SOUNDS OF THE SEASON - Autumn, pt. 2

Well, we've reached the end of this Mobius loop of mood music and we're just about all outta bubblegum. As we enter the second half of fall, enshrouded in cold & darkness, we're presented with new flavors and toppings; October 2019 has been laid to rest in the mass graves of my mind, and there's very little time to mourn. So let's not!

Like I wrote last time, Autumn presents several headliner Holidays. And if you weren't aware, we dig Holidays - a lot. All traditional or antiquated beliefs aside, it's wonderful to continually have a reason to celebrate life in a way that coincides with the astonishing transition of seasons, and the majesty of nature demands a soundtrack... And movies... And movie soundtracks.

The best Holidays come with movies, and so, once again, this list is modestly populated with soundtracks, as they're the strongest aid in embracing the present. But I think we're beyond excuses at this point (and maybe even surprises too), but this series wasn't designed for debate: as usual, we can only ever hope that we've a.) provided suggestions, b.) discovered we may shop at the same store, or c.) prompted you to be more consistently conscious of the correlation between your tunes and the time of day (you know, if you weren't already).

Rounding out the year, here's Part 2 of Autumn Sounds of the Season. Keep rockin' on.

- Paul

Younger Now Miley Cyrus (2017)
In 2017, for the entire month of December, I was either too cold, too tired, or absolutely fatigued with all the Christmas music the year had to offer. As a result, this album played front to back on an endless loop for nearly four calendar weeks. And so now, Summer romps and sultry serenades like "Malibu," "Rainbowland," and "Love Someone" only bring to mind early morning grays and numb fingers.
Twerk for days.

Bringing Out the Dead (Soundtrack) Various Artists (1999)
No album on this or any of the other past lists have been so viscerally, emotionally tied to a time of year than the Bringing Out the Dead OST. The film came out in November, and I nearly-simultaneously obtained the soundtrack, and this collection of songs in this order became the mood of my existence, and that mood carried over well into the following year. The album is eclectic but still within the boundaries of Marty's yard: "Nowhere to Run" by Martha and the Vandellas, "Too Many Fish in the Sea" by the Marvelettes, and two cuts from The Clash. But nothing elicits the taste & smell of my then-teenage angst like the movie's unofficial theme song - Van Morrison's "T. B. Sheets."
Naw, it ain't funny. It ain't funny at all, babe.

Merry Christmas Johnny Mathis (1958)
Alright, let's get down in it.
There's no short list of "definitive" Christmas songs or albums - every artist has their own and each one is somebody's favorite. I'll usually say this one's mine - mostly for his version of "Sleigh Ride" - but this album falls into that category I like best of flippy-flopping between Pop Xmas ("The Christmas Song," "Blue Christmas") and the spooky religious stuff ("What Child Is This?," "O Holy Night"). Johnny brings his trademark excitement to both avenues.
Still though, every version of "Winter Wonderland" sucks.

A Clockwork Orange (Soundtrack) Various Artists (1972)
This is another strong personal connection between weather/movie/movie music that may be unique to my taste, but I could still make an argument for its ambient validity.
I first took a look at the movie in November of 1995, and the damp fogginess of my own surroundings was identical to that of the near-future Britain depicted in the film. But aside from a serendipitous first viewing and matching visual components, W. Carlos's buzzy Moog moods (the "Title Music" and the "March" in particular) mirror the sinister, sadistic delight of chilly ultra-violence. Suffice to say Stanley may've had a knack for perfecting a flavor.

Scrooge (Soundtrack) Leslie Bricusse (1970)
Like I've talked about before, listening to a soundtrack is like having the movie with you whenever, wherever. And when it's the soundtrack to an all-out musical, you're practically watching the movie upon listening (short of actually watching it on some inadequate device). Clearly wouldn't be listening to this year-round (though songs like "I Hate People" and "Happiness" apply to day-to-day activities), but for your Holiday spirit, the grandiose "A Christmas Carol" is 100 proof undiluted milk of human kindness.

