Mid Week Mini Music Mix
Dang, you guys. I've gotten so used to writing this music post that it was a little unsettling not to put one together last week. Bless you Mini Music Mix, you sweet little thing. In the interim, I've already started to listen to some 2010 albums, one of which is highlighted here. We have a lot of catching up to do, kids.
All of the songs for this week capture the sound of winter for me. I've not yet reached that tipping point where I just give in and listen to Christmas music all the time. But what I do want right now are songs that make me feel like I am standing at the window, looking out on a cold day, sheltered from some sort of approaching storm.
Gentle Hour - Yo La Tengo - This. This is almost unbelievably soft and tender, like the first snowflakes that brush your eyelids right as they begin to fall.
The Snow - The Eastern Sea - The melancholy of winter always creeps up on me. One minute I'm bustling around trying to ready everything for Christmas and suddenly I'm devastated by seasonal sad afflictions. This song reminds me to keep moving on, no matter how blinding the storm may be. Highly recommended.
So when you come home in the evening
And you're too scared to go to bed.
Don't tell them all that you're staying
And don't you say you're dead,
cause baby you're not dead.
I Remember - Yeasayer - Holy handpies, you guys. If Odd Blood, Yeasayer's latest album slated for a January release, is anything to judge by, 2010 is going to be a ridiculously good year in music. Songs like this one are a pure, exhilarating breath of air. This is big and beautiful, everything I wanted from this release.
Hazelton - Justin Vernon - I'm going to make Justin Vernon (aka Bon Iver) a little gilt crown and mail it to him for Christmas. Dude is like king of winter sound. I don't know how I ever got through a December without him. This little jewel, this delicate force of a song, is the title track from an EP recorded right before Vernon went into the woods to make For Emma, Forever Ago. You can hear the seeds of that album peeking through the frost-covered ground of this song.
