in the dragon's well

snazzy tunes for crisp chilly days

what it says on the tin! i had a very enlightening conversation with a friend before christmas re: the qualities that make a song perfect for winter—ultimately (for me), it comes down to a general upbeat crispness in production, wistfulness/melancholy in intent, and some nice echoey, atmospheric flourishes or acoustic guitar. it's more about the weather conditions in the great outdoors than it is about holiday vibes or warming spices, which is why a lot of the songs in my current rotation don't exactly read as seasonal. a lot of these faves will be girl group-flavored but what can i say, i love women & the music they make (:

i've been obssessed with everything lexie liu this past year, and while mira/magician/i wanna tell u have been on repeat since summer, 了 L has been hitting extra hard recently..."跃入回旋的时间 / 跃离未眠的黑夜" ONLY TO FIND YOU AGAIN..."跃入碎裂的空间 / 跃离沉睡的白天" like what do you mean this isn't a tang dynasty masterwork? li bai could learn a thing or two from miss lexie liu and he would be a better poet for it.

in a not-at-all-similar atmospheric vein, i've been enjoying attitude by fromis_9 quite a lot as well! #menow will forever be my darling 2023 songofthesummer that never was, and attitude is her evil girlcult supersoldiers swordfighting in zero g en route to their mutually assured end twin. the opening feels like you're being stalked by a black panther alone in the eerily empty cargo keep of a spacecraft for reasons i wish i could articulate better, and the chorus > postchorus transition is sooo satisfying like. i can feel the beat pulsing and descending in such delicious tandem with their joined voices in a rekindling-hope way reminiscent of the rising synths in the bridge of everglow's bon bon chocolat. if listening to attitude makes you a believer in fromis_9 b-sides, i would also highly recommend escape room (an outlier amongst their standard bubblegum pop fare).

viola by yves kind of has the same metallic, atmospheric energy but in a different font. i haven't seen the mv or choreo for this title track yet, but it feels like yves is singing at you with a corded microphone from halfway across the tiled lobby of a derelict banking building + is closing the distance via shalom harlow-style powerwalking at a leisurely pace. charli collab when? speaking of charli xcx...the entirety of crash (2022) is somehow so winter-coded to me, despite being a spring release. used to know me, good ones, constant repeat, yuck...i know that's right. aside from that album, i think detonate and claws are also quite lovely for listening indoors with a slight chill in the air, and everything is romantic ft. caroline polachek is lowkey my new official autumnal anthem.

i know i shouldn't be saying this in newjeans' prolonged era of misfortune, but triples truly outsold in all key demographics across the board since debut, from generation to rising and now girls never die (all perfectly suitable for below-zero listening!)—they're somehow able to capture girlhood in such a unfiltered, realistic (at times, cynical) yet uplifting way. like yes, the world is a flaming ball of shit and people are often small-minded + mean out of an self-serving need to deflect away from their own insecurities, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't keep your chin up and continue striving for meaning + connection + fulfillment, whatever that may look like for you. that being said, the whole point of this paragraph was to highlight beam, which imo is the platonic ideal of whatever hybe had been trying & failing to accomplish with newjeans and illit prior to fallout 5: min heejin edition. it's very dreamy in a way that makes you feel as if you're floating below the surface of a frosted-over pond surrounded by pale, immaterial fish and their near-inaudible whispers.

before i run out of steam and this devolves into yet another bulleted list, let me just say that learning in public by allie x is quite possibly my soty (song of the year). i felt called to revisit cape god (2020) in december & found myself inconsolable in my car in the trader joe's parking lot at 8 pm on a tuesday because sometimes you hear a song and sometimes the song makes you feel Heard. and this song was precisely that. anywho, here are the other brrr frosty cold bops i couldn't be bothered to write an entire paragraph about (but are equally worth listening to before the weather warms up):

honorable mention to imaginal disk (2024) by magdalena bay because omg what kind of illicit substance did they pump into that album...front to back beginning to end bop after cold weather bop! the whole project just screams halloween (complete with glittery sequined costumes + big hair), and i can't get enough. not-so-honorable mention goes to no escape by nct dream, which was such an sr15b 3rd gen exo-esque bop that i had an out-of-body experience akin to that food critic from ratatouille upon first listen. this song isn't exactly chicken soup for the soul (and it definitely won't be everyone's cup of tea), but it was 100% abandoned by kenzie and left to fend for itself in a dimly lit sm box of massive scene hair/dramatic smoky eye proportions.

stay icy,

t

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