25 Essential Winter Albums

***(Originally written on Dec 1st, 2018 for Super Death League Zine, Issue 2)***

Merry Christmas In July!

Winter is finally here! It’s the time of year where we all gather with family, stuff our faces with more food than we should and spend tons of money on people whose numbers we ignore regularly when they call. In the summer we bitch about the miserable heat and in the winter we bitch about the bitter cold. Chapped lips, terrible driving conditions and seasonal depression are all in full effect. What’s that sound? Sleigh Bells? Children’s laughter filling the air? The flu!? Who knows! No matter how you cut it winter is dark, dismal and downright awful to some people and then there are people like me. People who anxiously await the first snowfall or who watch Christmas movies and listen to Christmas music all year long. People who constantly keep up a strand of lights and even celebrate the halfway point between the first of the year and Christmas Day. As I stated a few sentences back, I am one of those people. I own a professional Santa suit and happily portray the big guy around the holidays. I love Christmas and winter and all things cold. I’ve always said if I could, I would happily live in a cave in the middle of the Arctic. I’ve been like this ever since I was a kid. If you asked me my top 3 things I couldn’t live without it would go:

1. My Son

2. Winter

3. Sex

Yes, I put winter above sex and if you know me, that’s damn near unbelievable. I can’t help it though! Most of my best memories are from the snowy season: the first time I fell in love, the second time I fell in love, the third time I fell in love, my first date with my wife the day after Thanksgiving and then deciding to make our relationship official on December 21st which also happened to be the first day of winter...so I guess you could say the fourth time I fell in love too. Winter has always been a huge part of my life and is the one time of the year I truly look forward to. As a kid I couldn’t wait for Christmas. Growing up I had a much less than picture perfect life, but it seemed like Christmas was the one time where there was no yelling, hitting or fighting; it was just peaceful. I think I’ve really held on to that as I’ve grown into an adult.
Anyways, I wanted to put a piece together for all of my other winter lovers and even those who have yet to truly experience the magic that the cold wind often blows in with it. I wanted to compile my favorite albums for winter and albums that I think can truly move listeners to not just feel winter but experience it in a way they may have never imagined. The following are my 25 essential winter albums, they’re presented in alphabetical order, not listed in order of favorites. I hope you enjoy!

Agalloch - The Mantle

When I first heard The Mantle I was stunned. I had been searching for the perfect winter music and found myself scouring message board after message board; that was where I found not only this album, but this band. I quickly downloaded it and couldn’t stop listening, that was roughly ten years ago. Since then this has been my goto record when the snow starts to dump on us. I’ve spent many grey afternoons and even more deep blue twilights in the woods with only this album plugged in to my ears. This is an album that can quickly whisk you away and allow you to feel nature in a truly transcendent way.

Essential tracks: “In The Shadow Of Our Pale Companion” & “The Lodge”

As I Lay Dying - Frail Words Collapse

When I was seventeen, we had a huge snow storm. My car at the time was a piece of junk and it was terrible in the snow. I worked about twenty minutes from my house and asked my step dad if I could drive his truck to work as it handled a lot better than mine. I ended up wrapping it around a telephone pole than night...this is the album I was listening to. It’s somehow still a staple in my winter listening. It has a very cold embrace that is perfect for still, black winter night drives.

Essential tracks: “Forever” & “Behind Me Lies Another Fallen Soldier”

Bandit - Of Life

This album is one of the most beautifully depressing pieces of music ever created. I purchased this album without knowing anything about the band and only discovered them because of label mates, Nest (now Body Origami). I pre-ordered their album and immediately fell in love, so much so that I deemed it my favorite album of 2015, beating out Bjork’s Vulnicura. Filled with chillingly melancholic melodies and hauntingly beautiful vocals this album really pulls the isolated feeling of winter and molds it into something sorrowfully stunning. The album also features a somberly evocative cover of The Pixies’ “Where Is My Mind”.

Essential tracks: “Losing In A Sense”, “Where Is My Mind” & “Of Life”

Burzum - Hlidskjalf

This was the second of two albums recorded by Varg Vikernes while in prison for the murder of Mayhem guitarist Oystein “Euronymous” Aarseth. This also happens to be my second favorite Burzum album, next to Hvis Lyset Tar Oss (translated If The Light Takes Us). This album is entirely instrumental and plays more like the score for an arctic set Tolken film than the raw black metal that Varg was known for prior to his incarceration. I remember playing this through the speakers at an old job in the winter rather than traditional Christmas music and employees and customers alike really enjoyed it. This album is perfect for snowy night time walks in the woods or watching the snow fall on the soft white canvas below from your favorite area of brisk seclusion.

