The new EP from Halifax’s indie pop-duo Smaller Hearts , Winter, first and foremost ask us to determine if there’s a clear delineation between what we might consider a Christmas song and what constitutes a Winter song. The concepts are not mutually interchangeable, but this EP treads a fine line between the two as it navigates a crossroads akin to a synthesized Dickensian Christmas.
Which isn’t to say that Winter is full of the tales of orphans, Muppets, the ever-looming potential for a cameo by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, or even the Three Ghosts of Christmas, but the post-modern New Years Even anthem of “Possible Future” smacks of foreboding potential.
“It’s definitely about progress as a kind of page turn, or changing of the guard, attitude-wise,” agrees Ron Bates, who represents exactly one-half of the Smaller Hearts duo, “But yeah—not a bad analogy; different outcomes based on present actions is also in that song’s message.”
The EP’s one decidedly Christmas tune, the previously released “Christmas At Home” which originally premier on the 2018 Ho! Ho! Ho! Canada compilation from The Line of Best Fit, also fits into the category of songs where sampling a few lasers isn’t out of the question. They’ve dashed, danced and pranced into the company of Wham!, and Sir Paul, and a modern string of seasonal tunes divorced from chimes and English horns, while the song paints a picture of Yuletide solitude.
“I’m a sucker for Christmas music pretty much across the board. Sometimes in the summer I’ll find myself absentmindedly humming something and I’ll realize it’s Christmas music, particularly of the Wham!/McCartney [variety],” says Bates. “Well, not those two specifically, but pop in general. That Waitresses song, ‘Christmas Wrapping‘ kills me every time.”
“Snowsmashed,” gets sandwiched between the two – the inverse of what occurs in the real world, with the holidays providing a brief blaze of glory amidst a season of cold and despair. The song, however, gives a cozier perspective; enveloping us in a persistent, blanketing drone as Smaller Hearts describe the smaller charms of winter weather.
Perhaps not inherent, but certainly exemplified, by the EP is the natural state of the season as an in-between time – a time for retreating and planning. As Bates describes it, Winter EP is meant to convey a feeling of being at a crossroads. More than waiting out the cold and thinking ahead for warmer weather, Bates explains that these tracks grew out of a concern the treacherous path our future presents.
“The world is always changing, but these days it feels like there are particularly big question marks about where we are headed,” says Bates.
It might be a dark turn for Christmas songs, but these are Winter songs, and Winter is dark. That’s the clear divide.