Many of us find ourselves listless and heavy-hearted on the long, dark nights, wishing winter away, and having spent four years living in Scotland myself, I can appreciate just how long and dark and cold and bleak winter can be in Colin Clyne’s homeland. It’s perhaps this unforgiving climate that’s partly responsible for the emergence of what’s been dubbed as ‘Scottish miserablism’, as represented by the likes of The Twilight Sad, We Were Promised Jetpacks and Frightened Rabbit.
Aberdeen-based Clyne’s music isn’t an expression of out-and-out miserabilism, but as previous singles ‘Where the Ships Go to Die’ and ‘Within Hindsight’ demonstrate, his songs are steeped in reflective melancholy and tinged with nostalgia.
Explaining the song’s context, he says, “The lockdown winter felt like the longest winter I have known. It seemed to be longer, darker, and colder than I recall any previous winter. I simply wanted long warm days with loved ones in the summer. I came to the realisation I was focusing on the negatives and missing the small victories, missing the moments of beauty. With that in mind, I wondered how many of these I had missed throughout my life wishing dark days away, wishing winter away, sometimes it feels like half our life...”
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‘Wishing Winter Away’ is another heartfelt acoustic—led song brimming with emotion and finds Clyne stretching his vocals and arrangements further, a gritty delivery augmented by some delicate piano and fiddle work courtesy of internationally-renowned Scottish fiddle player, Paul Anderson, which gives it a kind of folksy edge, but not too much.
Nothing’s overdone, and while it’s dark, it offers a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel with the emerging of spring: wish hard enough, and in time, the sads will eventually lift.
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