Punch-Drunk Love (Soundtrack) Jon Brion, Various Artists (2002)
The movie came out in November of 2002 (starting to smell a trend here?). So those somber harmonium notes are, in my mind, less indicative of Jeremy Blake's animated rainbows and better suited to the cold, black evenings of my sophomore year of college, hoping there was someone for me, as strange as I was...

ELO's Greatest Hits Electric Light Orchestra (1979)
Speaking of collegiate despair: my very first 'student film' that I wrote/directed/shot/edited was titled Mr. Blue Sky, which prominently featured the title song, as well as the band's "Telephone Line." And nothing immerses you in music like the writing/editing process.

For the purposes of consistency, stay tuned after the list for a look at the aforementioned video.

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap AC/DC (1976)
AC/DC are like the Stones in that you can listen to them in any weather and feel adequately aroused. But, on a seasonal note (which is why we're gathered here today), "Ride On" is a bluesy, rare slow burn from the boys from Down Under that even-better compliments the cold sunshine.

Wish You Were Here Pink Floyd (1975)
Let's face it, this album's all about "Shine On You Crazy Diamond," and my serving suggestion is blur your eyes and lose focus in the swirling brown leaves in the blustery gusts of Autumn winds. And if you don't live in the appropriate climate or terrain, just listen and imagine. Some folks prefer drugs for this song/band - the more enlightened may realize that the music is the drug.
If that sounds pretentious, it should -- I'm not really a Floyd fan.

The Conversation (Soundtrack) David Shire (1974)
The movie is a 'soft' Christmas movie, but watching it every season (and its very prominent music score) has infiltrated my bloodstream in an elemental way. David Shire's score is like a main character, so like Scrooge and others, the music is a mobile version of the film, and also inseparable from the Big Holiday. And why not? The sparse piano ballads of "Whatever Was Arranged" and "The End of the Day," or the jazzy beats of "Harry Carried" and "Blues For Harry" all feel derivative of Vince Guaraldi's Charlie Brown Christmas melodies.

SOUNDS OF THE SEASON - Autumn, pt.1

Fall is complicated and weird; there're still beams of Summer, a surprise assault of Winter, and, like, ten days of Autumn. (At least, that's how it is on my part of the planet.) I'm speaking meteorologically here, but in terms of societal construct, half of Fall is Halloween, and the other half is Christmas; the parameters of the autumnal equinox this year are September 23 and December 21. That's one helluva roller coaster of blood & Santa - in other words, it's a pretty great goddamn season if you have the right guide.

And so, beautiful people, I've divided these playlists into separate and succinct Sounds of the Season, because that's what I do - and to claim otherwise would be a lie.
And friends don't lie.

So while we're being honest, I've cut loose & didn't hold back on the soundtracks here, because, quite frankly, it's the bulk of what I listen to during this season in an attempt to add more spice to my pumpkin. Every time of year is worth celebrating, but the next few months already have a built-in fanfare, and I have more than a few favorites to feed my head for whichever festivities I'm standing closest to.
So here, for the first time, for the first half of Fall, is Part One of Autumn Sounds of the Season.

- Paul

Suspiria (Soundtrack) Goblin (1977)
The days get shorter, and shorter days mean more darkness, more gusts of wind, more swirling leaves and cold rain. The world tastes & smells like Suspiria, and with the help of some Goblin funk, it's gonna sound like it too. This is seasonal playlist participation at its purest. Though, had the movie not existed & this were just an album of ambient, spooky jingles, the effect would be the same: The title track can sedate you into a red & orange foliage trance, and "Witch" will have you convinced that powerful people are currently conspiring to molest your soul.

