Winter is a time often associated with the holiday season; thus, holiday music tends to top the charts. However, if you search deeper, there’s plenty of winter music that doesn’t fit into the typical holiday trope. While summer and fall often rely on specific sounds to match the seasons, various genres and styles can exist in winter. Spanning genres, winter music usually serves one of two purposes: providing comfort in the midst of the cold or encouraging the listener to embrace the feelings that come with the season’s harsh weather.

Illustration By Manuel Lopez

“Dawn FM” by The Weeknd

This is the essential pop/R&B winter album, preferably listened to on a cold winter night. With particularly dark undertones for The Weeknd, “Dawn FM” articulates internal struggle in an unexpectedly dance-worthy manner. “Dawn FM” feels like an experiment that he executes effortlessly, creating a masterful, remarkably uniform record. Filled with synth sounds typical of The Weeknd, “Dawn FM” aligns with his previous records and yet breaks from his usual formula; it takes on more meaningful storytelling and uses different mediums to create a singularity in the album.  Listening to the album in order makes “Dawn FM” an even more exciting and experimental body of work — a 52-minute continuous radio station segment with Jim Carrey delivering spoken lines to narrate pieces of the collective story as one listens.

Best songs: “Gasoline,” “How Do I Make You Love Me?,” “Out of Time,” “Less than Zero”

“evermore” by Taylor Swift

To further commend the elephant in the recording booth, among her various accolades, Taylor Swift has one of the best winter albums to exist. “evermore” was a big leap for Swift as she toyed with new sounds, production, and ambitious writing that listeners hadn’t yet heard from the famed lyricist. She pairs comfort and discomfort beautifully in this record as she sings about sentiment, love, sadness, anger, and, yes, even murder. Whether singing about “kids and Christmas” or “frozen swims,” vivid imagery evokes relatable sights and feelings as the singer shares various stories, some fictional and others from her perspective. “evermore” feels like various pieces of different puzzles pieced together to create a unified record in each track’s pursuit of resolution and closure.

Best songs: “champagne problems,” “happiness,” “cowboy like me,” “marjorie”

“Letter to You” by Bruce Springsteen

Better known for music made in his early career, the Boss remains one of the most recognizable names in the industry today, and rightfully so. Released in 2019, “Letter to You” is a testament to Bruce Springsteen’s enduring legacy as the king of rock and roll. Springsteen writes about experiences that, compared to his previous work, and much like the artist himself, are older and wiser. “Letter to You” is one giant love letter for Springsteen, showing that even though he has lived a long life, he is still learning and bringing the listener along for the ride. Many of the songs have to do with love and loss, as he sings about former bandmates and friends he’s lost in recent years; most notably he sings about George Theiss, who was a member of the 1960s teenage band The Castiles alongside Springsteen. Theiss passed away in 2018 and is noted to have sparked inspiration for some of the album’s best tracks. Mixed with his classic rock sound and solo acoustic tracks, “Letter to You” is the perfect winter listen for any longtime fan or new listener.

Best songs: “One Minute You’re Here,” “Letter To You,” “Ghosts,” “I’ll See You In My Dreams”

While the winter season is ever present in these albums, there are many individual tracks reminiscent of the season. Bundle up — here’s a list of songs that embody all of the winter feels!

“Atlantic City” by Bruce Springsteen from “Nebraska”

“Back to You” by Russ from “There’s Really A Wolf”

“Better Not” by Louis the Child and Wafia from “Kids at Play – EP”

“Blessa” by Toro y Moi from “Cruisers of This”

“I Drink Wine” by Adele from “30”

“Is It Over Now? (Taylor’s Version) [From The Vault]” by Taylor Swift from “1989 (Taylor’s Version)”

“King of My Heart” by Taylor Swift from “Reputation”

“Perfect Places” by Lorde from “Melodrama”

“Sarah’s Place (feat. Noah Kahan)” by Zach Bryan from “Boys Of Faith – EP”

“Think About Me” by dvsn from “Morning After”

“Wherever I Go” by Brent Faiyaz from “Larger Than Life”

“White Iverson” by Post Malone from “Stoney”

“You’re Losing Me (From The Vault)” by Taylor Swift from “You’re Losing Me (From The Vault) – Single”