One night I was looking for the song "Cold" by The Cure on my computer. I
typed the word “cold” into the search bar on Windows Media Player, and it came
up with a list of songs that had the word “cold” somewhere in the title. I
started listening to the list, and realized a lot of the songs went well
together. Each has a unique way of using and defining the concept of cold. I
then started a playlist and added songs that use the word “cold” in their
lyrics somewhere too. I probably should have been doing something more productive
with my time, but, that’s how the idea for this mix came about, as well as
others I plan on making centered around other concepts. I may do an extended
cassette version of the mix later on, but for now, it’s a CD mix.
The Cure – Cold
“I
was cold as I mouthed the words, and crawled across the mirror. I wait, await
the next breath, your name like ice, into my heart.”
This song is darkly beautiful. As
far as my tastes in music goes I prefer The Cure’s darker albums, such as Pornography
and Disintegration. Their pop music is okay, but a bit more shallow, in
a way. "Cold" in this song is more of a feeling, an emotion, than literal cold.
Perhaps it’s a song of lost love. The lyrics are hard to comprehend, but I
think that’s what it’s about. What would it take for someone’s name to be like ice into your
heart? Like being stabbed in the heart with an icicle? If even the mere mention of a name brings
such an association to mind you’d have to have very strong feelings, either
negative or tragic. Perhaps of a lover that left you or died. Or perhaps not of
a lover at all, I could be way off. The singer doesn’t have to be singing about
a woman, or even a person.
I can’t find the lyrics to this one
anywhere, and since the title is in Spanish, I probably wouldn’t understand
them either. But this is a very atmospheric track, the last one on Obscura
Undead’s UnObscured 2019 compilation, which I’ve discussed numerous times already.
The description that came with the digital album suggests this song wouldn’t be
out of place in a fog-shrouded cemetery, and I have to agree. Although the
image that I get listening to this song is a desolate, frozen tundra, lit only
by moonlight, whipped by freezing winds. It continues the energy of the
previous track.
Coldwave Kids (South Park Goth
Song Cover) – Accumortis
This song may be cheating, because it has no lyrics, and “coldwave” refers to the musical genre. But it has the secret word in the title!
"It's the secret word of the day! AAAAHHHHH! HA-HA!!"
This was made by the Youtube user Accumortis,
and is a cover of the song that the goth kids from South Park listen to.
However, let us consider for a moment why the genre of coldwave has that name.
The genre was apparently first applied to Kraftwerk, yet another of the dozens
of genres they helped launch, and came to refer to music which uses minimal
synth,usually with sparse, monotone vocals. Listening to music in this genre,
for some reason I do feel a certain coldness. A robotic, emotionless type of
coldness, perhaps. I can’t properly articulate why coldwave in general, and
this song in particular, elicits thoughts of coldness. The song makes me think
of a clear, starry winter night. It also makes me ponder why we associate
coldness with the things that we do. We associate it with emotionlessness, to
be unkind, unforgiving, even cruelty. And we associate warmth with kindness and
love. It’s strange if you think about it.
Mortiis – Marshland
“I’m
stuck and cold, I’m stuck and cold in Marshland. I’m stuck and cold where life
is plentiful but nothing lives.”
Perhaps the marshlands of Norway
where Mortiis is from get cold. They’re not cold in Florida or California,
really, which are the only marshlands I’ve ever been to. I’ve written about this song on this blog before and dissected its lyrics. The use of the word
“cold” in this song goes along with what I’ve mentioned; emotionless,
lifelessness, cruelty. The chorus goes on to talk about the machine”, which
doesn’t care what you think or feel and will keep moving on if you die. To me,
the machine represents our society, where materialism is valued over people.
Thus, though the word “cold” only plays a minor role lyrically, the
associations that it brings permeate throughout the whole song.
And One – Years
“Years
are getting colder, just memories left behind.”
This is another song I’ve previously discussed. Lyrically the song doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense, but I
like this particular line. It reminds me of becoming more jaded and cynical,
i.e. “colder”, as the years go on and you lose more and more of your innocence.
Cold here can mean jaded, depressed, bitter, hardened, as the dreams you had
when you were young seem more and more unattainable as soon as you start to
grasp the cold reality of how the world works.