Zombie (Soundtrack) Fabio Frizzi (1979)
The other heartbeat of the Halloween season. Frantic, tropical frenzy like "Escape From the Flesheaters" is (hopefully) the closest you'll get to the experience of fighting off, being chased by, or being eaten by zombies. But's that's just the bone beneath the real flesh of this soundtrack: the main title, or "Sequence 1," is the synthesized death march of doom that is the singular Halloween anthem for myself, and I assume the last thing I'll hear before my throat's ripped open by corpse teeth.

Ride the Lightning Metallica (1984)
In the Summer/Autumn bridge, there's still warmth and sun and green - but it's all just Sunday blues at that point, and the only cure for that is to go out in a blaze of Speed Metal decadence that compliments both the fast times of hot & humid and the subzero war zone of the abyss. "Fade to Black" and "For Whom the Bell Tolls" are obvious choices (but for good reason), but "The Call of Ktulu" is the one you can take with you all the way through the void.

Rock 'n' Roll Nightmare (Soundtrack) Thor and The Tritonz (2006)
The long-delayed soundtrack to the 1987 film is a true treasure of Pop Metal made for us Horror Hounds - from a movie of identical description. The film is a musical, so no song carries more weight than another: "Live It Up," "Somewhere When Rises the Moon," "Energy" -- it's all chilly, Canadian bliss. Although no track (here or anywhere) says 'not today, Satan' like "We Accept the Challenge." Do yourself a favor and become aware of this.

The Fog (Soundtrack) John Carpenter (1980)
So, nothing says October like the music of John Carpenter, and nothing says the music of John Carpenter like The Fog (yes, even more than Halloween, you Druids). "The Fog Enters Town" is good, tense, chiller thriller suspense, but, again, the "Main Theme" is really the musical punctuation of a great ghost story, and I can't remember a Halloween season in my lifetime (nor do I anticipate one in the future) without it.

American IV: The Man Comes Around Johnny Cash (2002)
It's a bit of an obvious choice, and yes, the title track is what put it in its place - but I'm not here to be sensationalistic. Besides, the whole album is equally somber and ominous enough to get me in the mood: "Personal Jesus," "We'll Meet Again," and, of course, "Hurt" carry just as much emotional weight and dread as anything you'd hear from The Man In Black's final days.

Cannibal Holocaust (Soundtrack) Riz Ortolani (1980)
The movie was one of my favorites for a stretch, but I soon admitted to myself that it was the music score I was swooning on.
It's largely jungle rhythms ("Relaxing In the Savana," "Cameraman's Recreation"), but the "Main Theme" is a gut-wrenching ballad of strings and sorrow that always puts me on the verge of tears.

Zombie Holocaust (Soundtrack) Nico Fidenco (1980)
Much like its otherwise unrelated Cannibal counterpart, the real star of Zombie Holocaust is its score. And again, like Cannibal Holocaust, it's a balance between tropical beats and haunting melodies. "Zombie Parade" is a sophisticated pronunciation of urgent terror, but "Make Love On the Wing" is the melancholic hero of the movie, the soundtrack, and my Octobers.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (Soundtrack) Various Artists (1986)
It's totally a Summer movie, but the soundtrack (one of the best ever compiled) is a Punk/New Wave/Rockabilly rollercoaster in a demented carnival of blood & guts. I'd list them all, but "Goo Goo Muck" by The Cramps, "White Night" by Torch Song, "Over Your Shoulder" by Concrete Blonde, and not one but two songs by Timbuk3 all add up to a wall of sound that could've only come from one bitchin' movie.
Music is my life!

Real Gone Tom Waits (2004)
Not all of my Shocktober sounds are precooked and microwaved - I do have some imagination.
Tom's always spooky, and "Dead and Lovely" and "Circus" are easy targets -- but way more than those, "Hoist That Rag" feels like early evening trick-or-treatings on an unusually mild Halloween. Also, "Don't Go Into That Barn" could be the soundtrack of an army of rotting or demonic somethings trying to get into your boarded-up dwelling.

