Gauntlet Mixtape Vol. 29: it’s cold out

By Leigh Patrick, Elizabeth Raymond, Daman Singh, Ilana van der Merwe and Dianne Miranda, February 2 2025—

it’s cold out is the perfect playlist to accompany this chilly winter season. Whether you’re curling up by the fire or walking through frosty streets, this Gauntlet Mixtape Vol. 29 is the soundtrack for embracing the season’s cool embrace.

LEIGH: VOLUNTEER

“The Christmas Song” by Nat King Cole
- A classic holiday song. It helps bring in a traditional feel to the holidays. It’s on every Christmas playlist I make.
“A Nonsense Christmas” by Sabrina Carpenter
- This song is on my Girlypop Christmas playlist. It’s a Christmas twist on a popular Sabrina Carpenter song!
“Winter Wonderland” by Michael Bublé
- The Christmas Song. I listen to it as soon as December hits and encapsulates everything wonderful about the holiday season!

ELIZABETH: VOLUNTEER

“Closing In” by Imogen Heap
- This song feels like witnessing the first snowfall of the winter season. It is a bittersweet song, capturing the loss of fall and the birth of a colder time. The haunting, angelic vocals transport you to a changing world, which matches perfectly with the changing seasons. Especially as it gets colder and darker outside.
“Winter Fairy-Tale” by Boney M.
- Soft, melodic and calming. This song captures the more peaceful aspects of December. Those moments of downtime, where the busy parts of the month fade away, and you are able to enjoy the beauty of the season.
“The Mirror Blue Night” by The Spring Awakening Original Broadway Cast Recording
- Captures the uncertainty of December. The end of the year, a time for reflection and thought. This song encapsulates those strange and introspective moments you have on a cold December night.

DAMAN: VISUALS EDITOR

“Motorcycle Boy” by Fontaine’s D.C.
- If I could put a whole album in this mixtape, it would be Romance. “Motorcycle Boy” perfectly captures the feeling of walking in a snowy evening.
“Fallingforyou” by The 1975
- You really can’t have a winter playlist without bringing in The 1975 Tumblr classics.
“The Place Where He Inserted A Blade” by Black Country, New Road
- Once you get past this concerningly long name game they play, BCNR beautifully captures the feeling of crashing out by a fireplace on a long winter night. The melancholic rhythm is matched by humane lyricism describing something as simple as messing up lunch. It’s beautiful. She’s Everything.

ILANA: ARTS & SCIENCE ASSISTANT

“Cold Cold Man” by Saint Motel
- Simply, the title and the vibes.
“Horchata” by Vampire Weekend
- A song about drinking a warm glass of horchata in December: what is more perfect?
“I Wanna Be Sedated” by Ramones
- The drag of getting through the semester 2 reboot can be exhausting. This song perfectly embodies that hate for long flight and late study nights.

DIANNE: VOLUNTEER AND OUTREACH COORDINATOR

“Acolyte” by Slaughter Beach, Dog
- This song simultaneously captures the cold beauty of the season’s stillness like the snow that stays on the leave-less trees and the quiet introspective nature of winter from its somber tone and evocative lyrics.
“White Winter Hymnal” by Fleet Foxes
- Once the first snow falls, best believe this song is going to be added to my every monthly playlist I make in the winter.