We at Vogue have nothing but admiration for people who thrive in winter. It’s easy to be in a good mood when it’s warm out and the leaves are green, but how do you summon cheer when it’s freezing, the trees are bare, and every subway ride is a jam-packed sauna of people in bulky coats?
Well, if you’re a Vogue staffer, keeping one great song on repeat sure helps. Below, find a round-up of the songs giving us crucial, hard-to-source dopamine as fall officially gives way to winter. Happy listening!
“Roller Girl,” Anna Karina
’60s French pop is reliably good at getting me out of bed when I’d much rather sleep the day away (yes, seasonal depression eventually comes for us even in Los Angeles), and this 1967 hit by Anna Karina, the Danish-French actress and director who embodied the French New Wave in Jean-Luc Godard’s films, is the perfect sexy-yet-upbeat soundtrack for a quick shower, a hot cup of coffee, and a long drive to some random part of Southern California to pick up a vintage dinette set from Craigslist. —Emma Specter, culture writer
“More Than You,” Anita Baker
Unfortunately, many of the songs on Compositions—arguably Anita’s masterpiece!—aren’t on Spotify, so accessing the mood-altering effects of this one, or “Perfect Love Affair,” or “Fairy Tales” requires me to first open YouTube and wait through an ad. (Ugh!) But the payoff? Anita Baker at her swoony, croony best. I single out “More Than You Know” for a few reasons: the lyrics are beautiful word soup (“Wasting my time / Everybody says I’m wasting my time / I must reply / That the time I waste is certainly mine”); the Spanish guitar is so 1990 (complimentary); and near the end, Anita ad-libs this grunt-y sound on the beat that simply sends me into orbit every time. —Marley Marius, senior editor, features and news
“Last Girls at the Party,” The Beaches
“Last Girls at the Party,” is adrenaline in sonic form. I remember thinking this would be the song of my—if not the—summer, and turns out it’s a song for fall, for the darkening days of winter, and beyond. As my four-year-old daughter will tell you, this ode to partying just works, even if your bedtime is 9 p.m. —Chloe Schama, senior editor
“I’m Not Part of Me,” Cloud Nothings
What does it say about you if a noisy, emo-adjacent midwestern indie anthem from 2014 about breaking up with someone lifts your mood more reliably than any controlled substance ever has? Probably that you’re above the age of 35, male, and dealing with hearing loss. Whatever: Cloud Nothings is a perfect rock band, and their ferocious fourth album, Here and Nowhere Else, and especially its closing single, is an instant mood lift. —Taylor Antrim, Global Network Lead US deputy editor
“I Found My Smile Again,” D’Angelo
I’m a longtime D’Angelo fan, but his untimely death earlier this year sent me back into his catalog, and I’ve really latched on to “I Found My Smile Again” from the Space Jam soundtrack (which, per Questlove, was a Brown Sugar reject!). The bouncy bass and D’Angelo’s falsetto never fail to put a spring in my step. —Hannah Jackson, fashion writer
“7,” Dean Blunt and Elias Bender Rønnenfelt
Not all dopamine hits are rainbow-colored bursts of sunny energy. What gives me a boost is a beautiful, soothing voice; hence my obsession with Dean Blunt and Elias Rønnenfelt’s collaborative work. It’s a match made in heaven that has yielded many jewels—”Seven” being top among them. The synchronicity of Blunt’s guitar and the scratchy depth of Rønnenfelt’s voice is hypnotic and happy-making in a sweet, melancholy kind of way. —Laird Borrelli-Persson, senior archive editor
“You Gotta Be,” Des’ree
This song is everything to me—my go-to karaoke hit, my uplifting song when I’m sad, my instant 1990s nostalgia kick. I have vivid memories of hearing this song on the radio (like, every day?), and whenever I listen to it, I can’t help but get a serotonin boost. I read a YouTube comment recently that said listening to it feels like getting a warm hug, and I have to agree. —Christian Allaire, senior fashion and style writer
“Chequeless Reckless,” Fontaines D.C.
I sincerely cannot think of another modern-day band that embodies the unapologetic yet poetic, don’t-give-a-fuck attitude of Fontaines D.C.—which is refreshing, given the performative, apolitical state of music today. When I’m internally fuming and need a dopamine hit to level out my feminine rage, the lyrics of this song hits like no other. It’s the equivalent of being at a poetry reading and wanting to snap in approval, while simultaneously kind of wanting to mosh. —Concetta Ciarlo, commerce writer, Vogue Beauty
“Daydreaming,” Harry Styles
“Daydreaming” by Harry Styles consistently lands in my top 10 songs every year. The intro alone makes makes me want to have a good day every day (or at least turn a bad one into a good one). And even though it’s more of a spring/summer song, putting it on on a cold, winter day will always boost my mood. —Kylee McGuigan, associate production manager
“Lady (Hear Me Tonight),” Modjo
This song is an injection of joy from the very first chords, which have the added bonus of instantly inciting dance moves. It’s youth and freedom transformed into sound! —Laia Garcia-Furtado,
senior fashion news editor, Vogue Runway
“Custody,” Paul St. Hilaire
Music that specifically makes me happy is usually music that gets me off the grid—something that’s not locked into a 4/4 beat; something without a cynical, saccharine hook—and the voice of Dominican-born singer and techno dub artist Paul St. Hilaire (reminiscent, in the best ways, of the legendary Horace Andy) never disappoints. The genre of this is pitched somewhere in the gorgeous intersection of dub, techno dub, and lovers rock, with dashes of all sorts of other things thrown in, and evokes an eternal sunshine, even from the depths of a cold and damp New York winter. —Corey Seymour, senior editor
“Never Enough,” Turnstile
This was the song I played most this year whenever I needed a mood boost—something about those euphoric synths giving way to a thundering electric guitar riff just really gets me going. (Not coincidentally, it is also perfect music for stomping down a busy train platform or crowded street, a sub-genre I should really make a specific Spotify playlist for.) —Liam Hess, senior lifestyle and weddings editor
“Midnight Sun,” Zara Larsson
In the height of Swedish summer, the sun never dips below the horizon. The prospect of never having to experience the pit in your stomach when the revelry feels like it’s waning, or the anxiety you (I) experience when papering up the windows of an after-party for fear of the sunrise, because the sun never set in the first place. Scandi pop girl of the year Zara Larsson captures that voracious, thrill-seeking feeling in the Grammy-nominated banger “Midnight Sun,” percolating with trance-y production and her earth-shattering E5 note. I have mastered around six (6) seconds of the viral TikTok dance that accompanies it, and that makes me feel invincible. —Anna Oliva Cafolla, news editor
