Dartmouth Soundoff: Winter Study Playlist
Week seven of term, and we’re all so deep into study mode that Winter Carnival seems like nothing more than a fleeting memory that is becoming increasingly buried under the carnage of midterms, readings, labs and papers. Everyone is over the cold weather and short days, and spring seems impossibly far away. While we may not have much time for anything outside of schoolwork or any desire for anything other than centrally heated buildings, we can always listen to music during this period when we see more of the library than our beds.
Time for my termly study playlist, friends. Or you can read on if you’re just in need of some extra procrastinating material. Either way, you’re expanding your horizons.
“The Ash & Clay” – The Milk Carton Kids
I mentioned The Milk Carton Kids and this album a few terms ago, and their music is still worth a listen. I find in their sound something very Middle-America-esque, and “The Ash & Clay” is a prime example.
“To Whom It May Concern” – The Civil Wars
Four-time Grammy winners (including one for “Barton Hollow,” where this song appears), Joy Williams and John Paul White make up The Civil Wars and have been on hiatus since 2012. Both are married (not to each other) with children, but after listening to this song, you can imagine what’s been going around the rumor mill about their relationship.
“Sinner’s Sonnet” – Andrew Whitman
The melody is reminiscent (almost to the point of controversy) of Bright Eyes’ “Land Locked Blues,” but the line moves faster, and there is something gentler about Whitman’s voice over a ukulele.
“Madison House” – Chris Bathgate
Armed with nothing but a mandolin and an upright bass, Chris Bathgate leaves his voice fully exposed as he harmonizes over himself.
“Powerlines” – The Western States Motel
It’s interesting to compare how you receive a song when you later discover that it was released when you were in middle school. This realization places the sound in a whole new context Just stay away from its music video – you don’t want to ruin a good thing.
“Winter Song” – The Head and the Heart
The variety of voices—both male and female— in this song creates a very balanced structure in the vocals, and makes it perfect material for an a capella cover.
“Crosses” – Jose Gonzalez
It’s no secret that I’m a Jose Gonzalez fan, and his music is often a study session staple. “Crosses” exemplifies his trademark sound, which is almost saturated with syncopation and cerebral guitar lines.
“Atlas Hands” – Benjamin Francis Leftwich
Admittedly, much of Leftwich’s music sounds very similar, with its breathy vocals and folky acoustic guitar, but that just means you could literally listen to his entire album, “Last Smoke Before the Snowstorm,” during a night in the 1902 Room.
“White Daisy Passing” – Rocky Votolado
I was addicted to this song on and off throughout sophomore year. Nostalgia is rarely invoked as perfectly in a song as when Votolado croons “All those evenings on the back deck of our first apartment / They meant everything but the wind just carried ’em off.”
“On Top of the World” – Mindy Smith, Inland Sky
A romantic folk-duet, Smith and Sky complement each other well and harmonize throughout the song. They don’t stay perfectly parallel, though – Smith at times lets her voice drift higher, and the recording shows how organically the two voices interact.
“Los Angeles” – Peter Bradley Adams
I have an entire Pandora station dedicated to Birmingham-based Peter Bradley Adams, and like Gonzalez, Adams is almost always part of my study playlist. If you’re still searching for lib music after this playlist is over, just listen to his entire discography.
“Seagull” – Saturday Sun
There’s a nice secondary melody in this guitar line, when lead singer Alex Hedley’s expressive vocals give the feeling that he’s projecting from a distance, at times floating up to a falsetto.
“The Stable Song” – Gregory Alan Isakov
As Isakov sings about the songwriting process, listeners might hear the parallels in his words to those of one struggling to find God and eventually humbling himself before a higher power. Through this, we come to see how spiritual songwriting can be.
“Birds and Stars” – Elephant Revival
In contrast to the easy-melody songs on this list, “Birds and Stars” has something slightly frantic and slightly melancholy about it. The track climaxes in the last 30 seconds, when the strings are sent into a frenzy.
“Medicine” – Daughter
The only true piano ballad on this list, “Medicine” can be soothing when listened to casually — and chilling when you actually follow its lyrics.