Far Out 40: The best songs for a sentimental winter
Most of the winter months are spent mourning the loss of summer.
Personally, I favour the autumn months and their subtle gloom, but anything, to me, is better than the intolerable heat of summer. If submerging myself into the iciness of winter is the only goddamn way out, then so be it.
Maybe it is the holiday spirit creeping in, or the act of looking forward to a renewed energy at the turn of the New Year, festive moments that soften the harsh blow of the cold. More than subduing the cold with warm memories of the past, embracing the sensation, rather than willing it to go away, may be the underlying trick to surviving our coldest months.
In Katherine May’s book Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times, she considers the rejuvenating effects of relaxation, encouraging us to lean into the season’s energy that rests within ourselves. “Wintering brings about some of the most profound and insightful moments of our human experience,” she writes, “And wisdom resides in those who have wintered.”
What better way to make May proud and properly “winter” than to listen to music that communicates these same feelings? For everyone’s comfort, I have compiled 40 songs that will undoubtedly foster a sentimental winter.
Once, I posited that Deftones’ White Pony is the perfect winter album, harnessing a sensitive abrasion that sonically captures the duality of winter. I stand by this, as I find myself listening to this album, in particular, on the most wintry days. The industrial grind of their instrumentation and vocalist Chino Moreno’s anguished screams are the perfect retaliation against the cold.
Many of the classics from this turn-of-the-century boom of metal and alternative fall into the winter category, for me, ranging from System of a Down, Nine Inch Nails and my favourite obscure pick, Finnish metal band HIM, to the Foo Fighters and Glassjaw. Coinciding, modern punk and hardcore favourites make the cut, too, with artists like Iceage and Fleshwater capturing the mysterious bleakness of the frost.
The winter also warrants me to step outside of my usual metal consumption and retreat into quieter, melancholic songs. Nick Cave, particularly his ballad ‘Into My Arms’, is, in my mind, synonymous with the cold; his customary eeriness fits with the muted months. Lou Reed and Joy Division, with their mournful poetry, are right at home here, too.
Patti Smith’s songs are suited across all seasons, but her 1979 album Wave, especially, has a wintry quality in its tone. Radiohead’s The Bends, despite being released in the spring, produces a similar sentiment. The metallic-sheened synthesisers of Depeche Mode and Boy Harsher provoke dancing despite the possible goddamn frostbite.
December, January and February are some of the most maligned months of our calendar, feared for their absolutely brutal chill and stunning darkness. But there is nothing to be afraid of when you have the perfect soundtrack to hold your hand as you walk out into the snow.
Far Out’s 40 best songs for a sentimental winter:
- Nick Cave – ‘Into My Arms’
- Lou Reed – ‘Perfect Day’
- Deftones – ‘Digital Bath’
- Patti Smith – ‘Dancing Barefoot’
- Glassjaw – ‘Tip Your Bartender’
- The Cure – ‘One Hundred Years’
- Sky Ferreira – ‘Everything Is Embarrassing’
- HIM – ‘The Face of God’
- Radiohead – ‘Sulk’
- Iceage – ‘Glassy Eyed, Dormant and Veiled’
- The Smiths – ‘Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me’
- White Town – ‘Your Woman’
- PJ Harvey & Thom Yorke – ‘This Mess We’re In’
- System of a Down – ‘Lonely Day’
- Joy Division – ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’
- Depeche Mode – ‘I Feel You’
- Jeff Buckley – ‘Everybody Here Wants You’
- Esthero – ‘Half A World Away’
- The 1975 – ‘About You’
- Foo Fighters – ‘Aurora’
- Boy Harsher – ‘Electric’
- Wunderhorse – ‘Teal’
- Nine Inch Nails – ‘Somewhat Damaged’
- MOTHXR – ‘Stranger’
- Fleshwater – ‘Linda Claire’
- milk – ‘I Don’t Mind Falling in Love with You’
- Air – ‘Playground Love’
- Cigarettes After Sex – ‘Motion Picture Soundtrack’
- Black Sabbath – ‘Hole In The Sky’
- Sky Ferreira – ‘Heavy Metal Heart’
- Soundgarden – ‘Mailman’
- Deftones – ‘Elite’
- Model/Atriz – ‘Cinderella’
- Staind – ‘Outside’
- Iceage – ‘Vendetta’
- Martin Gore – ‘Compulsion’
- Jack White – ‘Sixteen Saltines’
- Garbage – ‘Push It’
- A Perfect Circle – ‘Pet’
- Placebo – ‘Pure Morning’