Essential tracks: “Tuistos Herz”, “Die Liebe Nerpus” & “Frijos Goldene Tranen”

Converge - You Fail Me

The day this album came out I was tardy for school, I remember waiting outside my local Best Buy to purchase it. They had one copy and it was mine! That fall and winter I listened to this album like it was my job. The dissonant guitar that echoes through the opening is most beautifully seen through a a whipping snowfall as it passes in front of headlights on a pitch black December night. This album meddles the aggressive whirl of a rushing snowfall with the serenity of a deep winter night as if it were a dark marble against a roaring fire.

Essential tracks: “First Light/Last Light”, “Drop Out” & “You Fail Me”

Dashboard Confessional - MTV Unplugged

I remember one winter night as a teenager I had gone to visit my brother and sister a county over. I was planning to stay the weekend and being only 15 and too young to have my drivers license I got a ride from my former step mother. My mom and her met at a gas station halfway between our houses and I would switch vehicles like a walking bag of weed in a parental drug deal. I would go over, stay the weekend and then get passed back to my mom at the same drop point. This weekend, however, there was an additional guest. My ex-step mom, Kathy, had started dating a guy named Rob and he had a son and a daughter. His son and I were friends but I had never met his daughter, until this fateful Friday evening. I walked in to a super cute girl with beautiful wide eyes and brown hair. That night we played video games and went sled riding. Everyone fell asleep but her and I who laid together on the living room floor and watched this live performance. It was the night before New Years Eve. I went home after staying a few extra days and quickly bought this album and would listen to it on repeat. It was my first real experience with feeling sick and sad due to missing a girl and this album really helped me get over that heartache and is still one that I love to pop in in the winter to capture that feeling of young love and the confusion and anxiety that it often brings. This is also the album where I learned I have a decent singing voice by singing along to it way too many times.

Essential tracks: “So Impossible”, “The Brilliant Dance” & “Saints And Sailors”

Dead To Fall - Everything I Touch Falls To Pieces

Before they had a bunch of dollar bin classics, Dead To Fall put out one of the most vicious metalcore albums ever. It perfectly blended Scandinavian death metal and US hardcore and was a crushing album all around and it still holds up to this day. This album is the quintessential winter metalcore album for me. The riffs are as icy as any early Dissection album and the vocal shrieks are ferocious...and don’t even get me started on the breakdowns! Perfect for late night drives on pitch black nights.

Essential tracks: “The Eternal Gates Of Hell” & “Cost Of A Good Impression”

The Draft - In A Million Pieces

I’m not sure why this album is one that always fits the winter for me but it does. The cold guitar tone and mid-tempo beat make for a great early morning drive album after a storm. The beginning of the album works great for cold, still mornings and the more melancholy songs towards the end blend beautifully with the burnt yellow freeway lights on your drive home.

Essential tracks: “Lo Zee Rose”, “All We Can Count On” & “Out Of Tune”

Drive By Truckers - Decoration Day

With this one I went back and forth between three DBT albums, the other two being Pizza Deliverance & A Blessing And A Curse. After a pretty short internal debate Decoration Day came out the winner for a few reasons. Firstly, it’s my favorite Drive By Truckers album and secondly, the song “Heathens.” There are few songs on this list that are imperative winter songs, that song is one of them. Years ago I worked at a local record store that I had loitered at professionally in my mid teens. I would put in eight hour days of just hanging out, talking and listening to music. Then I got a job there and would put in eight hour days of just hanging out, talking and listening to music, but getting paid to do so. Anyways, my boss was a huge fan of this band and we would listen to this album, along with a few others that appear on this list, daily. This album was the soundtrack through numerous ups and downs in my late teens/early twenties. It was there for me at the start of relationships and the end of them. It’s the perfect piece of slow churning optimism during a cold time.

Essential tracks: “Outfit”, “Heathens” & “Decoration Day”
Bonus tracks: A Blessing And A Curse - “Daylight” Pizza Deliverance - “Margot & Harold”

Echosmith - Talking Dreams

Have you ever fallen in love in the winter? If not I suggest you try it. I’m serious! For as long as I can remember, my most fond memories involve winter. I had my first kiss on Christmas Eve, first sexual experience around New Years and can remember numerous other dates and special moments under the snow filled orange sky. If you’re a guy who’s going on a date with someone that you want to express feelings too then this album is a great one to do it with. It’s cutesy and bubbly and perfect for a winter date. It takes the pop country aesthetic of early Taylor Swift with the catchiness of 80‘s synth pop and blends them perfectly to create a whirr of real emotion. Go find a dimly lit, secluded pavilion in the middle of a snow covered field, put this album on and make out under the gentle snow fall...she’ll be yours in no time!

