Seven Snow Songs For a Seattle Snow Day

It's a little too late for a white Christmas, but here we are in a snowy Seattle! To commemorate our multitude of snowflake visitors, here are some of my favorite snow day songs--when we think of non-Christmas snow songs, there's Frank Zappa's "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow," particularly relevant to dog owners like myself (see above), and, of course, the local classic, Fleet Foxes' "White Winter Hymnal." I love both of those songs but have omitted them here to make room for some (a little) less obvious choices. To kick things off, here's Efterklang's "Cutting Ice to Snow," off 2007's Parades:

Unlike "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)," its B-side, Yoko Ono's "Listen, The Snow Is Falling" doesn't mention the holidays and can therefore meet our non-Christmas songs qualification. Galaxie 500 did a nice cover of this song in 1990.

Listen, the snow is falling o'er the town/Listen, the snow is falling everywhere/Between Empire State Building/And between Trafalgar Square/Listen, the snow is falling o'er the town.

One of my favorites on this list, "Soft as Snow (but Warm Inside)" is the opening track from My Bloody Valentine's 1988 debut, Isn't Anything.

Soft as snow but warm inside/Penetrate/You cannot hide/Feeling lost forever/Really need you/Feeling dark and feeling true

Regina Spektor's darkly freewheeling "20 Years of Snow" comes from her breakout album, 2006's Begin to Hope.

His daughter is twenty years of snow falling/She's twenty years of strangers looking into each other's eyes.

Elliott Smith's delicate "Angel in the Snow" is a song close to my heart, with or without the snow theme. It's got some of the most beautiful, tender lyrics Smith ever wrote. The song can be found on Kill Rock Stars' posthumous compilation, New Moon.

Don't you know that I love you/Sometimes I feel like only a cold still life/Only a frozen still life/That fell down here to lay beside you.

Twice As Much & Vashti Bunyan's "The Coldest Night Of The Year" is the only song on my list that doesn't actually have the word "snow" in the title, but I love it so much I'm including it anyway; it's absolutely lovely and heartwarming. Ben Gibbard and Zooey Deschanel once sang a cover of it live together. I'd stick with the original.

Baby, baby, I know if you wanted to/You'd brave the snow/But I haven't been well/I might catch the flu or a cold in my nose/Let's snuggle close together/While the whole world turns to ice/Just the victims of the weather/Sending you home now just wouldn't be nice.

Finally, since I'm just about to crack into Gil Scott-Heron's new posthumously published autobiography, The Last Holiday, here's "Angel Dust":