a crock of shit. Happy Valentine's Day everybody! x x x

Name / Band: frYars
Song Choice: ‘Je T'aime’, Serge Gainsbourg
Because: I think it's a good choice because it's just about the only good love song. It’s about real love. Physical love.
Romantic Status: Attached
My worst Valentine’s Day memory is: I've only been with someone on the past couple of years and I can't remember what went on.

Name / Band: George Pringle
Song Choice ‘Atomic Dog’ George Clinton
Because: It’s more fun than Valentine’s Day.
Romantic Status: Attached
My Worst Valentine’s Day Memory: My ex bought me a card saying “to my wonderful wife on Valentine’s Day”. I hated him at the time so went off and cheated on him.

Name / Band: Kid Harpoon
Song Choice: ‘Don't Go Home With Your Hard-On’ by Leonard Cohen (produced by Phil Spector)
Because: This is the song I would want to fall in love with someone on Valentine’s Day with. For me, Love has become a cliché. Love is a need, not a choice. This song is about one reason why we need love. Sex.
Romantic Status: Welded tight
My worst Valentine’s Day memory is: My worst Valentine's memory is drinking a bottle of expensive whisky which I'd bought as a Valentine’s present, the day before Valentine’s Day. It made Valentine’s Day one giant headache.

Name / Band: Joby J Ford, The Bronx
Song Choice: ‘Love TKO’, Teddy Pendergrass, or ‘Get It On’, Demolition Doll Rods
Because: They are the two best Valentine’s songs ever.
Romantic Status: Attached
My worst Valentine’s Day memory is: NO COMMENT.

Name / Band: Katie Harkin, Sky Larkin
Song Choice: ‘Time After Time’, Cyndi Lauper
Because: If it's not worth saying in close harmony it's not worth saying at all.
Romantic Status: Attached
My worst Valentine’s Day memory is: Not saying!

Name / Band: Sportsday Megaphone
Song Choice: ‘Love Without Anger’, Devo
Because: Valentine’s Day should be full of three things - Love, Devo and jerky dancing. And definitely no anger.
Romantic Status: Attached
My worst Valentine’s Day memory is: I don't remember - they must have all been equally forgettable.

Name / Band: Graham of Tokyo Police Club
Song Choice: 'Emily Kane', Art Brut
Because: This is probably one of the cleverest songs that I've ever heard. Coming from Art Brut, you expect it to be a bit of a laugh, but it ends up being a sincere ode to a lost love. Sure, it's delivered in typical Eddie Argos winking fashion, but sentiments like "I hope this song finds you fame, I want schoolkids on buses singing your name" come across as more honest and loving than any other sad-sack love song out there. And then it gets to the part where he reels off the exact amount of time since he's seen her, right down to the second, and your heart breaks a little bit, even though you're too busy bopping along to notice it.
Romantic Status: Attached
My best Valentine’s Day memory is: Back when I was still in high school, my girlfriend lived in another town, about an hour away by bus. This particular Valentine's Day fell on a school day, so we knew we weren't going to see each other. Well, morning came, and the entire town had transformed overnight into a giant skating rink. School was cancelled, so Dave came over to my house and played me some new songs that he'd written, and then we went and got pizza. I later found out that my girlfriend's school had also been cancelled, and that she'd actually driven right past my town with her mom, but hadn't called me because she assumed I was in school. Luckily, we saw each other that weekend. And one of the songs Dave played me was called 'Nature of the Experiment', and that day was basically the beginning of Tokyo Police Club as it exists now. So, happy ending. The end.

Thanks to all who helped assemble this list, in particular to Keira Poland.