Music for Summer
Feel the Season With Our Decades-Spanning Summer Playlist
Summer means sun, beach, and days off with parties and music. So I thought putting together a summer playlist would come naturally and easily, particularly after having a hard time with spring. But no: the only songs that came spontaneously to my mind were from the 80s, but we don’t want this playlist to be too nostalgia-heavy.
Part of the problem is that Elke and I rarely take vacations during summer proper but prefer to travel during fall and winter. With that in mind, we extend the theme to songs with a sunny and warm vibe, regardless of the season we enjoyed them. Let’s get started!
Oliver’s Selection
Imagination - Just an Illusion
“Just an Illusion” was an international hit in 1982 by the UK trio Imagination and hence would play in the bars and clubs of every European summer resort. I was too young to appreciate the party vibes, but I remember hearing from the outside of a nightclub that I yearned to get in. Now I know that one spends far too much energy on establishments like this when young because, in the end, they are just an illusion.
U2 - The Unforgettable Fire
The 1984 album “The Unforgettable Fire” title track is my all-time U2 favorite. So I put it on a cassette and played it, again and again that summer.
Man Parrish - Hip Hop Be Bop
“Hip Hop Be Bop” was a 1982 electro track by the NYC producer Man Parrish. A lot of music history happened at that time in New York, but that is a topic for another newsletter. But no other song offers so much of the carefreeness and celebration of summer for me as this one.
Manu Chao - Clandestino
This is how summer hits are made: you are at the beach, and the bar next to you has one single playlist/CD/cassette on repeat. This is how “Clandestino” by the French/Spanish singer Manu Chao became forever connected with a good lazy time.
Warpaint - New Song
While the music of Warpaint has more fall and winter vibes, “New Song” – released in August 2016 – is undoubtedly a summer love song with untypical cheerfulness.
Elke’s Selection
Gerry Rafferty - Baker Street
With its longing saxophone intro and Gerry Rafferty’s warm, charming vocals, “Baker Street” has summer-perfect written all over it. Doesn’t matter that the track got released in February 1978, as I will always remember the summer of that year when my heart was captured by a boy for the very first time and also broken a few months later. Still, I love “Baker Street” to this day.
Simple Minds - Don’t You (Forget About Me)
Fast forward a few years to the summer of 1985 and the movie Breakfast Club. I was again -unhappily- in love and couldn’t get enough of this Simple Minds super hit. In case you don’t know the whirlwind story around the song, learn more about it here; it’s fascinating!
The Rah Band - Clouds Across the Moon
Fast forward another five years, and finally happily in love… I remember a sweet August night on the balcony when the love interest in question had called me from his trip to say that he loves me and can’t wait to see me again. The five-year-old “Clouds Across the Moon” by The Rah Band was played on the radio just then and added a warm, fuzzy feel to our phone conversation.
Bruce Springsteen - Secret Garden
1997, going strong with my love interest of five years, we watched Jerry Maguire in the spring that year and a few more times throughout the summer. While the movie is packed with great lines that make wonderful quotes, it also comes with a cool soundtrack. If you know the movie, then you will remember the sweet and tender scene where Tom Cruise’s character says goodnight to Renée Zellweger’s character, for which Bruce Springsteen’s “Secret Garden” is the backdrop.
Ralph - Gravity
Really fast forward to July 2019, when I featured Ralph’s “Gravity” as our Song Pick of the Day. “Gravity” is the perfect summer party song!
Connie Constance - Mood Hoover
For Oliver and me, no other song captures the summer 2022 spirit quite like “Mood Hoover” by Connie Constance.
FLEECE - Do You Wanna Party
This summer playlist wouldn’t be complete without my new favorite summer song, the upbeat and supersweet “Do You Wanna Party” by FLEECE, part of this week’s #glamglarepicks.
Song Pick of the Day
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“Do You Wanna Party?” asks Montreal band FLEECE. Of course, we do! But the song has a more profound sense: “It’s an invitation to use that moment and movement to remember that your body is your own home, your own place,” singer Megan Ennenberg explains.
We fell in love with Norwegian musician Silje Espevik aka Yndling, and her band last spring at the New Colossus Festival. “Make Me Want You,” an ethereal, chill song about falling in love despite knowing better, was an outtake from her 2022 debut Yndling (Deluxe) before being promoted to a one-off single.
We stay in Scandinavia, Denmark, to be precise. CAPITALS is an indie rock trio who want to surprise their listeners. “We want to be a band where the listener never will know what they are going to get when we are releasing new music,” the band states and takes your cues from American pop rock for their latest single, “Too Much Noise.”
Zilched is the project of a Detroit-based musician. Her last record was called Doompop, and she stays true to that motto with her new offering, “The Flood.” A biblical level flooding and a local cemetery inspired the track.
NYC singer/songwriter Sophia DeLeo takes a kind, and understanding look back at her seventeen-year-old self on “Drama Queen.” She says: “everything I’ve done in my music career, but especially this project, has been an effort to prove that insecure 17-year-old girl wrong.” Sophia also released her second EP, also titled Drama Queen.
Minoe from Montreal wants to dance herself away from her own unrealistic expectation. Her new song “Cut Me Loose” is an empowering disco track, ideal for a pick-me-up playlist for days when everything is too much.
While we’re on it, here’s another one for that playlist: In the airy and lighthearted “Emergency Landing,” Nashville singer/songwriter Jess Nolan encourages you to take a break and recharge because it is for the better for everyone. “We don’t need permission to care for ourselves,” she says.
Also Happening…
Electronic pop musician Grimes has always been a visionary, so naturally, she grabs AI by its horns and turns her voice into a model everybody can use. At elf.tech, you find all the necessary tools to have GrimesAI sing to your very own production. The deal: she gets 50% of all royalties. Yung Spielburg and Cherie Hu of Water & Music gave it a try (Listen here).
Nine Photos From a History Walk
We greatly enjoyed reading Russel Shorto’s article “A Walk Through the Past in New York” and decided to explore Downtown Manhattan once more. When we moved to New York City in April 2001, we first lived on the Lower East Side and a few months later on Park Row, east of City Hall Park. Downtown offers a plethora of 17th-century history, despite all its modern skyscrapers. Shorto’s piece is very informative and educational, and the suggested route is fascinating.
If this piqued your interest too, you might want to check out Russel Shorto’s book on the topic: The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America.
