It is by all scientific and emotional measures, in fact, Summer. Yes, we all got here, whether it was through blood sweat and tears or if you breezed through the past few months with a certain jive to your step. We are all looking for something easy to slide into, either thoughts of Summers gone by or the thoughts of the Summer lost to COVID plague our minds, or something in between.
If like me, you have probably let yourself go a bit, grown out your hair thinking it would look somewhat Bob Dylan-esque or something along those lines, well it did not really work, is the short answer. That is okay though, or at least I keep telling myself so, anyway in the grand scheme of things it does not matter, everything cancels out nicely somewhere along the lines, assumptions are made, things work out for the most part.
Looking to the next three months or so, whatever your adventures may be, staycations in the west Portobello perambulations, a rather limited 21st birthday party or just your usual lounging around the house, you need a soundtrack of sorts.
Something that ties your daily narrative together, your background music to a great moment, the song for that 145-bus journey through South Dublin, whatever scenario you might fall into during the scenes that will be Summer 2021. Now most of you already probably have a summer soundtrack that is most likely a lot better than the one that I made, therefore being as democratically stylistic, music wise, I hope to try and fill the gaps with some great tracks to join the narrative together and hopefully introduce someone to a new band, or even just as good, a new song regularly listened too.
Music from and for those movie moments are what we are after here. Aesthetic seems to be everywhere now with social media shoving it down your throat, various 90's and early 2000's Instagram pages posting the same few pictures of celebrities and glorifying them.
They are all well and good for some of us, and I do not want to take away from those who do take whatever inspiration from that sort of thing, generally, something real is what we are all trying to get at. With that in mind, if you are looking for that nostalgic walk into College moment, you cannot really get more cliché than ‘Steal My Sunshine’ by Len.
In this case cliché and Len are exactly what you need, the 1999 classic was so cliché it ended up in the movie “GO!”, a flick all about getting wound up in some sticky situations. Now most of you are probably thinking,” College moments… WOW! Remember those?”. That would be an understandable thought, so to elevate that, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, are the pop-punk ska band for you, hopefully that is the impression that you get anyway.
Now if your also looking for something considerably more Fresh than that, you cannot really get better than two icons of old-school hip-hop, De la Souls “Buddy” or Tribe Called Quests “Can I Kick it” or even a step further with the Beastie Boys “Shadrach”. These three songs are just beginnings to a rabbit-hole like binge of beats and some of the best rapping you’ve heard, not to mention, the perfect background pulse to your hangout area moments.
To use a quote by Mike D from the Beastie Boys, “use your constitutional right to be fresh” this summer, or ever summer for that respect. Therefore, you get anymore freshly iconic than The Style Council, there IS a reason why they are called the Style Council. Their song “Long hot summer” is oh so very groovy and smoothly, and you most definitely need the extended mix to get the full feel of that tune.
There is also another “Long hot summer” in there, though this one is by a solid upcoming band by the name of Sports Team, who are one to watch to see how they might progress. While the Style Council were doing there thing back in 83, Orange Juice had something so uniquely them going on as-well, thus their song “Rip It Up “is included.
Orange Juice were jiving in the 80s, essentially flag-shipping Scottish Neo-pop. “Rip It Up” is a gateway to a different type of thinking, one of infinite possibilities within what would become indie music where everyone daring to be starkly themselves thrived, and so you shall thrive too especially when you hear one of the best sax solos in post punk music.
While on the Topic of Scotland, we must talk about Teenage Fanclub. An unsung hero of alternative rock in the 90s, and therefore rightly belonging in our soundtrack, we have “Everything Flows” included. An early song of theirs but still nonetheless perfectly important, few lyrics but with a simple message of not knowing where one may end up, all sang over that swirling guitar inspired Neil Young progression, perfect for a murky night meet up.
They are many more tracks within the soundtrack that I will leave you to decide what scenario best suits its feel and more importantly what it may mean to you. A few tracks that are included were given to me by some great individuals, and I endlessly thank them for it. That is the important theme of this, soundtracks are for movies about people, the people around you, friends, family, and classmates etc, therefore it meant to be shared.
Constantly strive to get that soundtrack perfect, watch as many movies as possible, Shazam any song you that you really dig, you most certainly will not regret it. When you have those low moments to the high moments, make sure you have soundtrack to it. So, as I previously stated with kudos to Mike D, 'exercise your constitutional right to be fresh'.
Link to Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4LtdjtCNre91kyYrHIPNG5?si=b048665e96354067
Would love to hear back from any reader on what they decided on their summer soundtrack.
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