There are love songs, of course. There are break-up songs. And then there are songs about relationships that don’t fit into either of those categories — the ones about love affairs that aren’t ending, even when something has gone seriously, perhaps irreparably wrong. Romantic crisis anthems, if you will. The newest of Montreal album, Paralytic Stalks, which is out this week, is all about a relationship in peril; the band’s mastermind, Kevin Barnes, recently told Spin, “The general theme of the whole record is trying to keep myself together when I’m faced with all this madness, trying to keep my relationships together.” It struck us that we don’t hear these stories told in song nearly enough — and since Valentine’s Day, with its perfectionist conception of love, is around the corner, this seemed like a good time to compile them.

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It’s another day, and yet another Now That’s What I Call Music! compilation album is available for consumption. Not to make anyone feel old or anything, but we’re at volume #41! (In the UK, where the series began in 1983, they’re at #80). Artists featured this time around include LMFAO, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and, for those who prefer to rock, Nickelback.

If the past is any indicator of the future, this album is bound to be a hit. In a recent press release, the Now! team states that “every album in the numeric US series has reached Billboard’s Top 10, and 15 Now! releases have reached #1, second only to The Beatles in chart history.” Indeed, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, every Now! album has achieved either Gold or Platinum status, with only a few exceptions. In 2006, Slate music critic, Jody Rosen, wondered if Now! could save the music business, calling the franchise “one of the great success stories in the record business over the last decade.”

So, in our age of digital downloading and cloud computing, of Pandora and Sirius and Spotify and even YouTube, how are these records comprised of jams found everywhere still so successful?

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We’re not sure exactly what’s behind the recent nail art explosion, but as long as it continues to produce amazing pop-culture tributes on a tiny, personal scale, it has our attention. Last week, we brought you the blood-flecked fingertips of a Dexter groupie and some Arrested Development Mr. Banana Grabber press-ons in our roundup of amazing TV-inspired nails. Before that, we went highbrow with literary nail art paying tribute to everyone from F. Scott Fitzgerald to Harry Potter. Now, nail art superfans, are you ready to rock ‘n’ roll? Today’s haul of musician-inspired nail art includes a dazzling riff on David Bowie’s Aladdin Sane, a set of crazy Nicki Minaj claws, and even a perfectly executed Daniel Johnston manicure.

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At some point during the early 2000s, the world of indie started to re-embrace the Boss — a welcome development for those, like us, who’ve always appreciated Bruce Springsteen’s songwriting talents. Springsteen’s always been more interesting than his popular image dictated — anyone who just knows him as the “Born in the USA” guy might be surprised to know that he frequently covers Suicide’s “Dream Baby Dream” and sang on Lou Reed’s magnum opus “Street Hassle” — and over the last decade or so, a steady stream of contemporary musicians have started to make decidedly Bruce-influenced tunes. Of course, as with anything, there’s the good ones and the bad ones — so in celebration of the release of latter day Bruce-alike Craig Finn’s debut solo album Clear Heart Full Eyes, here’s our verdict on Springsteen wannabes over the years, starting with the best and working progressively down the totem pole.

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As long as she’s been famous, Lady Gaga has been known for her charity work and support of LGBT and other marginalized communities. So it’s absolutely unsurprising — but also pretty awesome — to hear that she’s launching a philanthropic organization of her own. Co-founded by GLAAD Media Award nominee Gaga and her mother, Cynthia Germanotta, the Born This Way Foundation seeks to empower youth through promoting self-confidence and fighting bullying. This is clearly all very on-message for the star, whose mother told MTV News, “My daughter’s foundation was born out of her passion to create a better world where people are kinder and nicer to one another and are accepted for who they are, regardless of how different they may be.” The foundation will get its official kick-off at a party February 29th at Harvard, whose Berkman Center for Internet and Society is (along with the MacArthur Foundation and the California Endowment) a partner on the project.