SOUNDS OF THE SEASON - Summer

Welp! This is the one you've all been waiting for-- er, I've been waiting for. You'll take what I give you and like it.
Not that I've had to inflate the lists for previous seasons, but this one took some sweaty concentration, and many sacrifices were made. May they rock in peace.
Winters generally last about 18 months around these parts, so when it's time to switch over to sultry synths and headbangin' bliss, there's not a minute to waste. Everything's got bigger tits when the sun starts to burn, but to sample this lineup outta season would be a gross miscarriage of the art of music appreciation.
I could do a list of Summer Songs that would go on for days, but the following accomplishments are packaged heatwaves from end to end: sometimes by design, sometimes because I say so.
Be hot, listen, send nudes.

- Paul

Welcome to the Real World Mr. Mister (1985)
"Broken Wings" is my favorite song - if for no other reason (there really is no other reason) than it sounds like Summertime. And while no other tracks on the album reach this level of synth/bass euphoria, the Misters hold fast on rockin' guitars and sunny delights. "Kyrie" and "Is It Love" are the headbangin' hits, but "Run to Her" is the other moody masterpiece that keeps this bubblegum soft & chewy without losing its flavor.

An Innocent Man Billy Joel (1983)
My aunt used to do housework in the summer with this album when it was new-ish. So there's that.
This 1980s New York pop symphony about 1950s Motown is a love letter to dancing, dating, gambling, and romancing: stuff like "Keeping the Faith" and "The Longest Time" call attention to it as nostalgia, while "Uptown Girl" and "Tell Her About It" place you square in the Burroughs - playin' stickball, eatin' dogs, whistlin' at broads.

Tres Hombres ZZ Top (1973)
No ZZ Top record doesn't blast you in the face with a solar flare, but Tres Hombres may be the most relaxed, dry, Southwestern heat in their catalogue. Sloppy chili & warm brew saturate songs like "Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers" and "Waitin' For the Bus." And if you catch yourself listening to "La Grange," you'd better be in a bar, on a bike, or getting laid (or all three) -- don't lemme catch you in your Kia Sorento on your way to Whole Foods, pendejo.

Blizzard of Ozz Ozzy Osbourne (1980)
Summers at the beach, the amusement park, the arcade -- my entire life, the soundtrack to outdoor entertainment has been Ozzy - especially "Crazy Train" and "Mr. Crowley." It was so ingrained that I eventually bought the album at the beach, so that deep cuts like "Goodbye to Romance" and "No Bone Movies" became the sound of off-hours leisure.
All aboard!

Beverly Hills Cop II (Soundtrack) Various Artists (1987)
One of the greatest soundtracks ever compiled, fer sure, but it may be the only album of various artists that maintains a ridiculously consistent vibe throughout - take your pick: "Love/Hate" by Pebbles, "Better Way" by James Ingram, "Be There" by Pointer Sisters, "Shakedown" by Bob Seger -- all excellent mood-setters for high-speed cement truck chases, volleyball at the Playboy Mansion, solving the Alphabet Crimes, or just watching titty movies on a poolside TV.

Flaming Pie Paul McCartney (1997)
Released in June on the 30th anniversary of Sgt. Pepper's release -- and so, in my very condensed world, '97 was my summer of love, and this was the perfect soundtrack to it.
The guy's written some of the best love songs around, but this is a stripped, raw celebration of the union of two soulmates, and it smells like a sunset.
Dark jams like "Souvenir" and "The World Tonight" are strong enough for any season, but sermons like "Somedays" and "Heaven on a Sunday" are like a tribute to life - and that's what the whole season is all about.

Night Time, My Time Sky Ferreira (2013)
Like any time of year, Summer can be brutal. Unkind. Some would even say "cruel." Well, there's medicine for that, too! "I Blame Myself" and "Nobody Asked Me (If I Was Okay)" won't exactly cure the summertime blues, but, as they also say, it's easier to have these songs around.
But it's not all a gloomy Sky - "24 Hours" is like a diary entry detailing all the events leading up to a Manic Monday (and told in the same style).

