Winter Albums
 

Well, it's freezing here. It's coming up to the Winter season in the Northern hemisphere at least, and that means miserable weather. I'm sat here wrapped up in my duvet looking for something to listen to on my iPod. I'm sure some people disagree and like to fight off the cold winter nights with trying to brighten the mood with jovial music, not me. I like to put on something that matches the weather and mood, so hit me with some of your favourite albums to be cold to, be depressed to, those moody and atmospheric albums you love and match the miserable outdoors perfectly.

Too depressing? Meh. Bring it on.

I'm currently enjoying Antlers - Hospice for the minute, and The Cure - Disintegration is always a good one. I'll think of some more and post them here.

Also apologies if this should be elsewhere (and/or there is already a relevant thread which this could have got lost in).

Heresie by Univers Zero. Most depressing album ever. I love it!

Personally i'd say Faith by The Cure is much more wintry than Disintegration.
Everything about that album is cold & desolate.

That's one of the few Cure albums I haven't listened to properly yet. Perfect opportunity to now though, as the album I have just been listening to has just this minute finished. Saves me a decision, thanks!

Beck - Sea Change is another one of my favourites.

Sigur Ros- ()

It's all I own by them but it's really melancholy. I sometimes listen to it when I'm falling asleep

I agree about The Cure's Faith.

Also an album I picked up recently is Year of No Light - Nord. They are a French sludge metal band reminding me of ISIS. But their name and album name (meaning 'North') really make me think of a dark winter in the Northern Hemisphere.

Disintegration for sure. Also, For Emma, Forever Ago by Bon Iver is a definate.

http://dkpresents.files.wordpress.co...01lzzzzzzz.jpg

Miles Davis' quartet spins some very wintery feelings on In a Silent Way. The cold organ and Mclaughlin's shivering guitar lines fit the cold and snowy Connecticut landscape these days.

I'll check that out. Winters where I live are hardly cold so I often listen to 'winter' albums whenever I want to imagine that I feel cold. I like moody, dirgy metal for the coldness.

Decemberunderground lol.

V.A - Winter Chill

http://www.metalkingdom.net/album/img/d13/212.jpg
So, originally, I posted Damnation, but I realized the huge mistake I had made ...

http://www.metalkingdom.net/album/img/d33/14332.jpg
This one is pretty personal to me. I was introduced Winters ago and I've been stuck since.

http://uglyradio.files.wordpress.com..._nighthawk.jpg
How can this man be excluded from this list?

http://www.ugo.com/music/underground...-cold-vein.jpg

Hip hop generally doesn't fit under wintery music, but EL-P's production is a swirling icy void on this one, sucking you under. And the rapping is sensational as well, classic album.

^ Good call, quite wintery.

Tindersticks[II]
Bonnie Prince Billy-I See A Darkness
A Ghost Is Born-Wilco
The Smiths-S/T

Some of my personal favorites:

Travis - The man who
Sample song:


Bon Iver - For Emma, forever ago
Sample song:

( I mean, c'mon)

Midlake - Trials of van occupanther
Sample song:


Sigur ros - Takk (unlike the above, an entirely vibrant winter album)
Sample song:

If that doesn't make you see the Aurora borealis no piece of music will.

The Knife - Silent shout
Sample song:

Ice cold, innit?

Radiohead - In Rainbows
No sample song needed really but just the same:

I listened to this album when coming home by bus in the middle of winter and it's just forever gonna be etched in my mind as perfect winter nighttime music...

Agreed with storymilo on the Sigur Ros () and FaSho on the Bon Iver.

I've always viewed EITS's The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place as a very wintery album.

Yeah after taking some time to experience the subtly different facets of sigur Ros, Takk has really won me over. I can definitely see it as a winter album.

It's a little unconventional for this thread, but when the weather gets dark and cold I get out the Astor Piazzola. This album is exceptionally beautiful.

http://a7.vox.com/6a00c2252027ed549d...aabf094f-500pi

You'll be hard pressed to find many albums for fitting for winter than Eskimo.

http://img11.nnm.ru/4/a/e/c/2/4aec26...49fee_full.jpg

I agree with the OP, Hospice definately depicts winter melancholy.

