The sun’s returned to blazing down on us and it seems inescapably hot, the school year is nearing an end, and time is preparing to slow down with the seasonal change. With summer approaching, it’s time for me to begin curating my summer playlist, pulling from summer-defining songs of years past, and songs that will come to define the upcoming months and summers of the future. Songs I retrospectively categorize as “summer” not only evoke the perpetual midday heat and cool evening breeze of summers back home, but they’ve also connected with me emotionally based on the part of my life that they influenced. The following is just a few selections from my newly developing summer 2023 playlist.
“Love My Way,” The Psychedelic Furs
With its recognizable use of the marimba and sonically-addicting beat, The Psychedelic Furs’ “Love My Way” is iconic. It’s featured multiple times in the film Call Me By Your Name, which is set over a summer in Northern Italy; I definitely associate the song with summer because of Call My By Your Name. When I hear “Love My Way,” I imagine bouncing around, dancing with some summer fling, just the two of us, in a shady glade (this sounds silly but again, it’s heavily, heavily inspired by CMBYN). It feels youthful and impromptu, but also reflective and nostalgic at the same time — I think these are feelings that generally can be generally attributed to summer, too.
“Champagne Coast,” Blood Orange
I’d known about “Champagne Coast” for a few years, but it wasn’t until right before last summer that it really connected with me. Whenever I hear it now, I have some sort of reaction to it — the best way I can describe it is that I feel it in my heart. “Champagne Coast” makes me feel like I’m staying in a villa at a tropical resort; I’ve just gotten out of the water and my hair is still wet, and after a day of being under the hot sun, the evening is just starting to cool down and I’m getting ready for dinner. It’s an almost idyllic vision of summer, but with the emotional complications of a love affair: the hypnotic chorus repeats the suggestion “come to my bedroom.”
“National Anthem,” Lana Del Rey
Lana Del Rey is one of my favorite musicians, and there are multiple songs in her discography reminiscent of summer (e.g. her album Honeymoon). But, “National Anthem,” is quintessentially summer, partly due to the song’s production and visuals. Lana, who pleads to her audience to “tell me I’m your national anthem,” connects her use of a national anthem to an Americana aesthetic, complete with the booms of distant fireworks in the song’s opening. The chorus sings: “Red, white, blue in the sky / Summer’s in the air and baby, heaven’s in your eyes.” In addition to this explicit evocation of Fourth of July, “National Anthem” just feels hot and hazy, as if Lana is under a seasonal spell in the relationship she sings about.
The music of my summer playlists often marks a time of change: as one school year ends, I shift to a new routine, new experiences, and new phase in my life. I aim to find songs to listen to in the summer that encapsulate the feelings I seek for the season, and ultimately, they end up reflecting this time of transition.