All That's Frozen Longs To Thaw [A Winter Playlist]
This playlist was finished almost a year ago… mid-February of 2020. It feels like that was a handful of lifetimes ago. How many traumatic years did we live through in 2020?
All that’s frozen longs to thaw…
I have this strange compulsion to find the perfect moment to release a new mix. The timing is everything.
Or more likely, it hardly matters (correction: doesn’t matter) and is completely for my own sake. I’m able to grasp the fact that next-to-nobody actually listens to these musical-patchwork-quilts that I pour hours-upon-hours into perfectly stitching together. And even fewer people would actually take the time to READ words written about a playlist before listening to it. (Hi Mom!). The thought makes me literally LOL. But, this practice has long been my exercise in documenting and soundtracking my existence. Additional participates are wholly welcome but not exactly necessary.
Anyway, last year I waited for that perfect chilly moment to put this mix out into the world. Perhaps a big flaky snowfall weekend or that last relentless cold stretch of the season…
It never came. We had a mild end to our winter in these parts. No more snow, not much cold. Then, the calendar flipped over into March and COVID pulled a Sméagol-on-the-banks-of-the-River-Anduin and grabbed a furious stranglehold on our existence. I tucked this mix into my proverbial pocket as the world iced over in a completely different way
All that’s frozen longs to thaw…
Today is the perfect moment for this mix. The dead of winter is literally at our doorstep. Riiiiight… (wait for it)… almost here… *ding dong* there it is. In Kansas, we are sludging through the middle of one of the more brutal cold stretches in recent history. Snow from a while ago still blankets the ground and promises to be around for a while. More snow has heard about the party and is piling in the van to come join the fun. It’s bleak like only winter can be.
All that’s frozen longs to thaw…
Add in the extraordinary circumstances of this moment: a once-in-a-century worldwide pandemic messily eating birthday cake like a toddler in a highchair… political division, incompetence and turmoil roiling up over the pan and sloshing all over the stovetop coils… mental health reeling like a drunkard from a year of increased isolation/confusion/instability…
But something about these winter-themed songs help me to exist in this moment. They orient me in the space of this season and this strange place in history. Something about the brutal cold of winter helps me to focus on its preordained temporal existence. No matter what winter (and life?) throws at us we know it’s only a matter of time. Pick one: To everything there is a season or nothing lasts forever or maybe even…
All that’s frozen longs to thaw…
These songs have helped me recently… and if you’ve made it this far into this (Oh, Hey again Mom!) I hope that they can be like a mug of something warm to help you soundtrack an hour of a winter weekend day.
Spotify it or check out some YouTube vids below ⇣.
Tracklisting:
KASHKA - It’s Winter Now
Matt Pond PA - The Glow
Eliza and the Bear - It Gets Cold
Fountains of Wayne - Valley Winter Song
The Staves - Winter Trees
The Deep Dark Woods - The Winter Hours
Joshua James - Winter Winter
Vashti Bunyan - Winter Is Blue
Wendy & Bonnie - The Winter Is Cold
Pinc Louds - Watching Snow
Mree - Winter
Innocence Mission - Snow
Joy Kills Sorrow - Books
Kris Delmhorst - Tracks in the Snow
Tall Heights - Field of Snow
Good Lovelies - February Song
Will Varley - February Snow
Kina Grannis - Winter
Luluc - Winter is Passing
Liz Durrett - Chilly Winds