Ministry – Cold Life
“Earth
gets colder every day, if scientists could have their way, they’d study us from
far away and watch as people’s minds decay.”
An early Ministry track from their
synthpop days (but it never made it on With Sympathy, so Al Jourgensen can't really claim the record companies forced him to make it), although this one has more of a funk sound to it, like early Red Hot Chili Peppers. The use of “cold” here is much as I said in the previous song. I
don’t know if I agree with him on scientists. Maybe some scientists are that
“cold” and detached from sentiment. The ones who do animal testing probably
are. The song is about a cold, pessimistic outlook on life, and the world.
Later in the song we have lyrics such as “Earth is such a filthy place and
humans such an awful race.” In actuality the world is overall becoming warmer
every day due to rampant climate change that’s going to doom us all pretty
soon, but metaphorically, I think it is becoming a colder place as well. Of
course, that said, the world has always been a harsh place, and humans have
always been an awful race. The “good old days” are an illusion. The world is a
colder place for those of us entering adulthood.
Bella Morte – Break this Cold
“Walk
this winter mile, under the snow, knowing the sun won’t ever break this cold.”
At long last, a more literal meaning
of the world “cold”. Days like this are sadly very rare where I live, in
Florida. But this song is about those winter days where it’s sunny, but
paradoxically, still bitter cold. Not even the sun is enough to warm the day. I
sometimes wish I lived in an area where it snowed. But everyone I talk to who
does seems to hate it. Yet snow gets romanticized every year around December
even in areas where it never snows. When I lived in California, in the San
Francisco Bay Area, everyone would get so excited when little Mt. Diablo (just
under 4,000 feet high) got snow. In Florida people make “sandmen” instead of
snowmen. The bigger cities in both states will often have parades or events
where fake snow is generated from machines. Ice skating rinks can be found in
both states, even in the town which I find myself in now, Rockledge. Snow is
one of those things. Those who don’t have it, want it. Those who get it, don’t
want it. As for the song, it’s about a winter cold that defies even the sun. A
cold that I miss and long for. Especially when it gets over 80 degrees
Fahrenheit in December here in Florida.
Hante – In Cold Water
“And
I’m scared I won’t survive tomorrow if I let myself sink deeper. You can’t go
back from the abyss of sorrow. How could I keep breathing in cold water?”
Hante is a coldwave band (insert Pee
Wee Herman scream here) from France, that I’ve been a fan of for a couple years
now, ever since I heard the song “Empty Space”. In the lyrics to this song, the
singer is walking along the beach and is drawn toward the ocean, walking deep
into the cold waters, and wondering how deep they can go before they drown. I
think the “cold water” here is a metaphor for depression, the clue being the
reference to the abyss of sorrow. How deep can they sink and still survive? As
someone with depression, I definitely relate. It can give you a sinking,
drowning feeling when it becomes overwhelming. The word “cold” isn’t overall
very important to the lyrics as a whole; in fact, it may only be there to make
the number of syllables add up. But its inclusion does bring with it its own
implications. She could have substituted “warm”, “blue”, or “deep”, but the
song writer chose “cold” for a reason. Likely because of its nonliteral
interpretations, all of which I’ve mentioned.
Le Matos – Cold Summer
“In
the forest, why does it feel so cold? Feels so cold in the summer. In the
forest, I’m growing cold, feels so cold in the summer.”
Having it be cold outside in the
summer sounds amazing. Especially in Florida. The only places I’ve been where
it can get cold in the summer are Monterey, California, Vanadzor, Armenia (as
well as anywhere on around Lake Sevan), and maybe up in the mountains anywhere.
All places I wish I lived. Anyway, as for the song lyrics; no one expects it to
be cold in the summer. It doesn’t sound like the singer is happy that it’s cold
(like I would be). So here, cold symbolizes an unexpected disappointment. If
taken literally, maybe this song is about a summer camping trip that went awry
due to unexpected weather. But if you look into the alternate implications
which the word ”cold” has in the English language, you can make your own
metaphorical interpretations from there. Perhaps this is a metaphor for being
treated “coldly” by a loved one from whom you expected “warmth”, or affection.
It could mean any number of things.
Hoffen – Cold Tears of an Angel
“Cold
tears of an angel, are devastated with treason and lies.”
