This Week's Forgotten Gem of the '80s - The Sound's "Winter"

As we in the Northern Hemisphere prepare to take on the anticipated blistering heat of another summer, I say what better time to consider one of '80s music's most atmospheric, steely cold offerings, from a British post-punk band that epitomizes the concept of "forgotten gem," especially in the States. And coldness is a most appropriate word to apply to a tune that amounts to a dirge, a portrait of the lonely, foreboding nature of summer's opposing season at its harshest.

Post-punk fulfilled its forward-thinking aims most fully when it focused on mood-setting and the careful creation of textures, and this track is as spare with its direct but meaningful lyrics as it is with its plodding rhythm and highly gothic synthesizer lines. Group leader Adrian Borland possesses a powerful if bleak voice that communicates despair as intensely as any better-known vocalists in the post-punk scene such as the Cure's Robert Smith or Joy Division's Ian Curtis. Unfortunately, it's far more difficult to know about this band than it should be, akin perhaps to a survivalist chipping away at below-zero ice chunks to get at desperately needed provisions mistakenly left and trapped inside. Well, maybe it's not that extreme, but you can't blame me for the dark hyperbole.