nah pop, no style

If you’re like me, and god save you if you are, you have a loose yearly schedule of when certain albums are really good. You might like those albums to some extent year-round, but they’re only must-listens (or in some cases only really listenable at all) at a certain point in the year, in certain weather. Here are a few things that I’m throwing on or planning to throw on now that it’s started snowing:

• Alice Coltrane – Journey in Satchidinanda. Beautiful, lazy, eastern-vibe jazz from a wonderful harp lady. The walking bass lines trudge along like you in your mukluks, the harp and tambura swirl like swirly snow eddies. Occasional jingle bells surely weren’t meant to remind you of the North Pole, but hell if they don’t.
• Galaxie 500 – On Fire. Besides the obvious implications of the track “Snowstorm,” this entire album speaks to the bleakness of winter and the aimless wandering we do therein. When will you come home? Why’s everybody look so strange? It’s time to leave the planet. Etc. etc. Although of course, some have differing (and astute) opinions as to the meaning of it all (not that we can’t agree, really — our takes on the album can definitely co-exist).
• Tara Jane O’Neil: In Circles. A late fall/early winter album for me, sort of marking the coming of the cold. Drippy delay on the guitar and vocals makes for a sleepy, chilly sound, like when you can barely get out of bed, or off the couch.
• Simon & Garfunkel: The Essential Simon & Garfunkel. Not all wintry songs, but there definitely are some in here, and the vibe of S&G on the whole strikes a chilly chord with me.
• John Cale: Paris 1919. It’s an eclectic record, but kicking off with “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” doesn’t hurt it as a winter album, and on the whole, its muted pop sounds do the job on a snow-showery day.
• Sigur Ros: Takk. This one actually has to wait until the snow is piling up for me to bring it out: “Glosoli” is, to me, the very soundtrack of heading out into the kind of snow that blankets the earth and renders all colors grayscale.

Feel free to expound upon any contenders you’ve got.