As the winter season is fast approaching, the air is getting colder, snow is starting to fall and the mall foot-traffic is getting crazy with all the people trying to get their holiday shopping done. If I’m being honest, it’s been difficult for me to get into the holiday spirit this year. With a daunting number of term papers, last assignments and final exams coming up, it’s hard to be merry. As many other families do, my family celebrates Christmas, but it really won’t feel the same this year. Living in Connecticut, I’m used to the cold winter chill and lights strung up all down the block. In other words, I live your stereotypical “white Christmas.” This year, however, I’ll be spending my holiday season in Florida visiting my Grandma. While I’m extremely excited to see her, there are parts of the New England holiday experience that I’m going to miss out on. Whatever holidays you celebrate, I hope you enjoy this list of songs that remind me of some of the best parts of the winter season.
Song One: “Come December” by Jordan Fisher
As December is just starting, I felt that I had to include a few December-based songs on the list and Jordan Fisher delivers. He is a singer, actor, and dancer, best known for his roles on the Disney channel as he was featured in Teen Beach Movie and its sequel. From this beginning, he has been afforded many opportunities such as playing the roles of John Laurens and Philip Hamilton in the Broadway production of Hamilton. He is still passionate about making music, his most recent release being a rendition of “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” from Toy Story.
“Come December” opens with a man longing for his love to finally be home with him for the holiday season. It sounds as though they have spent time apart and he is eagerly awaiting their return. He begins reminiscing as he asks, “do you remember last time we were together? Everything was magical, feels like forever.” He describes this love as if it were faultless and he desperately wants to be surrounded by this feeling of warmth and magic again. He extends this idea of need as he sings, “can’t you get here any sooner? Wish you could stay past new years.” They are in a situation in which they don’t have the time that they need to be together and so every moment they can spend together has to be made to last. Everyone always talks about the difficulties of long distance relationships, but if both parties are willing to make it work like in this song, is there anything really stopping them from breaking that distance?
Song Two: “This December” by Ricky Montgomery
Ricky Montgomery actually got his start as a star on the once popular social media platform, Vine. As he states in his Twitter bio, Montgomery expected for his popularity to diminish after the collapse of the app, however, he has only gained success since. In 2016, he released his first full-length album by the name of Montgomery Ricky. Born in California and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, Montgomery found his alternative indie rock style by playing in bands around West St. Louis County.
“This December” is a song about loneliness and depending on another person to hold you up. As such a young songwriter, I was surprised at the complexity of some of the lines present in this music. In the opening lines of “This December,” Montgomery writes, “only in my darkest moments can I see the light. I think I’m prone to getting blinded when it’s bright.” What he’s trying to say by this is that it is easy to take things for granted when you have it good, but once the sadness sets in, you realize how much you miss what you had. Montgomery speaks to the very feeling of being alone and how isolating it can feel when you are devoid of what you once knew. In the second verse, he sings that he’s “just another white elm growing at the end of town.” By comparing himself to a tree, he feels rooted in place, unable to move on. He also writes that he’s “at the end of town” to mean that he’s left on the outskirts of his life, easily overlooked. Ricky Montgomery knows what it means to feel like you aren’t special enough to be picked out of a crowd and he understands the pain of knowing when it’s over. Much like the month of December, he’s gone cold to feeling.
Song Three: “Snowblind” by Rob Thomas
If you know me at all in person, you probably know about my immense love for Rob Thomas. As the lead singer of Matchbox Twenty and a remarkable solo artist, he reinvented my love for music back in 2012. I’ve seen Rob solo in concert three times and twice with Matchbox, so it was inevitable that he would show up in my playlists sooner or later. As a soloist, he is best known for his collaboration with Santana on the 1999 hit song “Smooth” that won three Grammys for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals. It is considered to be the second most successful song of all time according to Billboard. Aside from this, Thomas has recorded three solo records and is currently working on a fourth.
“Snowblind” is a song about two people who are stuck in the same place. It is about taking note of where you are in your life and assessing where you need to go from here. Thomas uses the image of “spinning wheels” to evoke the notion that even though they are trying to get themselves out of a difficult situation, they’re only making the matter worse by not being able to backtrack. This disagreement in how to move forward with the relationship is perpetuated in the lines, “you stick in my throat. You melt in my hands.” There is an obvious disconnect between Thomas himself and the person he is writing about. Because they operate on such different wavelengths, it causes them not to know how to treat each other, resulting in more distress. Although this is a difficult relationship, Thomas is eager to work things out and to try to get them out of the blizzard.
Song Four: “Snow in Venice” by Elizaveta
Elizaveta is a Russian-American singer/songwriter, pianist and opera singer. She was formally making music under the name Elly K, releasing her first album in January of 2012 titled “Beatrix Runs”. Known mostly for her alternative pop/rock and easy listening music styles, she was featured in several ABC tv series soundtracks such as Scandal, Pretty Little Liars, and The Affair.
