It’s that time of year when you have to wear a jumper indoors, when hands are stuffed deep into pockets on the walk home and when hours go by looking at an increasingly inky world outside as it fades into an icy darkness dotted with the sodium glare of streetlights. At this time of year my weather-related wingeing becomes almost constant, a cup of tea becomes an indispensable heating source and I fret unnecessarily about the boiler packing in. Yes, it’s winter.
Driven indoors, certain habits always surface at this time of the year. I read more, as a result of getting into bed because it’s one of the few places in the flat that’s warm; I eat more (damn you hibernation urge, and damn you corner shop for being on a corner that’s not directly beside my front door. In these cold times, the fifteen metre walk can just be too defeating a prospect); and finally, I spend more time on that most teenage of occupations: pondering my favourite things and making Top 5 lists.
The making of a Top 5 list is, to those daft enough to attempt them, a completely self-defeating activity. There’s always one thing on the list that doesn’t feel quite right, and that nagging feeling in the back of one’s head that a glaring omission has been made. How funny it is that if someone asks me for my Top 5 anything, I refuse to answer, but that I’m perfectly happy — and especially at this time of year — to sit alone indulging in this particularly vexing past-time.
So, here goes. Seeing as it’s dark outside, that I’m contemplating putting on a third pair of socks and wearing a scarf indoors, here’s a Top 5 of songs for winter.
1) The Smiths – Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now
In the time of year when wingeing becomes a perpetual activity, it’s inevitable that I turn to The Smiths. Not because I want to sit in a darkened room and feel sorry for myself, but because I love singing along with Morrissey’s self-indulgent howlings of woe and doing a little dance (mainly in an attempt to keep warm). And f*ck it — at least I’m not as miserable as him.
2) Air – Alone in Kyoto
For me, ‘Talkie Walkie’ is an album that just sounds cold. Perhaps this is all down to the power of association — I bought it during a particularly baltic winter in Aberdeen, and spent an almost hypothermic day white water rafting after buying it — but as soon as it gets cold, this album goes straight onto my iPhone (other musical playing devices are available, although you’d think otherwise after walking down the street). This song makes me think of the drowsy way that the world looks and sounds in winter, and the quiet that comes down with the snow. It makes me remember leaning out of my window in Aberdeen watching a heavy snowfall and waking up in Takayama, Japan, to a blanket of snow at the start of April.
3) Bloc Party – Blue Light
Good to see you dressing appropriately for the season, boys!
Again, this is a song of associations. I bought ‘Silent Alarm’ on the day it was released — back in my days of fervent musical fascism — and it was a particularly cold February in grey old Aberdeen. At the time I lived in the most hideous flat in existence and spent most of my time wearing my dressing gown indoors, cowering over an old oil heater in the hope of waking up in the morning with all my fingers and toes still attached. I’d met a boy at a party the weekend before, and in the weeks that followed he would come over to my flat and we’d listen to this album (his loathing of which he never attempted to hide) and talk about music. That winter, I didn’t freeze. I also never told him that he had s*it taste.
4) Big Star — The Ballad of El Goodo
If I’m completely honest, Big Star are perfect at any time of year and I’ve put this on the list only because I never stop listening to them. I suppose the quiet, melancholy bittersweetness of this song makes me think about pottering about indoors when it’s cold outside… and the guitar part does somehow make me think of frosty pavements.
5) Aztec Camera — Walk Out To Winter
I suppose the list comes full circle with this one. If ever a song was made for throwing your five millions layers on and walking around the streets feeling cold but happy, this is it. I can’t really say anything more about perfection. Bobble hat and earphones at the ready… I’ll even do a little dance while I’m waiting at the traffic lights.
