A Dozen Dead Roses: An anti-Valentine's Day mix for the jaded heartbroken

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Wilco - "Box Full of Letters"

Jeff Tweedy’s alt-country tribute to the post-breakup tension between wanting to wipe the slate clean and get back together. Includes the time-honored tradition of dividing up your record collections.

The Shins - "Gone For Good"

As close to a country weeper as these Northwest indie popsters are gonna get, “Gone For Good” takes a typical truckstop jukebox theme and sings about it in endlessly creative lyrics. My favorite? “Just leave the ring on the rail for the wheels to nullify.”

Paul Westerberg - "As Far As I Know"

Westerberg’s late-career home-recording renaissance has been one of the best things to happen to my record collection in the last decade. This tune, my favorite from his 2004 album, Folker, presents a middle-aged man still clinging, albeit sweetly and sincerely, to an idealized vision of love—something he’s been searching for (and longing for) his entire life, and that he’s starting to believe does not really exist.