I try to be one with nature. I don’t mean that in a literal sense. If things go correctly, I will never go camping again. I mean that my music taste is influenced by the seasons. Daylight savings time has ended and winter is upon us. It’ll be dark by the time I leave work which means I will go straight home, change into something uncool and pretend I have a good reason to be moody. This is a great time of year.

For most of the year, my favorite songs are upbeat and generally optimistic. They could be about failed relationships, but anything over 85bpms I can play off as a happy song. In the warmer months, if you’re a sad dude shuffling your feet as you wimper through life, you’re a pathetic sack. Cheer up man, we’re at a bar. But when daylight savings time ends, everything changes. It’s okay to be a sad dude. It’s more than okay; it’s encouraged, it’s in. Sad is the new swag. It’s mad tight to be alone at a coffee shop with a half-eaten scone just staring blankly at an empty google doc. That’s next-level misery bro. That’s Thoreau-esque solitude. Solute.

With that said, I want to highlight some of the songs that came out this year in the warm, happy months that should have come out in the winter so sad dudes around the world could bask in their eternal pessimism and write down the lyrics in a black moleskin notebook in the middle seat on a flight to Minneapolis. I had to put these songs on layaway until the time was right.

Majical Cloudz- Impersonator

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9M7t1DDrMVk&w=853&h=480]

Sampha – Can’t Get Close

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHxxk5_lakQ&w=640&h=480]

Volcano Choir – Comrade

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4dZbJHT7_4&w=853&h=480]

Blue Hawaii – Try to be

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pfsw3_karH8&w=853&h=480]

Majical Cloudz – Bugs don’t Buzz

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HjEhJJyweM&w=640&h=480]