While many people are gearing up to party until the clock strikes 12 on New Year’s Eve, a few don’t revel in the idea of new beginnings and rather see NYE as a tiresome, foreboding kind of holiday. The five songs below are for those who count themselves among the latter group.
Videos by American Songwriter
“The New Year,” Death Cab for Cutie
So this is the new year
And I have no resolutions
Or self assigned penance
For problems with easy solutions
Death Cab for Cutie lives up to their Midwest emo crown in “The New Year.” The band is sufficiently melancholy about the approaching holiday, failing to feel excited about resolutions or new beginnings. Though a new year is supposed to usher in change, Death Cab feel markedly stagnant.
“The New Year,” Tom Waits
It felt like four in the morning
What sounded like fireworks
Turned out to be just what it was
The stars looked like diamonds
And then came the sirens
And everyone started to cuss
Leave it to Tom Waits to put an introspective, slightly downtrodden spin on holiday celebrations. In this track, Waits describes a New Year’s party wherein fights break out, couples break up, and the cops try to bust down the door. Waits, being the top-notch songwriter that he is, paints a visceral portrait here–one that is an all too familiar scene among the millions of people ringing in the New Year.
“Champagne Year,” St. Vincent
So I thought I’d learned my lesson
But I secretly expected
A choir at the shore
And confetti through the falling air
St. Vincent‘s spacey “Champagne Year” transports the listener into the middle of a party. Time seems to slow while the somewhat depressing lyrics float overhead: ‘Cause I make a living telling people what they want to hear / And, boy, I tell you, it’s gonna be a champagne year. Not even St. Vincent is convinced of the notion, but as always, we will strive for an even better year than the last–no matter how adamant a New Year’s Eve naysayer you are.
Photo by Theo Wargo/WireImage