Today at Flavorpill, we imaged what this teddy bear skin rug would feel like beneath our feet. We learned about the science behind bursting water balloons in this video. We were pretty impressed by the art of Jello origami. We wondered if microwavable footwear would be the next Snuggie sensation. We tried to tell the difference between Lady Gaga and Jem in this fun quiz posted at Mental Floss. We were glad to hear that Lindsay Lohan got gold stars on her probation report. We read about the return of Atari. We weren’t shocked to learn about this Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark countersuit against director Julie Taymor. We counted the werewolves in this trailer for FDR: American Badass!. We enjoyed this solo performance by Adam Ben Ezra covering the Mad Men theme, live and on upright bass. We approved of this Lord of the Rings manicure. And finally, we saw where all the trees in the U.S. were located and determined that the Midwest won’t be enjoying a shady picnic anytime soon.

Branding is all anyone can talk about these days. It’s how celebrities stay famous. It’s what Twitter is really for. It’s even what the last season of America’s Next Top Model was all about (besides Tyra Banks’s book, we mean). This week saw famed Bright Lights, Big City author Jay McInerney’s birthday — the renowned playboy is 57 years old, if you can believe it. Inspired by the persistence of the McInerney legend even after all these years, we thought we’d give you a brief outline of how to build a successful pop culture persona using two demonstrative models: the aforementioned Jay McInerney, poster boy of ’80s excess, and Lady Gaga, Queen of overblown contemporary pop. Click through to pick up a few helpful tips on how to build your pop culture persona based on these two tabloid legends, and make sure to send us a postcard from the top when you get there.

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Editor’s note: Welcome to The Fug Report! Each week our fashion blogger friends Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan, the sartorial geniuses behind Go Fug Yourself, will feature some of the most memorable looks of the week in this space. We hope you enjoy it!

Over the past few weeks on Go Fug Yourself, we took a look back at the storied wardrobe of Britney Spears. We dug deep into the archives for endless pictures of Pacey Witter Joshua Jackson. We investigated The Year in Bieber. We worried that Erin Andrews is going to hurt herself if she keeps wearing pants this tight on the sidelines. We wondered why Vanessa Hudgens has such a complicated relationship with denim. We took issue with Tatler’s recent Kate Middleton cover — which reminded us of an amateur portrait of Jesus — and even more issue with what Cosmo did to poor Dakota Fanning. We admired Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig, albeit it separately, and over-analyzed why Lady Gaga rang in the year kissing Mayor Bloomberg. Is his girlfriend, Diana Taylor, going to have to kick her ass? If so, we hope someone takes pictures!

Today at Flavorpill, we celebrated National Trivia Day with 119 amazing facts courtesy of our friends at Mental Floss. We got a behind-the-scenes look at Conan O’Brien’s daily life. We enjoyed this fantastic Joker-by-Seuss mashup from DeviantArt member DrFaustusAu. We got incredibly excited watching Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein cover Salt-N-Pepa’s “Push It” during the San Francisco stop of their current Portlandia tour. We tried to decide on our favorite color in the new Nicki Minaj for OPI collection. We reimagined Game of Thrones as a buddy comedy. We wished that all of our dreams were as pleasant as this photogenic Finnish baby’s look to be. We tried to identify all of the movies featured in Stephen Wildish’s 1990s Film Alphabet. We met a multimedia artist who says that Lady Gaga’s recent holiday display at Barneys ripped off her work. We discovered that Catherine the Great may have invented the roller coaster. We found out a lot of things that we didn’t already know about Stephen Colbert thanks to this fascinating New York Times Magazine profile. And finally, we listened to a bunch of rappers spell out their names for us.

Celebrities: they’re just like us. That is, they make New Year’s resolutions and promote them on Twitter whether any of their friends care or not — though, to be fair, they probably have more friends who do care than anyone else you know. And of course, just like our own New Year’s promises, some of these celebrity resolutions are thoughtful and from the heart while others are meant in jest, and many fall somewhere in between. Whether revealing a dream to stay alive forever, a need to pare down, or a staunch resolution to make friends with a lion, and whether completely tongue-in-cheek or sweet and sincere, click through to read fifteen of our favorite celebrity New Year’s resolution tweets, and be sure to let us know your own resolutions in the comments. As for us, well, we resolve to stop looking at Twitter so much.

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