February is a weird month. It’s short, but somehow feels like the longest 28 days of the year; it can’t decide if it wants to be winter or not, and every store has looked like a Hallmark card exploded in it from the moment the last bit of wrapping paper hit the trash bin on December 25th. Long-time readers and real-life friends know I have a complicated relationship with Valentine’s Day. Not because I’m bitter (I promise I'm not), but because the holiday demands a very specific emotional range. Red roses and heart-shaped candy. So, so many things that sparkle. My feelings about February have always been a little more nuanced. A little more cinematic. Yearning, moody, vibey..something you can’t quite name. Which is pretty much why I ended up here, with a mix that sounds like a cassette tape’s worth of 80’s new wave loaded up and ready to go. And, to be fair, I'm just in a super big new wave mood lately, so it just made sense.

Welcome to Low Lights, High Feelings. The February Monthly Mix that just gets it.

Welcome to New Wave

To understand why the new wave hits differently, you have to understand where it came from. Emerging in the late 1970s and fully exploding through the early to mid-1980s, new wave was the more polished, synth-driven cousin of punk. It borrowed the same rebellious energy but swapped out the aggression for something much more atmospheric. More electronic production, introspective lyrics, and a theatrical sense of style. Bands like Joy Division, the Cure, and Echo & the Bunnymen were defining a whole new emotional vocabulary for music, built on longing and tension with beautiful, aching melancholy sensibilities. New Wave pulled from punk, pop, and art rock all at once, creating a sound that felt simultaneously cool and deeply, uncomfortably personal. There was also plenty of theatrics to it. The eyeliner, the trench coats, and those oh so dramatic haircuts. But underneath it all, there was a real feeling. A genre that understands that sometimes you need music to sit in the emotion with you, rather than rush through it or mask it as a pop song would do.

Why New Wave for February?

Look, I could have gone the obvious route. A Valentine’s Day playlist full of love songs and sappy ballads that pair nicely with a bottle of wine and a heart-shaped charcuterie board. That just feels too easy and, honestly, not very interesting, and frankly, fake. New Wave, to me, this year is the vibe and deserves to get the emotional Valentine’s Day credit it rarely, if ever, gets credit for. Think about it. The entire genre is built on romantic tension. Longing. The horrible, uncomfortable push and pull of love and loss, and the very specific feeling of being completely consumed by another person, or at the very least, the memory of one. Joy Division’s Love Will Tear Us Apart is one of the most famous love songs ever written, and it’s utterly devastating. The Cure’s Just Like Heaven is pure euphoria dressed up in reverb and Robert Smith’s iconic hair. Even the darker, stranger songs in this mix are romantic in their own ways. They’re about feeling things deeply, which ultimately is what I’ve been doing this February, whether I wanted to or not.

Whether you’re in love, newly heartbroken, in love with the idea of being in love, or simply in love with a really good playlist, Low Lights, High Feelings has a place for you. No pressure. No pink glitter. Just incredible music and a lot of feelings.

And I mean, at the very least, just sit in a vibe kinda like The Rave Ups scene in Pretty In Pink.

LISTEN ON SPOTIFY

1. If You Were Here // Thompson Twins
2. Vienna // Ultravox
3. The Killing Moon // Echo & The Bunnymen
4. How Soon is Now? // The Smiths
5. Just Like Honey // The Jesus and Mary Chain
6. Fade to Grey // Visage
7. Pale Shelter // Tears for Fears
8. Love My Way // The Psychedelic Furs
9. Just Like Heaven // The Cure
10. Love Will Tear Us Apart // Joy Division
11. Age of Consent // New Order
12. West End Girls // Pet Shop Boys
13. Smalltown Boy // Bronski Beat
14. If You Leave // OMD
15. Eyes Without a Face // Billy Idol
16. Don’t Dream It’s Over // Crowded House
17. I Melt with You // Modern English
18. Genius of Love // Tom Tom Club
19. Brass In Pocket // Pretenders
20. China Girl // David Bowie