The brain is certainly a complex organ. It can both store songs that melt your heart and associate these songs to your romances past and present. The brain-heart dynamic is manipulative, in love-hate fashion. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
This year’s Make Out Mix (codename M.O.M.) is not about love and loss. It’s about love and lust and how the two feelings may co-exist. It’s literally about the art and science of kissing, canoodling, making out, or whatever you choose to call it.
Valentine’s Day can’t take over the world without a beat, snare, and sensual lyrics. Therefore I give you a playlist of 10 songs with respective kissing styles you can practice and perfect with your sweetie.
The Wake Up Kiss | What’s a better way to wake up in the morning? Shoegaze. Bedside partner. Before your partner wakes up, lean over and kiss their cheek and move over giving soft kisses until you reach their lips.
To the tune, courtesy of the Glaswegian post-rock band, this type of kiss might encourage a daily occurrence with your partner.
The Single-Lip Kiss | To give your sweetie a single-lip kiss, take one of their lips between yours and gently tug or suck on it. LA-based soul duo Rhye makes a dutiful post-pop track to go along with this fun kiss.
If you do it right, you’ll make the blood rush up and down your sweetie’s spine.
The Lip Gloss Kiss | Are you into fruity lip glosses? This is a fun, flirty kiss for those that favor and savor the flavor. Choreograph this to the jazz-bass driven movement of this song.
After applying some, rub your lips on your lover’s lips until they’re coated, too. If you follow the inharmonicity of Mvula’s song, this kiss will be like magic. Warning: you might not want to stop this frolicky kiss. Solution: loop the track and the kiss.
The Vampire Kiss | Once you start, you’re not gonna stop. The feverish nature of this song will have you and your partner engaged in this seriously deep kiss. On his or her neck, lightly suck or bite on the skin.
This track by the 30-something chanteuse has an offbeat, spoken-word vibe to it. Yet it has the allure to a tempt you like one of Dracula’s brides. Remember that no two erogenous zones are the same. And make sure your partner knows about your vampiric tendencies beforehand.
The Whipped Cream Kiss | Now that you got the lip gloss kiss down to curriculum, skip the messy chocolate in a bottle. Instead, let this Danish R&B powerhouse be the soundtrack to you and your partner’s whip cream commercial. Take your pick—go aerosol can or come straight out of the plastic container.
Apply to your significant other like no other. Then lick it off slowly. Then hold your partner and improvise sweet kisses. Okay, it might not be a far cry from chocolate on the messy scale. But what the hell.
The Buzzing Kiss | This kiss is as visually whimsical as Ocean’s lyrics. It’s strongly recommended you do this as a goodbye kiss, as in just before leaving for work. Gently place your lips behind your sweetie’s ear, lightly touching the neck. Send a shudder though along the skin let out a light humming sound.
Make the sound continuous as if doing a circular breathing exercise. Motion up and down the neck, over your sweetie’s cheekbones, then lips. He or she will be thinking about you all day.
The Reverse Lips Kiss | This duet is a wonderful manifestation of the matching kiss. You must stand above your lover and kiss them from over their head. The advantage is that each kisser can take the sensitive bottom lips of one another’s and gently tease the nerves to surface of the lip by nibbling and sucking.
The reverse lips kiss is a sensual and, if done slowly, plays well with the romantic, adagio pacing of “Heaven on the Ground.”
The Lick-Kiss | This downtempo R.Kelly-style track will set you and your partner up for this unabashed kiss. The Canadian post-quiet stormster has a raunchy yet more refined stream-of-conscious style that might spare him the shame of a dramatic traverse, a la Benedict Cumberbatch.
As for the kiss, it’s a slippery-when-wet situation; so I’ll leave it to your imagination. Go wild, baby.
The Hot and Cold Kiss | One of the greatest of J Dilla’s gifts to the world was this experimental piece of wax turntablism (i.e., album, The Shining). Before you engage in this kiss, work in a slow jam with you partner. Wet your partner’s lips so that they’re warm, and then gently blow on them.
The sudden cold blast makes for tingling sensation. Your partner will surely reciprocate the action.
The Love Kiss | Devonté Hynes, the breathy vocalist who might draw inspiration from PM Dawn, is the likely candidate for the most candid of kisses: the love kiss. “Chamakay” feels like the dedication to your one and only. Like any improvisational technique such as dancing or playing a horn, your kissing style, too, can be influenced by what’s on your mind.
Locking lips with love on your mind, make your kisses extra soft, sweet, and desirable. Needless to say the love kiss is the most romantic kiss you can give.
It’s just as good to give than it is to receive… when it comes to kissing. Happy Valentines Day!
