ยป "southern snow day music problems"
We don't get alot of snowstorms down in louisiana, or much snow in general, and this week's storm has exposed a real problem with alot of my favorite music: i just don't have any good albums that pair well with a walk to the closest open store on a quiet winter night.
A "winter album", to me, sounds like Arcade Fire's 2004 album Funeral. It somehow sounds like winter without sounding sad, even though it is sad!
Winter is cold and so is weird electronic fuzzy indie stuff, as opposed to "warmer" sounds you get from traditional instruments. Broken Social Scene and Bjork probably sound great on a winter walk. Anything with weird ambient stretches probably makes the cut, so maybe i'll see how Animal Collective's Sung Tongs or hell, maybe even Mars Volta's De-Loused in the Comatorium sound.
Anything jazzy is likely to be a shoe-in. Something about the reflective or introspectiveness of it pairing well with being stuck by yourself for long periods of time. I don't know. Nick Cave and Andrew Bird are probably good winter time staples. Neither of them are jazz, I don't know what you call Nick Cave's music. When i hear Nick Cave, a line from High Fidelity always pops into my head: "sad bastard music". I don't mean any disrespect, because I'm a sad bastard and I love it.
Miles Davis seems like obvious wintertime jazz, maybe Kind of Blue, because Birth of the Cool really does have 'hot day in new york city' vibes to it. I'm going to be even more obvious and be the latest white guy to suggest Kamasi Washington. I don't know his catalog that well but I'm going to bet myself anything he's got an album called Seasons.
"Melancholy". Maybe that is the word I've been looking for the whole time I've been typing. Maybe that's why Run The Jewels' "A Christmas Fucking Miracle" sounds the way it does. Is there wintertime rap? Now that i think about it, UGK's "3 in the mornin'" sounds pretty fuckin cold, although Ridin Dirty is definitely an album meant to be played at full volume with the windows down in some texas heat.
I am still no closer to actually coming up with any sort of list. But that list would absolutely include Dan Deacon. I bet the 4-part closer on AMERICA hits different on a winter walk. I'm having a hard time trying to figure out if I want this list to be personal or accessible. Now that I think about it? Trying to focus on music while trying to avoid patches of ice is a difficult task anyways. Maybe this is a post about music to listen to while sitting on a porch or staring out of a window while clutching a hot cup of coffee.
Cinematic Orchestra's Ma Fleur? For some reason, harpsichords and pianos are just real wintery sounding, to me. I'm enjoying discovering that apparently I've got every instrument and vocal style classified by temperature. Is it synesthesia or autism is something I picture James Murphy asking himself every night before bed. Deafheaven probably make great winter music - and the second I typed that, mental recollections of hundreds of scandinavian black metal bands posing for their album covers in ice-covered nordic forests reminded me that in general, alot of metal is probably just naturally winter music: something something Icy Black Soul, something something Frozen Hell Of Your Chilling Torment or whatever.
How did I get this far without mentioning midwest emo?
You know, the paragraphs are beginning to stack up and I still am nowhere close to actually having a list. Crisp snares really give something a cold edge. Otis Redding is summertime, Bill Withers is wintertime. At the very least I can start trying to think of songs that sound wintery. Gordon Lightfoot is definitely wintertime. Maybe anything recorded in a studio between 1968-1983 just sounds made for winter. I think a big hangup here is that the more I look at my hypothetical playlist, the more it just seems like a playlist of music I was really into in my 20's. Which itself is a sort of winter-driven introspection.
The skies clear up, and it all starts thawing out, and I'm no closer to where I thought I was when I began writing this. Perhaps less certain.
The White Stripes - 'In the Cold, Cold Night' Arcade Fire - 'Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)' TV On The Radio - 'Young Liars' Dismemberment Plan - 'The Ice of Boston' Beach House - 'Space Song' mewithoutYou - 'In A Sweater Poorly Knit'
The coward's way out here is something like the truth is, there is winter music everywhere with those with ears to hear or some shit. What makes these tracks from 2000s indie blog bands pop out as winter tracks, in my mind? Who knows.