Songs You Should Be Listening to: Fall/Winter 2022
Photo by: Blanca Hitchcock
Listen to this playlist here!
1: Losing You, Solange
This is the perfect transitional song for the end of the warm summer days into the frigid Colorado air. The tempo of the song is fast paced and intense. To me this song is one I would throw on as the sun begins setting and my roommates and I are getting ready to brave the snow and go out to the bars. It reminds me of the feeling of being tipsy and the liquor warming the tip of my nose as my friends laugh around me. And as I watch their breaths fog up the glass bottle in their hands, I feel completely whole.
2: Love in Passing, Adeodat Warfield
This song should be played when you are on your way to the dreaded 8am class. I've played it many times as I rub the sleep out of my eyes and slowly bend my fingers allowing them to defrost on my way to my morning classes. On the other hand, it can also be the perfect song for departing from campus in the late afternoon or early nighttime. As the snow falls in clumps off the dead trees it can feel almost apocalyptic. It reminds me of the uneasy heartbeat I've had as I find myself completely alone walking home at night, as my shitty boots sink into dirty snow. Yet somehow, I am still excited for what will greet me as soon as I get home.
3: Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out, Bessie Smith
I mean all you have to do is listen to the song once to hear the masterpiece that Bessie Smith’s raw vocals have provided. This song has undoubtedly helped me with my winter depression. When you catch yourself looking out of your bedroom window into the still, white darkness at night I urge you to play this song. It is so peaceful and captures the stillness of winter in such a way that it helps the listener embrace their loneliness. It reminds me of the feeling of enjoying a glass of wine in the late hours of the night, nursing a thick book in my lap as my eyelids droop with the heaviness of sleep.
4: Stuck on the Puzzle, Alex Turner
This song perfectly captures the Arctic Monkeys, 2016 grunge aesthetic that I know most of us still have hidden deep within us. You cannot go through a cold season without listening to Arctic Monkeys/Alex Turner...it’s required. This song is seductive and sad, causing the listener to feel melancholy for a lover they never had. It reminds me of driving on the freeway with my partner on the way home after a long day. The window is cracked so icy air trickles into the car, and the road is completely empty. I know that at the end of the drive I get to cook a huge meal and watch a movie.
5: Love Songs on the Radio, Mojave 3
Lastly, we have a song that will make you want to stare at the ceiling under piles of blankets as the leaves slowly drift off the orange and yellow trees outside your window. It is soft, and terribly heartbreaking. The cold is miserable and sometimes we just need an excuse to sob in our rooms alone. When you get to that point, play this song. It reminds me of sipping on a cup of black coffee late at night, with a 5-page paper due in an hour. Your body begs for sleep, but your mind is buzzing.