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The estimable PopMatters, for which I once wrote, has this to say about the track and the album from which it was taken. It deserves some space all of its own.

'Summer songs are nice and all. They’re filled with stories about fleeting love, the loss of innocence and young hearts leaving comfortable climes behind in favor of the unknown. Winter songs, though? That’s difficult to say. Often enough writers get caught up thinking about the holiday season more so than the long hours of darkness, the days of being snowed in, and the nights when you just can’t warm those bones no matter how hard you try. Sure, there are exceptions, but a quick (unscientific) scan of tunes about the chilliest of seasons suggests that there aren’t nearly enough. Thank the solstice for Matt Pond PA’s latest offering, then.

We’ve actually been here with Pond (the man) before: The 2005 EP Winter Songs filled us up with a few originals dedicated to the season, along with covers from the likes of Neil Young, Richard and Linda Thompson, and Lindsey Buckingham. Pond has clearly had some time to think about the matter and has emerged with a nicely woven collection that finds him looking back on his youthful days with a sense of wonder and an ear for heartwarming melodies that still summon the season’s deep-reaching chill.

To his credit, Pond doesn’t stretch the theme beyond the point of breaking. In fact, it’s dealt with seamlessly and with the kind of care one hopes a master artist would take with his craft. Mentions of snow and ice have their thematic and metaphorical purposes here and aren’t just casual references hastily slapped onto what could just as easily be songs about autumn or late spring.

Opener “In Winter” sets things nicely in motion, captivating us with its strings, bells and gentle beats, the music transporting us to New England in those months when the temperatures drop and the snow accumulates faster than debt in a new business enterprise. There, as in the upbeat, almost Paul Westerberg-inspired “The Glow” plus “Force of Nature”, we’re witness to smart, hook-driven compositions that are driven by strong emotions, though they never become weighed down by the gravity of those feelings.

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from Have Yourself A Merry Indie Christmas Volume I, track released November 11, 2016

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