It’s been a long winter in the part of Canada where I live. We’ve had record snowfalls. We’ve had extended cold snaps. The one saving grace was supposed to be the winter Olympics, but when both the women’s and the men’s hockey teams lost to the US in their respective gold medal games, the cold somehow seemed to reach even deeper into our Canadian bones.
But the other day, something almost more unthinkable happened: my kids – who have enjoyed two days off from school due to snow, who have put untold kilometres on their toboggans – expressed that they’d had enough of winter. As we made our way to school in a beautiful light snowfall, I tried to boost the mood by pointing out the beauty of the Christmas-card-like scene. All I got back was a wistful, “I’m excited for spring.”
So this week I’m going to settle back into my imagination and think about next summer. I’m going to visualize all the things I’m going to do, both exciting and mundane, and see if I can trick myself into forgetting about my sore snow-shovelling muscles for a moment.
The ideal soundtrack for such a visualization is the 2019 album by French act Limousine with the anticipatory title L’été Suivant… and today we’re going to zoom in on that album’s opening track, “Colombus”.
What makes this a beautiful song:
1. The whispering sax and its soothing three-note sighs.
2. The couple on the album cover could not be more French. And if I recline my chair and close my eyes, I can float on that pool right next to them.
3. I’m not sure what instrument it is exactly, but at the end of every other bar some piece of tuned percussion gives two gentle wake-up taps.
Recommended listening activity:
Walking around your house wearing sunglasses and a blasé French expression while letting a pretzel stick hang from your fingertips.