This one isn’t the easiest song to
interpret, but I found the full lyrics on Hoffen’s Bandcamp page. Tears are
generally warm, coming from the body which is a steady 98 degrees Fahrenheit.
Perhaps angels are different? It’s a song about being betrayed by someone, and
if angels are generally seen as pure and innocent (though they aren’t always in
many myths), the lyrics give the sense of a loss of innocence. The betrayal of
someone who is not used to shedding tears. Someone who is now “cold” on the
inside, and therefore so are their tears.
Paula Abdul – Cold-Hearted
“He’s
a cold-hearted snake, look into his eyes. Uh-oh, he’s been telling lies.”
Oh goodie, time to admit to a guilty
pleasure. I spent much of my early childhood watching MTV in the late 1980’s
and early 1990’s, where I inevitably became a fan of Paula Abdul. She was
probably my first crush. I never stopped liking her music, even after I got
into metal and then goth music. Pop music in the 1980’s is still way more
tolerable than pop music from the late 1990’s onward. Singers still had to have
some degree of musical talent back then. In any case, the usage of the word
“cold” in this song is related to its use in the previous song. The singer is
warning others about their ex-lover who cheated on them. To be “cold-hearted”,
by this song’s definition and in the general sense of the idiom, is to have the
ability to betray the love and trust of someone who loves you without any
remorse. I’ll be doing another mix like this with the word “heart”, where I can
discuss the implications of that word in its literal and metaphorical senses.
New Order – Blue Monday
“Tell
me how does it feel, when your heart grows cold?”
People have analyzed the meaning of
this well-known song already in the past. It seems to be about being in some
kind of a relationship (whether romantic or not isn’t stated, but somewhat
implied) with someone who is manipulative and controlling. This made it a very
good break-up song for me with my first girlfriend. Ah, fun times. The last
line in the song is the one above. Again, we have the “cold-hearted” idiom,
which can only be taken metaphorically. The person being sung about in the song
is unfeeling and unsympathetic, and the narrator wonders how it feels to become
that way, to no longer care about others. This is what it means to be cold, or
cold-hearted.
Kamelot – On the Coldest Winter
Night
“On
the coldest winter night, this moment is our right.”
Let’s
look at a song that’s not about a failed romance now (well okay, the romance
does fail in a major way later in the album, which is a concept album based on
the story of Goethe’s Faust, but nevermind that). This song just makes
me feel all warm and toasty inside. It’s all about cozying up with your true
love on the coldest night of the year and having a moment of passion with them.
The world outside is cold, maybe in both the lyrical and metaphorical senses,
but love warms this couple in spite of all that. I’ve always loved this album, Epica.
I suppose Kamelot is a melodic power metal band, but you’d never be able to
tell with this song, which is mainly soft piano and vocals. If more people only
listened to this album it would be more popular.
Serj Tankian – Garun a
“My
sweetheart has become cold. Akh, I wish for my rival’s tongue to dry up.”
Serj Tankian covers an old Armenian
folk song popularized by Komitas Vardapet in this track. The full lyrics aren’t very long. It’s spring yet still snowy, the singer’s lover has ”become cold”, and
it seems to somehow be the singer’s rival’s fault (if the final line is
connected to the other two at all). I have an intermediate understanding of the
Armenian language, but I can’t say I know if the word for cold has the same
several meanings it has in English. The word specifically in this song is սառել, meaning “to become cold”, as the
act of becoming cold is it’s own one-word verb in the language (nifty, isn’t
it?) Has she become cold because the singer is in a love triangle with their
rival, and she’s choosing the rival over him? Or is she literally cold, perhaps
even dead, and the rival is to blame? I can’t really say for certain,
unfortunately. Wishing for someone’s tongue to dry up must be an old-world
curse, I take it. Maybe someone else knows the correct interpretation of this
song. I’ve heard renditions of this song that are upbeat, danceable even, but
this one sounds tragic and heart-wrenching. It’s a tear-jerker. I remember it
best because I listened to it on repeat on my last day in Armenia and moped because
I was leaving my beloved country. This song brings me back to that last day.
I’ll blog about that day on its anniversary this October.
Dishwalla
– Counting Blue Cars
“It’s
getting cold, picked up the pace. How our shoes, make hard noises in this
place.”