“Snow in Venice” is a song that you listen to and immediately feel warmer and happier with its easy melody and old-timey feeling. In this song, Elizaveta sings about traveling and the struggles of long distance relationships. She references the several cities in which she might be able to bump into her lover, as they both have very busy lives. She sings that “traveling light is a curse and a blessing” because while she is able to easily come and go as she pleases, it also means that she has to leave all of the comforts of home behind. While she’s traveling around the world, she is constantly thinking about her lover and wondering when she’ll be able to see them again. She continually references the snow as a way of comparing the distance between them to the bitter cold and unfamiliar, creating a barrier between herself and this other person. Ultimately, she finds home is with her love, and wherever in the world she ends up, she’ll always find her way back.
Song Five: “Winter of Our Youth” by Bastille
Bastille is another one of my all-time favorite bands and they are a go-to for me when I’m feeling sad or angry. However, “Winter of Our Youth” reflects a slightly different tone, as it is based heavily in nostalgia. Bastille consists of Dan Smith (the lead vocalist), Kyle Simmons (the keyboardist), Will Farquarson (the guitarist and bassist) and Chris “Woody” Wood (the drummer). Their band name actually formed due to Bastille Day, which memorializes the Storming of the Bastille during the French revolution, which just so happens to be Dan Smith’s birthday. They are best known for their hit single “Pompeii” off of their first studio album Bad Blood.
I think I connect so much to this song because it reflects the uneasy feeling of looking back on one’s past. Smith sings about reliving one’s hardest moments and the urge to drink to forget. In the chorus, the line repeats “I’m pedaling backwards, even if I’m pedaling alone.” He wants to say here that it’s easy for us to slide back into our old mistakes and bad memories, but that it is also easy to get caught up in the good moments of our past and not want to move forward with our lives. He also states in the song that “when we pick over the past we glorify it.” We only tend to want to remember what was good about our lives, but don’t take the same considerations to remember all of the hardships and demands that came with those periods in our lives. The message of this song is ultimately to be grateful for the progress you’ve made and to stop looking back for answers.
Song Six: “Winter Wonderland” by Jason Manns
I’m sure every one of you reading this has at least once in their life heard “Winter Wonderland.” It’s a holiday classic that no one can escape. If I’m being honest, it was never really one of my favorite holiday songs to listen to, but I’d sing along to it just the same. It wasn’t until I listened to Jason Manns’s “Christmas with Friends” album that I had a newfound appreciation for this song. As someone who was obsessed with Supernatural all throughout high school, I couldn’t pass up listening to an album that featured most of my favorite members of the cast. I loved the jazzy and rhythmic vibe that Jason Manns gave to the song.
While “Winter Wonderland” is an incredibly well-known song, we can still dissect it to its most core elements. If I’m being honest, I never knew who Parson Brown was my entire childhood. I still didn’t before I looked it up today, but it turns out that “parson” is just a term used for Protestant or Anglican ministers, so who’s to say if Parson Brown is a real person or not. Most of “Winter Wonderland” however, discusses the feelings associated with the winter season, as is mentioned in the lines “Gone away is the bluebird, here to stay is the new bird.” This references the migratory habits of seasonal birds versus that of birds that stay in colder climates year-round. However, one thing that I didn’t necessarily pick up on in the years I listened to this song was that the couple referenced in the song wanted to be married by a snowman. Since he is referred to as a “parson,” he would have the power to do so. Not really sure how that’s a romantic gesture, but if it works for them, I guess I can’t object.
Song Seven: “Stay Frosty Royal Milk Tea” by Fall Out Boy
This is probably the most unconventional winter song on this list, but what better time for revolution than the winter? This song comes from Fall Out Boy’s seventh studio album released in January of 2018 titled Mania. This comeback was long-anticipated by fans as it bred a new era for Fall Out Boy’s music, infusing more electronic elements into their emo-rock style. Fall Out Boy consists of lead singer Patrick Stump, bassist Pete Wentz, lead guitarist Joseph Trohman and drummer Andy Hurley.
While I admit I mostly chose this song because the word “frosty” was in the title, I feel that the sentiment of standing up for what you believe in ties into the charitable themes of the holiday season. At the beginning of the song, Patrick sings that “some princes don’t become kings.” This line is both ominous and telling, noting that some people burn out before their time while others never live up to their potential. Patrick then repeatedly says, “the only thing that’s ever stopping me is me,” which in any case is an important thing to remember. This song is about using your voice to speak out against what is wrong, and part of that is believing in yourself enough to do it. Saying that you support something is one thing, but acting on it takes a whole other level of courage that not everyone possesses. We often get so caught up in our own heads that we prevent ourselves from doing more that could benefit us in the long run.
While this is probably not what you were expecting from a winter songs playlist, I love to be unconventional. A part of me is also a firm believer that Christmas doesn’t start until a week before the actual day. I know I’m in the minority in thinking that, but I guess I don’t feel the same sense of magic this time of year that other people do. I hope that even if you didn’t find a song to add to your 2018 holiday playlist, you might at least find a song that you can relate to.
You can listen to the full playlist here!