When temperatures drop, why do many listeners discover themselves gravitating towards extra introspective, emotionally resonant songs?
MILES PARKS, HOST:
Unhappy songs and chilly climate go collectively like sizzling cocoa and marshmallows. Kacey Musgraves is aware of what I am speaking about.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “CHRISTMAS MAKES ME CRY”)
KACEY MUSGRAVES: (Singing) And yearly, I sincerely strive. Oh, however Christmas, it all the time makes me cry.
PARKS: There are albums I really like that I actually is not going to take heed to until it is below 40 levels outdoors. “Skeleton Tree” by Nick Cave and the Dangerous Seeds is one which involves thoughts. It’s so lovely, however it isn’t a summer season jam.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “SKELETON TREE”)
NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS: (Singing) And it is all proper.
PARKS: To listen to extra about how our music style modifications with the seasons, let’s usher in NPR Music’s Stephen Thompson. Hello, Stephen.
STEPHEN THOMPSON, BYLINE: Hey, Miles.
PARKS: So is that this only a me factor, or does unhappy music hit totally different when it is chilly?
THOMPSON: Nicely, I do not assume that it is simply you, Miles. I be a part of you in your Gloomy Gus-itude (ph).
(LAUGHTER)
PARKS: Good.
THOMPSON: However I do assume, for me, the chilly undoubtedly does convey out a special set of music tastes. There are specific, I believe, natural sounds, sure gloomy sounds, cozy sounds. If you concentrate on the best way that you simply spend the winter – and what do I need to hear whereas I am sipping sizzling cocoa on my sofa? What do I need to hear whereas bundled up and strolling via the neighborhood because the snow falls? You understand, clearly, you realize, Miles, you and I are privileged to reside in part of the nation the place now we have these seasons. There are completely folks listening to this present proper now who’re like seasons, you stated.
PARKS: (Laughter) I requested you to convey just a few melancholy track recs, really, for this phase. What are you able to give us?
THOMPSON: Nicely, you realize, as we’re sort of assessing the songs and albums that we love probably the most, the one which I maintain coming again to is just a few month or two previous. It is by the Spanish singer Rosalia, and I believe there are completely wintery vibes to a track like “Reliquia.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “RELIQUIA”)
ROSALIA: (Vocalizing, singing in non-English language).
THOMPSON: It is a report – you realize, after we discuss concerning the elements of what makes a sound really feel wintery, typically, I am speaking about pianos and strings and sort of natural instrumentation. And I believe this report has an ornateness to it that I believe sort of matches in with, you realize, icicles and snowflakes and sort of these sort of extraordinarily nearly mathematical patterns whereas, on the identical time, drawing on one thing actually heat and delightful. This, for me, is a really wintery report.
PARKS: Nicely, I do need to ask about how vacation music performs into this as a result of I’ll die on the hill that “Blue Christmas” is one of the best Christmas track of all time, and I believe a part of that’s the melancholy angle to it. The place do you come down on that?
THOMPSON: I agree with you utterly. The vacation music that makes me happiest tends to signify a extra melancholy vibe, and I believe that is as a result of it is an act of empathy. It is acknowledging that December is nerve-racking. We have now loads of recollections related to it that are not all the time completely happy. And I believe a track that understands that’s going to cheer me up in a really totally different manner than a track that’s kind of shaking me by the collar and telling me, that is the best possible time of 12 months, and you ought to be completely happy. That can nearly invariably make me upset.
And so to me, an important vacation track is acknowledging that the vacations convey nice pleasure, nevertheless it’s additionally tinged with remorse. It is also tinged with lacking individuals who aren’t right here anymore. It is tinged with, you realize, not being a child anymore. It is tinged with growing older. And a track that basically captures that – it is an immediate all-time favourite vacation track for me – it is by the fantastic, fantastic singer-songwriter Madi Diaz. She put it out simply final 12 months, and it is one which I sort of just lately bumped into once more, and I simply like it. It faucets completely into that conflicting swirl of feelings across the holidays and the way we as adults relate to them. It is known as “Child On Christmas.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “KID ON CHRISTMAS”)
MADI DIAZ: (Singing) Today, I do not air on optimistic. One thing about the best way this 12 months went, I want I might simply really feel like a child on Christmas.
THOMPSON: To me, a part of the cocktail of feelings round Christmas – it is tied into childhood. It is tied into the way you celebrated, the issues that made you cheerful in that point but in addition, in some methods, the issues that make you unhappy round that point – folks you want you could possibly nonetheless spend the vacations with, the entire sort of grownup pressures that pile up round Christmas that weren’t there once you have been a child. To me, this track sort of takes all of these, swirls them collectively and faucets into an emotion that I discover actually common this time of 12 months. And it is not only a straight bummer. It is a combine, and that is what winter is about. That is what the vacations are about. That is what life is about.
PARKS: That is NPR Music’s Stephen Thompson. Stephen, let’s make it via December.
THOMPSON: We’ll do it, Miles. I imagine in us.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “KID ON CHRISTMAS”)
DIAZ: I believe I might really feel like a child…
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