Freddy's Greatest Hits The Elm Street Group (1987)
You can't stay home the whole time watching Freddy. But when life summons you out of the boiler room and into the fire, you can take Freddy with you!
Behold, one of the shiniest & most enjoyable product tie-ins of the 1980s... Let that sentence sink in.
Sure, Fred Krueger woulda been better suited to a metal album than a handful of underproduced golden oldie covers, but the original stuff - "Don't Sleep," "Dance, or Else," and especially the moody instrumental "Elm Street Dreams" absolutely fucking nail the aura of what Elm Street means to me.

Fun In Space Roger Taylor (1981)
On my list of Top 10 Queen songs, Roger Taylor is responsible for writing roughly 8-10 of them. So this, his first solo album, felt like an open invitation to me to get crazy. (Spin "Let's Get Crazy".)
The track list is populated with his usual flair for storytelling - usually with 80s post-Star Wars fascination with Science Fiction ("Future Management," "Magic is Loose"), all with old (and modern times) rock 'n roll.
This shoulda been the soundtrack to Flash Gordon.

Rock 'n Soul Part 1 Daryl Hall & John Oates (1983)
Yeah, yeah, it's a 'greatest hits,' I know. But it's way too pristine to be ignored. Besides, it's the first time "Say It Isn't So" appeared on a full-length album, so it's not a total cheat.
It's almost got everything: "Kiss On My List" and "Private Eyes" for the boardwalk days, and "I Can't Go For That" and "Maneater" for those 90mph nights.
All the blue-eyed soul you'd ever need to dance, sweat, and make-a your dreams come true.

SOUNDS OF THE SEASON - Spring

Spring is a time of impatience and fatigue; in New England, everything is still cold and colorless, the threat of snow still echoes in the clouds, and all that died continues to be dead.
Diet Winter.
Though there is mild anticipation while I'm intellectually aware that change will occur - I just can't see it, feel it, smell it, and God knows I can't listen to it.
It's troubling, because like most of the movies I wanna watch, the music I wanna listen to burns better with seasonal warmth.
No matter. After however many years I've been alive, I've managed to compile a mixtape to help me cross that finish line into the picnic days.

- Paul

Exile On Main St. The Rolling Stones (1972)
The thing about the Stones is that their entire catalogue works in any season - and I can't think of any other band or artist of which this is so. But I like Exile in the springtime, because it's dark and dreary at times ("Ventilator Blues," "Stop Breaking Down") for those dark and dreary days, and it's also sweet & sour ("Let It Loose," "Shine a Light") for when the clouds decide to part at the mercy of the Good Lord.
No season is safe from the blues.

New Morning Bob Dylan (1970)
The album's title is already synonymous with rejuvenation/rebirth/all that crap, and the title track itself conjures up sweeping aerial shots of sunny farmland and green trees - for me, at least. And when the weather doesn't cooperate, "Sign on the Window" is a bit of misery to keep you company. But nothing says 'cold rain' like "Three Angels" - the standout track of the album, and Top 3 Dylan for me.

Kid A Radiohead (2000)
The thing with Radiohead is that they're not explicit with the moods they put out, so wherever and whenever it catches you, their abstraction cemented as your reality. This album was in the air while I was a senior in high school - the year after Columbine went down - so stuff like "Everything In Its Right Place" and "Idioteque" were the perfect, nonsensical, ironic soundtrack for the disorienting fear and loathing that had been gripping my academic career ever since my classmates and I became known nationwide as Idiots and Criminals in the Making. Better put: "Morning Bell" makes me think of automatic lawn sprinklers in front of white suburban homes, watering grass in the middle of an April rainstorm.

