Too Hot To Live Winter Music Mix: Ten Songs To Lower Your Temperature

Refreshing!

Finally, we seem to be on the other side of this week's bout of soul-shredding heat. Summer's all well and good, but the Beach Boys weren't singing about an endless summer where it feels like 115 degrees. Their summers were a good 30 degrees cooler than what we've been experiencing, which might be why we've been feeling the need to punch Brian Wilson in his doughy, albeit talented, face every time we hear "Fun Fun Fun" or "I Get Around." Then again, Wilson relocated to temperate Southern California from the scorched plains of Kansas. As far as we know, he didn't write any odes to tornadoes borne from 100-degree heat getting knocked around by a thunderstorm.

To combat extreme heat fatigue, we've been drawn to winter songs. Cold songs. It wasn't a conscious decision. By the end of the day on Monday we happened to realize that the day's playlist looked like a snowbound soundtrack. Yes, we'll remember this in late February when the cold suddenly drives us to become Parrotheads.

"January Wedding" - Avett Brothers
With a bride clad in a head-to-toe white wool to counteract the images of the gal wearing cut-off bib overalls with nothing but a bra underneath them.

"Frozen" by Madonna
Madge, being frozen isn't such a bad thing. Just trying wearing that goth get-up in St. Louis this week without bursting into Satan's flames.

"Hazy Shade of Winter" by the Bangles
Or Simon and Garfunkel. The Bangles version reminds us of the winter of '87, when the song was released on the Less Than Zero movie soundtrack. It was a cold winter, with only our shellacked hair to hold the heat in our bodies.

"Winter Wind" by Mumford and Sons
A brief romp with a Mumford, just to keep warm on a cold London night? Well, okay, if you insist.