The Best Song for a Happy Valentine’s Day Is a Little Dark
Since love is the most common subject matter in popular music, there are a lot of great songs for a happy Valentine’s Day. The best Valentine’s Day song come from a modern icon with a little bit of an edge. It also has the sort of hook that will stay in your head for days.
The best song for a happy Valentine’s Day came from an unexpected source
Machine Gun Kelly isn’t exactly the sort of artist you might peg as a hopeless romantic. Some of his most famous hits are awful, and his feud with Eminem was embarrassing. If you come at the king, you better not miss!
However, his music took a turn for the better when he wrote his pop-punk album Tickets to My Downfall. That record was emotional without sacrificing the brattiness of the genre. The most famous track from that album is “Bloody Valentine.”
“Bloody Valentine” isn’t just the rare hit song that alludes to Valentine’s Day. It references the holiday in its chorus and its title. It’s about someone realizing they genuinely love their sexual partner. Whether you are celebrating real love this Valentine’s Day — or red hot romance — it’s the perfect soundtrack for February 14th.
The other Valentine’s Day references in the song aren’t so happy
What makes the track a little edgy are its horror references. The song’s title alludes to the 1981 slasher movie My Bloody Valentine. That film came out in the wake of John Carpenter’s Halloween, when every slasher movie was themed after a holiday or a special event. You might enjoy My Bloody Valentine if you like violent B-movies, but it’s not really any more romantic than Friday the 13th.
The music video for the song could have recreated that film. Instead, it recreates another horror movie: Misery. The clip has Machine Gun Kelly and Megan Fox, respectively, playing the James Caan and Kathy Bates roles and casting Stephen King’s story in a more sadomasochistic light. These dark choices still can’t stop the sweeping romanticism of the song.
What Machine Gun Kelly thought when he saw the music video
During a 2020 interview with BeatRoute, Machine Gun Kelly discussed “Bloody Valentine.” “When I watched the final edit of the music video, I knew that something big would come from it,” he recalled. “It [was] cool because I am so hard on myself. I come from a place of insecurity in the way that we all do—you know, you don’t love hearing yourself on the answering machine, you don’t love watching yourself in an interview — so when you can look at something [you’ve done], and you’re a fan of it, that’s a moment. That’s how I felt about that video — it was an art piece and a place in time that I’ll never forget.
Machine Gun Kelly had some interesting things to say about the song’s parent album. “Well, the Tickets to My Downfall album is a pop-punk album from start to finish,” he said. “I’m sure after that, just like with the first albums, people will try to box me in, but I’ll probably do what I normally do: piss everybody off and go in the complete opposite direction and break out of that box [laughs]. I encourage everyone to keep up.”
Machine Gun Kelly has since transitioned into being a country singer — but we can still hope he has another “Bloody Valentine” in him.
