10 warming albums perfect for winter
It’s that time of year again. Last month, the clocks sadly fell back an hour, which means that the nights are drawing ever closer. Autumn is a beautiful season, full of nostalgia and yearning as the rain pours against the window, the leaves threaten to descend to the ground, and we move from outdoor plazas and squares into the inviting warmth of the pub’s confines. Although with autumn, inevitably comes winter.
Why ought the clocks go back at all, you might ask. It comes down to the fact that as the sun makes its journey to visit the Southern hemisphere more frequently, it is felt that the day is being wasted. By turning the clocks back, we get an extra hour of daylight.
Autumn and winter can be lonely seasons as we are forced indoors and darkness falls upon us as early as 4pm. But fear not because there have been several albums written throughout the rich history of sonic artistry that will give us glimmers of hope and notes of warmth on the long, cold nights that await us.
From the likes of Radiohead to Neil Young, via Leonard Cohen and Fleet Foxes, here are seven albums to keep you warm as the nights quickly draw ever closer.
10 warming albums perfect for winter:
Radiohead – In Rainbows (2007)
In Rainbows marked the beginning of a new era for Radiohead; they had fulfilled their contract with XL with the release of Hail to the Thief and released their seventh album on October 10th 2007, just in time for the clocks to back at the end of the month.
The record shifts constantly, as is typical of Radiohead, but there is just something that makes it so comforting and perfect for a rainy evening inside, particularly the excellent three-track run of ‘Nude’, ‘Weird Fishes/Arpeggi’ and ‘All I Need’. So settle down, get the fire going and have a good old-fashioned self-reflect with this beautiful record.
Leonard Cohen – Song of Love and Hate (1971)
Few voices in music are as comforting as the inimitable Leonard Cohen, and his third album, Songs of Love and Hate, is another perfect record to stick on as the days get ever shorter. Cohen’s storytelling makes us take note of what he tells us, and we let it resonate deep within us.
Listening to this album in the colder months is like sitting around a campfire on a barren plain, the sky full of stars, surrounded by your companions, each of them hushed in silence as they listen to the tale of the hunchback of Notre Dame in Cohen’s ‘Avalanche’.
Sybille Baier – Colour Green (2006)
Like Cohen, Sybille Baier’s music is defined by its simplicity, focus on the words atop fingerpicked guitar work, and open-hearted emotional confrontation. Her Colour Green is a compilation of the songs she had written in the early 1970s but was not released until 2006.
The melancholy mood of Colour Green makes it another ideal record to walk in the countryside, watching the dying leaves fall one by one to the floor as your boots crunch against them on the ever-hardening ground.
Fleet Foxes – Crack-Up (2017)
Yet while Baier’s record evokes the browns of autumn, if there is one record that signifies ‘crunchy leaves’, it is Fleet Foxes’ third full-length album Crack-Up. In fact, most of Fleet Foxes’ work is pretty damn autumn, but Crack-Up is arguably the best of the lot.
There must be something about the acoustic guitar, as it features heavily on this list; perhaps it’s deep inside us, evoking memories of the bard and the lute player in the taverns of yore. And Robin Pecknold’s new-mythological storytelling makes Crack-Up another autumn classic.
Foals – Total Life Forever (2010)
This one might seem like a bit of a left-field choice for this list, yet there is something about Foals’ sophomore effort that always makes it feel like a dark night record. Perhaps this is owed to nostalgia, many nights spent on the top deck of a Birmingham bus with the rain spattering against the window.
While the funkier parts of the album may evoke warm summer days, the several track layers recorded in wintry Sweden across the album create a warmth perfect for the colder nights, especially on the album’s more melancholy tunes, such as ‘After Glow’, ‘What Remains’ and ‘Spanish Sahara’.
Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago (2007)
This list truly would not be complete without this album. Bon Iver’s For Emma Forever Ago is the very epitome of solitude, which by the time the clocks roll back, is something we suddenly realise we need after the final embers of summer’s party have died down and the guests have all gone home.
In the winter of 2006/07, Justin Vernon made out for his father’s hunting cabin in Wisconsin after he had become frustrated with his songwriting and life. He proceeded to write one of the most beautifully introspective records of the 21st Century, and we can almost hear the harsh wind causing the structure of the cabin to creak and moan.
Van Morrison – Veedon Fleece
Van Morrison’s output, like Fleet Foxes, evokes the sense of taking a long needed stroll through the countryside. His 1968 record Astral Weeks and 1980’s Common One are worth consideration for inclusion on this list, but they also inspire the eternal longing for summer. As such, we’d suggest sticking on another of his ‘stream of consciousness’ albums, 1974’s Veedon Fleece.
Wrapping ourselves up in the titular fleece, Morrison’s record gives us the warmth to get through those long nights. The Celtic influence on the album brings a journey through the Irish landscape to our minds. Particular favourites across the album include the excellent three-track run of ‘Cul de Sac’, ‘Comfort You’ and ‘Come Here My Love’.
Elliott Smith – Elliott Smith
Autumn and winter are the perfect seasons to engage in the art of self-reflection, and who better to provide the soundtrack to such reflection than Mr Misery himself, Elliott Smith? Smith’s spider-web thin vocals haunt his self-titled second studio album, allowing us to sit alone and ponder his own reflections. The album gave Smith a depressing reputation, so Elliott Smith was the last album before he actively sought to explore different kinds of mood in his music.
Like its predecessor, Roman Candle, Elliott Smith is comprised mainly of a minimalist approach to songwriting, primarily with an acoustic guitar and occasional drums or harmonica. Whilst the album could not possibly get darker with its references to drug dependency and depression, perhaps the nights drawing in closer marks the perfect time to understand Smith’s sombre nature.
Mark Hollis – Mark Hollis
Both Talk Talk’s Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock are more than suited to a cosy night in with the cat. Yet the band’s frontman Mark Hollis also slyly released a secretive self-titled solo album in 1998. The record essentially captured the mood of the previously mentioned Talk Talk releases in its minimalism and endless space for each instrument’s note to be given the time to breathe and find its place.
The album suitably begins with around 20 seconds of silence, which shows the apparent reverence that Hollis himself has for quiet. He once said that if you’re going to play a note, you ought to have a good reason for playing it, and this mantra is evident across his only solo record. All of the album is glorious in its simple beauty, yet special mentions should go to the tracks ‘Inside Looking Out’ and ‘The Gift’.
Neil Young – Harvest Moon (1992)
And the perfect album to reflect on the passing of summer has to be Neil Young’s 1992 album Harvest Moon. It was a return to a primarily acoustic-led sound for Young after the hard-hitting records of the 1980s. Young had actually suffered from tinnitus from the Ragged Glory sessions, so he settled things back down for its follow-up.
The use of recording equipment from the 1970s gives the album its warmth, which is a perfect antidote to the creeping freeze that comes in November. It’s a reflection of love and self and pays reverence to the harvest moon that marks the time to gather summer’s crops and hoard them for the cold winter ahead.