Following the sentimental
tear-jerker theme this mix is now on, we have this gem from my 1990’s
childhood. It’s hard to say what this song is really about when you look at the
lyrics. “Tell me all your thoughts on God, because I’d really like to meet
her.” Having God be referred to as a female is kind of interesting. Maybe the singer is Wiccan. Anyway, the word
“cold” isn’t doing a whole lot in this song. Perhaps if I find a song more
centered on cold I would eliminate this one from the list. Not that I don’t
like it, of course. It’s a song from when I was pure and innocent, before
Middle School destroyed it all. But yeah, if I make a mix of songs about God
I’ll have more to say about this.
Eisbrecher
– Eiskalt Erwischt
“You
smell me, you chase me, you have me, captured ice cold.”
And now for some German. We’re
kicking it up a notch now after the last several songs to a speedy industrial
metal song. Maybe I should have put more of a mid-level heavy song between this
one and the previous as more of a buffer. But, I consider this mix kind of a
work in progress anyway. The band, “Eisbrecher”, translates to “ice breaker”,
and the song roughly translates to “Captured Ice Cold”. Coldness is a common
theme in Eisbrecher’s songs, unsurprisingly. The band sounds a lot like
Rammstein to the untrained ear, making it even more amusing when he says “Du
has mich” several times throughout this song. The song is very carnal, about
being chased down and captured by your lover and enjoying it. But with lyrics
like “I tear the cold heart from your chest every night with lust”…yeah, maybe
it’s more than just sado-masochism. As long as it’s consensual, whatever floats
your boat I guess. I’m unsure if “eiskalt erwischt” is a common German idiom.
My last German class was a long time ago now. I’m better at Armenian at
this point. Maybe it means something akin to being “caught red-handed” in
English. That would be my guess. If true, that would be an altogether different
way to look at the word “cold”.
The
Kovenant – Through the Eyes of the Raven
“My
tears no longer turned to frost, my eyes they gleam no more. Triumphant pride
forever lost. King Winter, where’s thy cold?”
I’ve discussed at length
Covenant/The Kovenant’s debut album In Times Before the Light, an
important album of my formative years. This song is almost like a prayer, or a
summoning. A summoning of the cold of winter. Later on in the song the singer
even makes offerings (“Make me frozen cold as ice, I give to thee my blinded
eyes”). King Winter here is kind of a representation of winter, like a God of
Winter. This is sung by someone who misses winter and hates summer, but is also
steeped in dark fantasy. They want winter back. Their glory and pride depends
on it being winter again. At least they don’t live in Florida. I found this to
be a suitably grand finale to the mix. An ode to coldness and winter.
Honorable
mention:
Clan of Xymox – Under the Wire
“So
tired, so cold, as stone I’m told.”
Missing
the boat on the CD mix was “Under the Wire” by Clan of Xymox, because I only
realized after I’d burned the CD already that it had the word “cold” in it. It
will have to be on the cassette version, whenever I make it (I may wait until next winter). Or if I have to
remake the CD Mix (which is inevitable after a couple years when the CD
eventually gets too scratched up) I’ll put it on there, possibly instead of
“Counting Blue Cars”. If I were to keep “Counting Blue Cars”, this may be the
track I was looking for to bridge between that and “Eiskalt Erwischt”; and this
is what I did for the Spotify version of this mix. Anyway, looking at the
lyrics for this one, it seems like a depressing one, about having reached your
limit, being fed up with everything, close to the brink. Maybe I should add happier
songs to my music library? Eh, that’s what my synthwave music is for. “Cold” here is used as part of the idiom “stone
cold”, as popularized by the wrestler “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. It can mean
literally cold (as in “your tea is going to be stone cold if you don’t drink it
soon”), or it can basically mean the same thing as cold-hearted, more in the
sense of being emotionally stoic than a heart-breaker.
Anyway,
as I said I did my best to reproduce the playlist on Spotify, although of
course, Spotify doesn’t have the really obscure ones. For that there’s YouTube.
Who knows what songs I may have missed, they’ll probably turn up over time and
the playlist will get longer. In the meantime, my next mix will have to do with
the Moon.
Cold - Spotify Playlist
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