The Last of the Mohicans (Soundtrack) Trevor Jones and Randy Edelman (1992)
Massachusetts is rich with American history - any given moment of any given day is the anniversary of something - but April is a big one, as the 19th marked the start of the Revolution in 1775. And even still there has yet to be a more-than-adequate movie depicting the events of that day. And so, as a kid, I'd listen to this score and imagine my own Revolutionary War film. Even though Mohicans takes place roughly 20 years prior (and during an entirely different conflict), Trevor Jones' bombastic overture is so effectively moving and just feels indicative of the of the 18th century, while "Promentory" is so fucking sinister that you just thirst for violence of any kind in any era.

Magical Mystery Tour The Beatles (1967)
The film is on my Easter movie list and so its unofficial soundtrack is understandably on this list - really for all the same reasons.

Additionally, if you've ever listened to "Flying" or "Blue Jay Way" while driving through country backroads at 3am in April, you'd never really hear this band the same way again...

The Singles: 1969-1981 The Carpenters (2000)
"Rainy Days and Mondays," sure. "Top of the World," maybe.
Inconsistently consistent. Approachable warmth with a cold shoulder. Politely abrasive. Am I describing Springtime or the AM gold of Karen and Richard Carpenter? You don't even know.
I try to lay off "greatest hits" albums (on these lists, and in life) but this tracklist packs a polite wallop of easy listening punch.

Elephant The White Stripes (2003)
This is an easy one - it was released at the beginning of April in '03, and at the front-end of my own brief but bitter affair with this band, so I purchased it day-of.
This is one of those all killer/no filler-type albums, but "Black Math" and "Ball and Biscuit" will forever be a Pavlovian signal to roll down the windows and bring in the fresh air.

Post Card Mary Hopkin (1969)
If your vision of Spring is green fields and warm sun and tulips and bunnies and birds singing while bees are tryin' to have sex with them, then this is your seasonal soundtrack album right here: calendar photography and Easter decor come to life via some gentle Welsh folk rock. Tracks like "Happiness Runs" and "The Puppy Song" bring in these idealistic visions like a breeze through your hair - and not always just with lyrics; Ms. Hopkin's falsettos and the bright melodies could result in the urge to frolic in the dewey meadows.
Though keep an ear out for her surprisingly ominous cover of "There's No Business Like Show Business" - oozing with enough irony that it should be featured in one of these celebrity biopics y'all love so much.

Crowded House Crowded House (1986)
One of the sweetest and most welcome Springs in my life came at the end of my college internship (which, all job-related hardships aside, also put the cap on a biblically brutal winter). iTunes 80s radio station accompanied me throughout that four-month mental and physical endurance test, and plenty of choice cuts from this record often dulled (and sometimes punctuated) my strife. A thing like "Don't Dream It's Over" is a good shoulder to cry on, but I still remember when the clouds of self pity lifted on the first warm day of the season - set to the tune of "Something So Strong," pouring out of the freshly rolled-down windows of the company's Beamer and echoing throughout Boylston St., Boston.

Mellow Gold Beck (1994)
The music video for "Loser" was set on 'repeat' on MTV in the Spring of '94, and in my mind that spell coincided with the Leominster Men's Softball teams having Spring Training in Bennett Field, behind my house.
Good enough, but then many Springs later I bought the album, and favorites like "Soul Suckin' Jerk" and "Pay No Mind" officially became like giant dildos crashing that warm, springtide sun.

SOUNDS OF THE SEASON - Winter

Music is seasonal; I'm not the first to establish this approach - Vivaldi nailed that down 300 years ago. But what actually marries these pieces to a specific time of year is as subjective and abstract as the art form itself: there's no right or wrong, and sometimes no rhyme or reason.

Winter is the most challenging playlist to compile - probably because this time of year can be so divisive in its simultaneous beauty and brutality.
What I'm drawn to is stuff that compliments my environment, as opposed to being contrary to it. The soundtrack should serve the story as much as the other way around.
For one reason or another, here are 10 of my go-to albums that get me through the darkness.