Essential tracks: “March In To The Sun” & “Bright”

Gym Class Heroes - The Papercut Chronicles/ As Cruel As School Children

Throwing this band on here might not be a popular choice for some people, as many only got as far as their radio hit “Cupid’s Chokehold” (Which appears on both of these albums). However, you need to trust me, if you’ve never listened to either of these albums you should. The band is extremely talented and play a style of music that has more in common with bands like The Roots than label mates Fall Out Boy or Panic! At The Disco. Both of these albums got played quite a bit as I would walk around my college campus between class or aimlessly wonder around in an attempt to kill some time. The music is upbeat and springy, making for great listenin during a chilly winter morning with some light snow.

Essential tracks: The Papercut Chronicles - “Make Out Club”, “Taxi Driver” “Faces In The Hall/ Graduation Day” & “To Bob Ross With Love” & As Cruel As School Children - “Shoot Down The Stars”,  “New Friend Request” & “Viva La White Girls”

Heavens - Patent Pending

This album reminds me of walking through whipping night winds and cobalt stained snow on a college campus. The blue ground was painted bleakly over by a saturated orange color from the array of lights bouncing off it. I would walk to my friend Joe’s job in the A/V department and hang out with him all night, eating pizza and looking through old VHS films that were stored away in the back. This album was also a bonding point between my ex girlfriend and I, who’s first date took place on a snowy Valentine’s Day. For me this is another crucial winter album. The hopeless whirlwind of guitars and the persistent snare bangs set the mood for Matt Skiba’s stark lyrics about death, stalking and depression. They all seamlessly coalesce in to a utopia of isolation. If you’re in to things like hanging out in snowy cemeteries on grey overcast afternoons this album is the perfect fit for you. It’s pure bleakness from start to finish, that offers little to no hope as the record echos to a halt.

Essential tracks: “Gardens”, ‘Doves/Another Night” & “Leave”

The Howling Void - Megaliths Of The Abyss

Listen to this on a pitch black night during a snow storm. Bundle up, put headphones in, walk in to the woods and put this on when you’re as far from another human life as possible, sit on a stump and just let it over take you. It’s an experience you won’t soon forget, trust me!

Essential tracks: The entire thing, this is my most essential winter album!

Jason Isbell - Siren Of The Ditch

Like the Drive By Truckers album mentioned earlier, this was another album that was played a lot by my former boss, Dave. I remember one snowy night getting dressed up in Christmas sweaters and turtle necks with my ex girlfriend. We had gone to get cheesy Christmas pictures taken that evening. Earlier in the day we had made Christmas cookies and gotten some more from my mom. After pictures, we went to dinner at an Italian restaurant just as the city started closing roads due to the storm. We left and drove to my bosses house to bring him a plate of the cookies from earlier in the day. It felt like being a kid again and visiting family around the holidays, it was the first time I’d felt the internal warmth of winter in a long time. This was the album we were listening to that evening during the drive. It’s still one that gets tons of play in the pre-Christmas days of winter and is perfect for snowy nights in the city.

Essential tracks: “Chicago Promenade”, “Dress Blues” & “The Magician”

Killing The Dream - Lucky Me

This album is one of the few hardcore albums that I’ve listened to almost religiously during the snowy season. The album is less aggressive and more melodic than their previous albums and relies more on distant, melancholic pacing than furious riffs and vocals that rip at the listeners jugular. This album is cold, dark and full of sorrow. It’s perfect for late night drives home, especially if dealing with the loneliness that the cold often carries in with it. Allow it to melt your loneliness away under the illuminating glow of passing street lights.

Essential tracks: “Blame The Architects” & “Testimony”

Lucero - Nobody’s Darlings

This is the perfect album for late night winter drives with your friends or hang outs in a warm basement during a heavy snowfall. This album got played a lot both at one of my old jobs and with my ex girlfriend. If you live out in the country this album can enhance any cold, snowy drive through farmland with just enough twang and just enough rock n roll. This was an album I couldn’t listen to for many years, which only made it that much more special when I could finally bring myself to do so again.