Another recommendation would be Vespertine by Bjork. It's not a winter album in the sense that Hospice or () is, it's like an indoors winter album. It's a fuzzy winter sweater for your ears; a very intimate album.

Of course, if you want that winter desolation feel, go for any Sunn O))) album. They basically sound like somebody screaming in a refridgerator.

It helps if you've seen Heima, which everyone needs to see, whether they're a fan or not...

http://lineout.thestranger.com/files...ima_poster.jpg

All these seem to work well for me as a wintry kinda soundtrack. Don't ask why though.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...DL._SS500_.jpg

http://diskoduck.cz/shop/images/davidBowieHeathen.jpg

http://stumptown.typepad.com/.a/6a00...3fac8834-800wi

I can definitely get behind this.

I'm going to check some of these albums out in the mean time I'll get my thinking cap on.

^^^

Hell yeah for Talk Talk but I much prefer Spirit Of Eden for that wintery sound.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_y0ozEBL0uU...utre+monde.jpg

Surprised it hasn't been mentioned yet.

Can't go wrong with any of Envy's releases since A Dead Sinking Story either.

Leviathan from Mastodon is a good one too. I know it represents more of an ocieanic theme, but it does a good job of soundscaping the dark, cold, rainy winter nights in Jersey.

Cocteau Twins in general.

Anything by Agalloch.

Auburn Lull - Alone I admire. The sparse, sweeping soundscapes on that album just epitomise the moods winter can and invariablY does evoke

Watched this last night, absolutely breathtaking. It was stunning visually and it helped being a huge fan of Sigur Ros and always having an infatuation with Iceland as a country. I'll probably review it in the movie thread, so I'll keep it short in here, but I was really moved by Heima. Amazing. I'll be getting my hands on the two-disc edition as soon as possible!

I've mentioned this on here somewhere before, so Alias - Through The Looking Glass. This album really invokes a sense of loneliness and depression with both Alias' dark introspective raps and bleak, melancholic soundscapes. This album to me fits perfectly with looking out the window at the woods with no leaves, a gray sky, and maybe a little bit of snow on the ground. Also, Mice Parade - Obrigado Saudade fits the winter theme for me. Not really sure what it is, could just be that I started listening to it last winter. But it does have a sound that to me fits with the leafless trees and cold, crunchy yellowish grass of winter (we don't really get snow here). I'd maybe tag Mezzanine as wintery album. It's got a bleak feel to it that's still hiding in the background on the more upbeat songs.

And this:

http://www.thesirenssound.com/wp-con...Winds-Poem.jpg

This entire album pretty much envokes images and emotions of being alone on a cold, windy, wooded mountain in November or December. Pretty much the concept of the entire album, even the packaging goes right along with that.

I still need to get hold of Wind's Poem

i'm not much a fan of the VU in any sense but John Cale's production on this is incredible:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_A5B16986ts...I/s400/nmi.jpg

Music Has The Right To Children-Boards Of Canada.Really hitting the spot.

good f*cking choice! But then I expect you already knew that...

re Sam's: 'Marble Index' has piqued my curiosity for a long time, thanks for the reminder.

Bowie's 'Heathen' and Talk Talk are both excellent suggestions too.

All the old post-punk seems to come out this time of year, but for my money you can't beat this one:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QrsgWpHrJI...ncoats+s-t.jpg

If we're going into post-punk,Magazine's Real Life and Metal Box by PiL are good winter albums.

I got hold of this Alcest album on your recommendation. Listened to it on my way to work this morning and thoroughly enjoyed it. Amazing album and I'm currently giving it a second listen. The sun is going down here, and I've not got a light on so my room is slowly getting darker. It's almost as if the music is replicating that mood.

I posted this a while ago, but I actually spent last winter living in Ray LaMontagne's home town. Gossip in the Grain will always be a winter album for me, because of discovering the album that winter, but especially for this song:

In the winter I like to listen to a lot of David Bazan, Sufjan Stevens, Kings of Convenience, Owen and Vetiver. There's nothing that I love more than baking and putting on a good mix featuring these artists, especially if it's raining outside (I live in San Francisco, it doesn't snow here obviously).