- Paul

Blue Joni Mitchell (1971)
Acoustic dots & dashes sound as much like falling snow as Joni's falsetto meanderings. Her depictions of bohemian lifestyles and complicated romances paint varying concepts of intimacy and self-involvement - good stuff for tryin' to keep warm.
The album also boasts a Christmas song ("River") and even her ode to warm weather ("California") plays out more like long-distance yearning.

In Through the Out Door Led Zeppelin (1979)
For a band saturated in high blood pressure boogie and growling humidity, this - their final album - feels less bombastic and more melancholic in places (even when they're in your face).
There's a newfound sincerity in stuff like "In the Evening" and "I'm Gonna Crawl" that was always just-about-absent from everything that came before. In other words, they matured from "Whole Lotta Love" to "All My Love."

INLAND EMPIRE (Soundtrack) Various Artists (2006)
Nothing says 'bleak' like some sorta inter-dimensional Polish winter nighttime.
It's an eclectic mosaic of sounds that is uniformly unsettling (or, if you're like me, comforting): long intervals of spooky drones, ominous strings, and lonely piano notes are interrupted by splashes of pop music (Beck, Little Eva), jazz (Dave Brubeck), and whatever genre you put Penderecki under.
The real standouts are Lynch's "Ghost of Love" and Chrysta Bell's "Polish Poem" - both add extra chills as you're sitting in your car waiting for the heat to kick on.

Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers, and Bastards Tom Waits (2006)
Spanning three albums and two decades, a marathon of Tom is exactly the smoky, boozy, gravely shades of blue, brown, and gray you'd expect: political commentary ("Road to Peace"), strip club anthems ("LowDown"), psychedelic r&b ("Dog Door"), and disjointed anecdotes ("The Pontiac") all barely amount to just one coffin nail to keep under your hat for luck.

My Generation The Who (1965)
Alone in your room with some brandy & uppers, protected from the harsh elements of the season and ensconced in the harsh reality of existence is how to indulge in Maximum R&B, and these four mods deliver it via "Out in the Street," "The Kids Are Alright," "The Good's Gone," et al.
Smash some stuff.

News of the World Queen (1977)
If you've ever seen the music videos for "We Will Rock You" or "Spread Your Wings," you'll always feel a bit of bitter cold in your shoes whenever you hear them.
Stuff like "Sheer Heart Attack" and "Fight From the Inside" gratify your punk/metal adolescent despair, while "My Melancholy Blues" gratifies your regular, everyday despair.

Spirit In the Room Tom Jones (2012)
If the dreary grayness is your focus of the solstice, then you could do worse than this assortment of bluesy covers from sexiest lounge singer from Vegas to South Wales.
His versions of "Tower of Song" and "Bad as Me" don't embellish much from the originals, but his trademark swagger & grumble do dispense some doom on "Soul of a Man" and "Just Dropped In."

Demolition Girlschool (1980)
If your winters consist of as much snow as we get here in the northeastern U.S., you may be aware that navigating a vehicle is like roaming a frozen tundra in some post-apocalyptic, Mad Max-esque terrain. In this event, you need a soundtrack to give you confidence in the road warrior that you are.
Behold, "Midnight Ride," "Race With the Devil," and especially "Breakdown" will give you the guitar-rock energy you need to get where you're going, or die trying.

Fleetwood Mac Fleetwood Mac (1975)
Need a break from Rumours? Give this lighter but equally good singer/songwriter orgy a spin. The SoCal sound they became best known for once the new lineup was established hadn't entirely parted the clouds yet here, and while tracks like "World Turning" and "Monday Morning" are sunny, it's a cold sunshine. Actually, that applies to the whole album - just ask Rhiannon.

The Long Run Eagles (1979)
Another decidedly warm-weather band, though this - their sorta final album - is full of less laid back moods and more sinister tones like "The Disco Strangler" and "Those Shoes." More than that is if you've ever spent a cold night in a dive bar or pool hall, you should already know all the words to "Heartache Tonight."