Montréal -40C

I’ve been sitting here for half an hour staring at the screen, telling myself I am better than writing about the weather.

Talking about the weather has always seemed like a kind of gateway drug—the first step towards an adult life doomed to small talk and banality. With that in mind, writing about the weather feels unforgivably pedestrian. So I’ve been rehashing and revising, trying to think of a better introduction, but have ultimately come to an unfortunate conclusion: I am not better than writing about the weather.

I’m going to try to self-rationalize this now by noting that weather is currently the number one cause of emotional tumult in my life (no I don’t have a lot going on ok). I have been having intense visceral responses to it, and have even been moved to angry tears on a handful of mornings while walking to work, blasted by -5F degree winds. So if you’re still humoring me, I’d like to take a second to get my feelings out on proverbial paper and say, YOU WIN, WINTER. I HATE YOU.

I’m in Chicago and the weather has been so bad that I dread getting out of bed, even on days when I’m well-rested. On mornings when it’s below zero, and I know icy tears on my work commute are a real possibility, I need something especially enlivening to help jump-start my day. Enter: Malajube.

I discovered this band when I was in high school, boarded away in the frozen tundra of northern Michigan. They’re from Montréal so they know a thing or two about the cold. In fact, they have an entire song dedicated to it. Montreal -40C was their breakout ‘indie hit’ in 2006, a bouncing piece of indelible pop rock, off-the-wall but hardly amateur. A upbeat musing on the sometimes harsh reality of a frozen city as one’s cruel mistress, this was my go-to winter alarm clock song throughout high school. When I reintroduced it to my musical rotation in 2015, I was delighted to find that not only could I still relate, but sonically it still felt fresh. My apologies if you came here expecting new music, but sometimes it’s best to stick with what’s tried and tested. Montreal -40C is one of the few things that can get me going on a snowy morning. Try it on for size.

Oh, and you might notice that this song isn’t in English. They say music is a *universal language*, and I don’t think that holds more true than when we unite against a common enemy. In this case: Elsa.

Montréal -40C - Malajube