For songwriters, poets, and authors, winter is pretty much a readymade metaphor for the final stages of a doomed relationship. Spring is renewal. Summer is love. Fall is nostalgia. Winter is breaking up.
Sure, there’s a lot to like about winter, but for artists looking for a bit of break-up catharsis and frigid symbolism, winter has it all. And few bands have made more comprehensive use of winter as a tool for exploring the pain of a break-up than Daughter did in this song. The opening lines alone are enough to make you feel winter’s loveless chill:
Drifting apart like two sheets of ice, my love
Frozen hearts growing colder with time
There’s no heat from our mouths
Please take me back to my refuge
And it only gets colder from there. So hunker down, grab a scarf, heat up some chicken soup and enjoy Daughter’s haunting take on the cruelest season.
What makes this a beautiful song:
1. The heavy reverb on the guitars gives the impression of hard surfaces. Like it was recorded in an ice cave.
2. The cracking percussion at 1:14.
3. Despite the multiple references to cold, singer Elena Tonra’s voice still manages to come off as warm, which gives the song the heart it needs to evoke sympathy.
Recommended listening activity:
Running your hand down a line of icicles and watching them fall into the snow.