Essential tracks: “Bikeriders”, “Sixteen”, “Nobody’s Darlings”, “Hold Me Close” & “The War”

Motion City Soundtrack - Even If It Kills Me/ Even If It Kills Me Acoustic EP

Hey check it out! Another two for one! Sweet! I purchased Even If It Kills Me the winter where my ex girlfriend and I would spend our last Christmas together. It was also the last Christmas my parents would spend together and the last Christmas my grandmother would be alive for. This album is one of, if not the most, dear albums to me EVER. It really became a huge part of my existence and was an album I could relate to more and more as my life went on. This album got me through a major depression and really helped me to reconnect to the world. It also helped me feel less isolated when I was diagnosed with having Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Along side the full length, the band also released a Japan only acoustic EP, titled, Even If It Kills Me Acoustic. Both albums have been crucial parts of my winter playlist for well over ten years. They’re perfect for those cold, snowy nights and bright white days leading up to the holidays and driving around after a giant snow storm. Fun fact: My wife and I both have Even If It Kills Me tattoos and our first dance at our wedding was to the song “Antonia.”

Essential tracks: “It Had To Be You”, “The Conversation”, “Hello Helicopter”, “Antonia”, “Even If It Kills Me” & The entire Acoustic EP.

Mum - Finally We Are No One

I used to work midnights. I remember the first year I worked them I couldn’t adjust my sleep schedule at all. I would get home from work at roughly 7:30 am and would make myself breakfast. I would sit and watch a little TV and then attempt to get to sleep by 9:00. Most days this worked, however I was also always wide awake by noon. The first winter of working midnights I discovered this band. I’ve always had an infatuation with Iceland and it’s beautiful landscape and the equally beautiful music. I have a portrait of Bjork tattooed on my forearm for Christ’s sake! I would stand outside, with the cold air piercing my cheeks, watching the snow fall. In one ear I would have this album and in the other the open silence of a serine world. This album always presented a grounded feeling after a long, exhausting night. Standing outside as the sun came up, watching the smoke from buildings lift in to the air. It’s a perfect album for an early morning winter drive. Free yourself from other people and watch a bright sunrise beam through a blistering cold dawn where the only heat comes from the steam rising off your lips.

Essential tracks: “Green Grass Of Tunnel” & “K/Half Noise”

Of Monsters And Men - My Head Is An Animal

Yet another example of my love for Icelandic music. This album is great for those feeling down during the cold months. It’s upbeat yet still melancholic. It’s timid yet adventurous and it transitions between the emotions with such elegance it’s hard to ignore. It’s filled with magnificent tales of courage and giant beasts and allows the listener to truly transcend reality for a moment and be apart of these wonderful stories. This album is great for building memories with new loves or people looking to find the perfect soundtrack for their snowy night drive home.

Essential tracks: “Dirty Paws”, “Your Bones” & “Yellow Light”

Something Corporate - North/ Audioboxer EP

Do you like being super depressed during the winter, or maybe just in general? If so this combo is for you. I had to include both of these albums in this list as they get equal amounts of play in the winter for me and Audioboxer has one of the most crucial “I’m in love with you and think about you 24/7 and you don’t seem to notice me” songs ever! I got North for Christmas one year along with ZAO’s Liberate Ta Ex Inferis and Converge’s Jane Doe (It was a great Christmas for your boy!). I remember laying on my grandma’s couch on Christmas after our family dinner and letting this album sweep me over. I also remember listening to this album two years later driving to one of my friend’s house where I was locked in his basement on suicide watch...like I said if you want to be depressed, especially over girls, this is the one for you! Audioboxer is a six song EP with early versions of three songs from their album Leaving Through The Window and three tracks only avaliable on this album. These albums are perfect for the person who is in love with someone who doesn’t know they exist...or maybe they do and you just have to be brave enough to ask...like I wasn’t until years later, long after those feelings faded and we’d both moved on.

Essential tracks: North - “As You Sleep”, “She Paints Me Blue” & Audiboxer -  “Walking By”

Title Fight - Floral Green

I was working midnights at a pharmacy the year this album was released and I hated it. It wasn’t the Title Fight I had loved, there was no more fast, melodic hardcore/pop punk riffs. Instead it was an album filled with what I like to call “Weezercore” or “Nirvanacore.” However, it did manage to find a connection with me during the piercingly cold midnights at work. Standing outside with this album on, shivering as the still chill of winter cut through my legs and fingers, it fit. Fast forward five years and this album took on an entirely different shape and one I connected with on a number of levels. I connected with it when I was down, I connected with it when I was happy, I connected with it when I was mad or relaxed, it all worked perfectly. I remember putting this album on at work and standing outside with one of my friends, watching the large snowflakes illuminate under the parking lot lights, contrasting vividly against the deep black backdrop of night. It has become a cornerstone in my winter listening and one that always fits the mood, somehow. One more thing, any time I listen to any Nirvana songs, that dissonant echoed guitar sound always reminds me of a school swimming pool bathroom thats all done in light green/blue tiles, don’t ask me why they just always do...“In-Between” on this album does it to me too. It’s weird, I know.

