As a self-proclaimed proponent of hygge, the Danish embrace of coziness, this time of year is my favorite. Whether it’s snowing or raining outside your window, this is the season for bundling up under a lavish blanket, lighting a pine-scented candle, and indulging in some good old-fashioned yearning. Something about the gloomy vibes inspire me to get all moody and existential. Even as I type this, looking out on a rare rainy day in Los Angeles, I can see fog enveloping the hills, sparking fantasies of living in a cabin in the woods where I have nothing to do except read and listen to soft contemplative tunes. The cozy queer wintertime playlist below, which I made with contributions from Them staffers James Factora and Wesley Johnson, provides the perfect soundtrack for your own window-gazing. Press play, slow down, snuggle up, and sip some chamomile tea. Whatever the temperature is outside, it’s warm in here.
Kicking off our chilly season playlist is Big Thief lead vocalist Adrianne Lenker’s latest single “Sadness as a Gift” off of her upcoming solo album Bright Future. The track finds Lenker leaning into a sumptuous Americana sound, pairing mournful lyrics about fireflies with a fiddle and some gently strummed acoustic guitar. Alternative folk singer-songwriter Anjimile also sings about lightning bugs on their Giver Taker track “Your Tree.” The song is a bittersweet meditation on the need for winter’s hibernation for life to reemerge in the spring. The track's ending refrain (“nothing dies”) is a kind reminder that however stark things might look in these barren months, winter is not a death but a calm pause until the sun warms us again.
But sometimes words alone can’t capture the feeling of winter’s sweet embrace. The ambient artists on our playlist perfectly capture that ineffable feeling with their dreamy instrumental arrangements. Ana Roxanne’s “Suite Pour L’invisible” is an introspective track featuring gorgeous vocalizations over resonant and chiming keyboard tones that conjure images of shattering snowflakes. “June 9th Nighttime,” is the instrumental opening track off of the New York indie folk band Florist’s self titled 2022 album, perfectly mixing woozy guitar loops with distant cricket sounds in a most bittersweet way.
You may be a bit surprised to find a cover of Cher’s queer club classic “Believe” on this cottage-core selection of tracks, but Norwegian American singer songwriter Okay Kaya’s stripped-down rendition of the pop banger is a stroke of genius. Replacing a heavy dance beat with a minimal composition of washed out ambient synths is a change that allows Kaya’s soulful vocals to take center stage, highlighting the more melancholic notes of Cher’s original.
For these tracks more please check out our cozy queer playlist below.
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