MUSICAL MUSINGS
by Josh Hosler
January 25, 2005
THE MOST DEPRESSING DAY OF THE YEAR
"It's getting cold in here/ So put on all your clothes"
— The anti-Nelly
I was amused and not at all surprised to come across this article on the BBC's website this week:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4187183.stm
So January 24 is the most depressing of the year, eh? Huh. I guess that's logical, and now that you mention it, I've been feeling a bit low-energy lately, despite being anything but bored. The winter blues really do have an effect on us in Seattle. We see snow only once a year on average, but the clouds and gloomy rain take their toll. Sometimes I wish we had more snow so I could have a better idea of the passage of time.
I grew up in Southern Idaho and Northern Michigan. In Michigan in particular, we got some wicked winters. Round about the first week of December, my family's mailbox would get buried by the passing snowplows. At this point, my dad would go down to the basement and retrieve the "winter mailbox." He'd take it outside and jam it deeply into the plow-created snowdrift. My brother and I would still have to shovel out the mailbox, but not the entire drive.
Fifteen years ago, I thought the perfect winter album was Disintegration by The Cure. A New Yorker review of The Cure's concert tour for that album described them as the depressing, angst-ridden band whose performance could leave you feeling "... well, happy."
Lately I've been listening a lot to the Ben Folds Five album Whatever and Ever, Amen. I concluded a few years ago that it's my new perfect winter album. It's cynical, dark, and self-focused. Even the upbeat, fun tunes have a hint of darkness in them.
As most of you know, I also do a lot of listening to music that was popular in the past at exactly this time of year, in five-year increments. While couples are cuddling to Mario's "Let Me Love You" in 2005, great winter ballads have ruled the charts most other years as well. Here's a sample:
2000: Savage Garden "I Knew I Loved You"
1995: Boyz II Men "On Bended Knee"
1990: Michael Bolton "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You"
1985: Foreigner "I Want to Know What Love Is"
1980: The Captain & Tennille "Do That to Me One More Time"
1975: Barry Manilow "Mandy"
1970: Simon & Garfunkel "Bridge Over Troubled Water"
1965: The Righteous Brothers "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'"
Sure, there are always hit ballads on the radio, but they do tend to ratchet up when the weather's cold. It makes me wonder -- is the pop music trend the opposite in Australia? That is, do they have their "hottest hits of summer" in January?
We don't give the dark months enough props. What's your favorite wintertime listening?
What was the #1 song on the day you were born? Click here to find out.