Essential tracks: “Like A Ritual”, “Make You Cry”, “Frown” & “Lefty”

Trampled By Turtles - Palomino

This album was hard for me to pick as I listen to a few Trampled By Turtles albums in the winter, however this one is listened to just a little more than the others. With that, I’m going to add two additional songs in the “Essential Tracks” section below from two other albums that I think are just as deserving of mention as they are fantastic listens during winter. Trampled By Turtles is a band that makes me think of driving on roads covered in slush and ice, doing a third of the speed limit and watching the edge lines dissappear under the burnt glow of street light lit snow. The dark blue sky and deep grey clouds paint what little bit of distance is visible as white lines flash past headlights and windshields as you make your way home. This is also a perfect album to listen to while standing outside and watching the heavy snowfall on clear night, preferably while leaning against a brick wall...trust me, it enhances the mood.

Essential tracks: “Wait So Long”, “Bloodshot Eyes”, “New Orleans” & “Again”
Bonus Tracks: Stars And Satellites - “Midnight On The Interstate” & Trouble - “Stranger”

Uncle Tupelo - 89/93: An Anthology

I didn’t really want to put any greatest hits albums on this list, however, this one was necessary. I’m a huge Uncle Tupelo fan and think their entire discography is damn near flawless, however, no one album really ever stood out to me as a winter album, except this one. My favorite Uncle Tupelo album will always be Still Feel Gone, it was played all the time when I worked at a record store back in my teens and an album I fell in love with, much like a few other bands/albums on this list. The acoustic songs always felt right for winter but the more rock n roll driven songs separated it from the winter feeling. With An Anthology Uncle Tupelo keeps the twangy and acoustic songs at the forefront and only sprinkle in the rock heavy songs occasionally, but not enough to separate the sorrowful feeling that a lot of the other tracks lay on with force. This is a great album to throw on and just drive through the country, appreciating the beautiful scenery as a light snow hits your windshield under the red night sky.

Essential tracks: “No Depression”, “Graveyard Shift”, “Still Be Around”, “Looking For A Way Out”, “Watch Me Fall” & “New Madrid”

Underoath - They’re Only Chasing Safety

If you’re unfamiliar with this album I feel bad for you. It’s an essential early 2000‘s emotional metalcore album. I listened to this album religiously upon it’s release in 2004, connecting with it mostly in the winter of that year. It was an album, along with The Changing Of Times that I couldn’t listen to for many years due to it reminding me of a my first real heartbreak, same with the movie The Incredibles and Meet The Fockers (which I still will not watch to this day). In the time since it’s once again become an essential listen during the winter months. Perfect album for any winter day, though it should be saved for super snowy days or nights driving through the city.

Essential tracks: The entire album, seriously.

Various Artists - Garden State OST

Imagine sitting on the hood of your car as it’s parked on the side of the road, you’re on top of a hill in a small suburban neighborhood that overlooks a major chunk of your city. It’s night and a girl you like just told you she feels the same. You’re watching the heavy snow pile up quickly along houses and buildings as it glows yellow and orange, passing through the illumination from the tall street lights. The accumulating snow on the ground is painted dark blue as it blends in to large golden circles under the same streets lights. You can see the waves of heat radiating from the cracked driver side window and the hood as it holds the warm engine hostage. From the open window, the only noise besides the snow lightly rings out. It’s Simon & Garfunkle’s song “The Only Living Boy In New York.” Your body fills with warmth and all of your cares are gone, you continue to sit and embrace the serenity of the moment as everything else slips away.

Essential Tracks: Coldplay - “Don’t Panic”, Colin Hay - “I Just Don’t Think I’ll Get Over You”, Nick Drake - “One Of These Things First” & Simon & Garfunkle - “The Only Living Boy In New York”

Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Before I start, I’ll be honest and up-front, I’ve never liked Kanye as a rapper, however I love him as a producer. Common’s album Be will always be my favorite hip hop album and it was produced exemplarily by Kanye West. Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way. This album is fantastic from start to finish. It’s bitter, cold and full of artistic anguish unlike anything that Kanye had ever done before. The beats go from cold and desolate to epic and powerful and back to bleak and even more lonely. When this album came out it got played constantly and at the time no other album could touch the power it possessed. This album is perfect for bitter cold days and pitch black nights where the only thing you can feel is your own overwhelming loneliness.

