The Best Winter Albums For Beating (Or Embracing) the Cold
This is a chilly album. Though it contains a lot of Blake’s voice, it has less of the singer-songwriterly warmth of his later records, and instead leans more towards the electronic experimentation of his early EPs. It’s all the better for it: the vocal manipulation, looping and layering on “The Wilhelm Scream,” “I Never Learnt to Share” and many other tracks is quietly compelling; the titanic sub-bass under the vocals and piano of “Limit to Your Love” is a revelation. It’s still Blake’s finest piece of work.
Kanye West, 808s & Heartbreak (2008)
Every year that goes by emphasises how 808s & Heartbreak, a divisive album upon release, was a landmark in 21st-century rap and popular music in general. Traumatized by the death of his mother and a split with his then-fiancé, Kanye West didn’t want to rap, so he booted up Autotune and made some melodic electro-pop. Modern Autotuned sad-boy rap wouldn’t exist without 808s & Heartbreak, but even putting that impact aside it’s compelling, in a distinctly anguished, heart-stricken way. One of the songs being called “Coldest Winter” gives you a sense of its seasonal appropriateness.
Yung Lean, Stranger (2017)
