It's that time of year again. The weather in the northern hemisphere has grown colder, the nights are longer than the days, and I try and pretend that Christmas is not about to happen - and especially the music!
So I have to think of some other theme to follow for the next playlist. Since the Winter theme went down quite well last year, I thought, why re-invent the wheel - so I have just come up with part two! Lots of songs that reference winter, December and that kind of stuff.
Welcome to winter.....
1. Taylor Swift: Back To December
For some reason, Taylor Swift gets so much negative press, and I'm here to tell you - while I am no Swiftie, just leave her alone - she does more for her fans, for charities and communities around the globe that her tours pass through, than almost any other musical act you could name. But I digress; this country pop ballad is from her third album Speak Now, about her break up with the actor Taylor Lautner. Unlike many break up songs, this is less bitter recrimination and more making a sincere apology to a former beau. The maturity of her songwriting by this point was already drawing praise from the critics - as Mandi Bierly wrote in Entertainment Weekly, it is a "melancholy mea culpa."
Taylor Swift: Back To December (Official music video)
2. Neil Young: Winterlong
There are several versions of this song in existence. It seems to have first been recorded in 1969 for an album called Early Daze which never actually got released until earlier this year (2024). A later version was then recorded in 1973 and appears on his epic 6 sided greatest hits album, Decade. It is a beautiful song and features those Crazy Horse stalwarts Ralph Molina and Billy Talbot, plus Ben Keith on pedal steel guitar. It was also apparently a live staple at his gigs through much of the 1970s.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse: Winterlong (Audio only)
3. The Decemberists: January Hymn
This is another beautiful little ditty from The Decemberists, who formed in Portland Oregon in 2000 with Colin Meloy, Nate Query, Jenny Conlee, Chris Funk, and eventually John Moen on drums. Interestingly, they took their name from an 1825 anti-Imperial insurrection in Russia. This tune comes from The Kind Is Dead, their sixth album, released in early 2011. It had been recorded in a barn just outside Portland, and reached the number one spot in the US.
The Decemberists: January Hymn (Audio only)
4. Mazzy Star: Flowers In December
This slow burner was the lead single from Mazzy Star's third album, 1996s strangely titled Among My Swan, features a simple arrangement with haunting violin underpinning Hope Sandoval's understated vocals. Several music magazines had Flowers In December as their Single of the Week, with Music & Media noting - "David Roback and Hope Sandoval's dreamy acoustics have become even more poppier with gorgeous melodies, plenty of minor chord changes and a delicate violin whispering in the background." It would hit UK number 40.
Mazzy Star: Flowers In December (Live on 2 Meter Session, 1996)
5. Screaming Trees: Winter Song
This features on Screaming Trees sixth, and most successful, album, Sweet Oblivion, which sold over 300,000 copies on the back of hit single Nearly Lost You - and was probably the closest they got to breaking through on the scale of some of their north-western US alt-rock / grunge peers. There is also an adage (which I have just made up) that anything with Mark Lanegan's voice on it is well worth listening too...
Screaming Trees: Winter Song (Live in Essen, 1996 - gosh, did I mention Mark Lanegan's voice?)
6. Guided By Voices: I'm Cold
To be honest, Bob Pollard has written so many songs in the last 35 years (over 1,600 the last time I looked), I could probably find one of his songs to match pretty much any theme! This particular one comes from the first of four albums in the Suitcase series of outtakes, demos and rarities, that GBV released between 2000 and 2015. This album was called Failed Experiments and Trashed Aircraft, and as with all of the records, most of the outtakes and demos were credited to bands with an array of (often humorous) made up names. In this case, I'm Cold is credited to the King Of Cincinnati. Bearing in mind this is one of hundred's of songs that never made a regular album - it is a simple tune, but there are plenty of indie bands these last 35 years who would be more than happy to have a song this good!
Guided By Voices: I'm Cold (Fan video)
7. Collective Soul: December
December was written by Ed Roland, one of a pair of brothers (with Dean) that founded this Georgian hard rock band in 1992. He had previously studied at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston. Collective Soul had achieved break out success with their early single, Shine, but felt that their label (Atlantic) had rushed out their debut album, which they had seen as being a promotional demo and not truly reflective of the band as it had become at that point. December was a hit single from their second, eponymously titled LP, making it to number 20 on the US chart.
Collective Soul: December (Official music video)
8. Teenage Fanclub: December
Okay, you might be seeing a theme appearing as we hit the home straight - a second (different) song with the same title. Bandwagonesque was Teenage Fanclub's first album after signing with Creation Records. Following a chance meeting with Don Fleming at CBGBs in New York, they got him to produce the record (he has also produced Sonic Youth, Hole and Screaming Trees). The record drew comparisons with Alex Chilton's Big Star, and on this song you can really see where that comes from. On an interesting side note, in 2017, Death Cab For Cutie's Ben Gibbard re-recorded his own version of the whole album.
Teenage Fanclub: December (Live in New York, 1994)
9. Norah Jones: December
You're kidding right? A third unique song called December? Yes indeed. Norah Jones' fourth studio album The Fall came out in 2009. It was seen as a bold step and change for Jones, while the New York Times said that it was "a sonic and emotional expansion". This sparse arrangement sets off her smoky voice perfectly and gives it a classic 50s era old school feel.
Norah Jones: December (Live at Ancienne Belgique, 2010)
10. Weezer: December
Unbelievable. Four completely different December songs in a row! Maladroit was Weezer's fourth album and the first without original bass player Mikey Welsh (replaced by Scott Shriner). As you can see, I couldn't find out much info on this one. It is one of their slower numbers, almost like their version of a power ballad. It sounds great though, as it builds to a bit of a crescendo just after the halfway point.
Weezer: December (Live in 2001)
11 Cowboy Junkies: F*@! I Hate The Cold
Enough of the December songs already - here is a bonus track I couldn't resist from Toronto's legendary folk rock band, the Cowboy Junkies. It comes from the last of the four part Nomad series of albums they released in the early 2010s, looking at the seasons. This record, The Wilderness, with its wintry themes, saw them return to the more folk-based vibe of their late 80s / early 90s output, with chief songwriter Michael Timmins saying that it was a look at the sort of characters they had written about back then, but twenty years on. This song has got a lovely little blues groove going on - but please excuse the title! 😉😃
Cowboy Junkies: F*@! I Hate The Cold (Live in Ithaca, 2012)
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