Essential tracks: “Dark Fantasy”, “All Of The Lights”, “Blame Game” & “Lost In The World”

Wolves In The Throne Room - Celestial Lineage

I purchased this album on a whim from an FYE in Cleveland in the middle of a snow storm. My wife and I went to our car and I put it in. As the album started it immediately whirled perfectly in to the snowy landscape around us. The furiously whipping snow outside worked with the atmospheric chimes from the album in perfect unison. This album is easily one of my top 5 favorite winter albums and is essential listening during a cold, dark midday snowstorm.

Essential tracks: “Thuja Magus Imperium”, “Woodland Cathedral” & “Prayer of Transformation”  

ZAO - Parade Of Chaos

In high school, I once asked a girl out on a date for a number of days in a row. Looking back at it my persistence could have been seen as shitty. I didn’t have ill intent, I just thought she was amazingly pretty and wanted nothing more than the chance to hang out with her outside of school. My friends and I would all gather in one corner of the hallway between classes and talk before having to run to our next period. One afternoon, I told my friend Ashley that I was going to ask the next girl that came around the corner to prom. Now, one thing I should ad, using the power of poriferals I saw that it was a certain girl walking towards us, knowing that she passed our group daily. I had seen her numerous times in the hallway and always thought she was really pretty but never had the balls to approach her and talk. In high school I was a bully and had a reputation as being the big, tough, no nonsense hardcore kid who would fight whoever and could care less about hurting people, so for me to show emotion outside of anger and hostility was very rare if not non-existent. This little plan I had devised in a single moment had allowed me to speak to a girl I thought was cute without putting myself out there in any way that could have potentially hurt my reputation or ego.
As this girl came around the corner I bellowed out, “Hey! You wanna go to prom with me?"
She gave me a perplexed look and with confusion in her voice declined. This began my barrage of daily prom requests, all of which were declined. One day I approached her and I could tell she immediately shut her ears off, I was talking on mute. I started off by apologizing for the harassment and told her that I would like to hang out with her and maybe go see a movie as a way of getting to know her...to which she accepted! Why did I just tell you that story? Because, this is the album that we listened to on our way to the movie for our first date...romantic huh? After this date we hung out and took her little brother shopping, went to see another movie, hung out on Christmas Eve at my best friends house, where we sat in his basement and watched It’s A Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie while drinking Pepsi Holiday Spice and eating cookies. After that we saw one more movie and went to eat, where I did the only thing I ever regretted in my life, it led me to not be able to listen to Underoath for many years and not be able to watch certain movies. Up until a few years ago I never forgave myself, when all I did was yell seven words at her. I’ve never hurt someone with words like that in my life...“What the fuck are you looking at!?” That was it, those words led me to so much sadness for many years and at the time I didn’t realize the impact they would have, on either of us. I sent her two dozen roses to apologize and nothing, she refused to speak to me and for roughly twelve years that ate at me. It was the one thing in my life I couldn’t just push to the back of my mind and forget about. The hurt resonated just as strongly as it did that December night. My cousin was with us the night it happened and he never spoke about it or her except one time. He told me that the hurt will never go away because she was the first girl I loved, it’ll always be there to serve as a reminder. It may fade some but it’ll never fully leave. I’m now much older and wiser but writing that still hurts.
With that, let’s get back to what this is actually about. This album is great for dark, winter nights in a city where the snow is pounding your windshield just as fast as your heart’s pounding your ribs. The kind of night where you can feel your pulse on the steering wheel and your breath can hardly catch itself long enough for you attempt to slow down time.

Essential tracks: “The Buzzing”, “Suspend Suspension”, “Angel Without Wings” & “Man In The Womb”

***Honorable Mentions:***

- Imperium Dekadenz - Procella Vadens
- The Postal Service - Give Up
- Shining - Lots Of Girls Gonna Get Hurt
- Various Artists - A Near Fatal Fall (Tooth & Nail Records Compilation)
- Wood Of Ypres - Woods IV: The Green Album


Thank you for taking the time out to read this list and please remember to follow me on Instagram: @rons_music_collection and let me know if you have any must listens for winter! Thanks again!
-Ron