five in heavy rotation - feb 14 edition.

these aren't terribly romantic, they're just what I've been listening to a lot of.
the usual applies; download these, do your own, put the tracks up if you're so inclined.
what's odd is that they're all rather liberal in usage of strings and samples thereof, which was unintentional on my part.

also, I don't feel like writing blurbs, so I've googled and stolen other people's.

• M83 - Run Into Flowers
  • A perfect representation of M83's strengths, the song is remarkable for both its intensity and its tenderness. Its hushed vocals, juxtaposed with glorious swells of digital strings, are the beating heart of Dead Cities, providing a locus of humanity amidst the album's surprisingly wrenching synthesized arrangements. taken from Pitchfork
  
  
• Stars - Celebration Guns
  • The moral is clear: we may be fighting a war so far uphill that we're falling flat on our backs from three miles up in the air, but it can't break our spirits. We have to live life here as if it were as precious as it is in the impossible utopia that exists on the back wall of our brains. We have to sing songs of love and, indeed, fall in love. We have to celebrate victory even when defeat may be looming at every corner. And most importantly, we must keep believing in ourselves and each other, even when everything we have strived for has turned from nothing into a black hole. taken from epinions
  
  
• Kylie - Fragile
  • "But I get butterflies / Water in my eyes / 'Cause I'm fragile when I hear your name / Fragile when you call / This could be the nearest thing to love / And I'm fragile when I hear you speak / Fragile feeling small / This could be the closest thing to love" coos Kylie at the chorus. And once again, it's so simple and direct and goes straight for the heart. Who hasn't felt that way before when falling hard for someone? taken from PopMatters
  
  
• Autechre - Arch Carrier
  • It's generally agreed that the record's standout track is "Corc," whose laidback beats and subtle melody is a perfect soundtrack for cruising through the futuristic nitetime ghettos of Tokyo. But there's something about "Arch Carrier" that seems much more artistically unique, and altogether more powerful. The track kicks off with a seemingly random melodic structure that eventually becomes the song's backbone as heartbeat- like drumlines and eerie string sections enter the mix. taken from Pitchfork
  
  
• Hope of The States - The Red The White The Black The Blue
  • More a movie-in-waiting than a song (there’s even a crazed Irish jig segment), ‘The Red...’ blasts HOTS out of their Mogwai-with-tunes pigeonhole into a scary/beautiful hellscape of sonic invention all their own. taken from NME

remember, kids, the words aren't mine, I just like the songs.
download links should hopefully be up soon.