Hello!
I thought it would be fun to switch things up this week. Instead of talking about my past week in music, I’m going to look back at the entire summer. I made a list of 40 songs that defined my summer this year, and just for fun I ranked them all. Here are my top 20 “songs of the summer”, and I’ll put 21-40 listed at the bottom!
20. “Amateur Hour” by Fuvk
Over the past few years, Fuvk have quietly risen from the rank of “random bedroom pop artist I discovered on Bandcamp” to becoming one of my favorite artists. Their music has a sort of blue-skies lightness to it that I absolutely adore, a perfect blend of acoustic pop and gentle electronica that lifts you up to the clouds. “Amateur Hour” is my favorite song off the latest of two stellar EPs they released this year, with delicate layers of guitar serving as a bed for wistful, slice-of-life lyrics like “No one relies on me / You picked me up when i was stranded at the grocery store / I loved you first but you felt worse / I know you couldn't take it anymore”. I’ve been so hooked on this song.
19. “Triple Seven” by Wishy
I already wrote about this album the other week, so I won’t repeat myself too much. This is incredible summer music. A driving-with-the-window-down, wind-in-your-face-type dream pop banger. This song joins other summertime classics like “Cherry-coloured funk” and “Here’s Where The Story Ends”. Blast this before the summer’s gone.
18. “Long Way Home” by Myriam Gendron
It seems like every summer there’s one perfect Canadian folk-pop tune that captures my heart. Last year it was “Cut and Dry” by Charlotte Cornfield, and this year it’s “Long Way Home”. So lovely, so gentle, this is a song for a summer sunset, falling asleep on the way home. “Outside the winds are blowing high / Will you stay by my side?”
17. “Our Song” by Chatterton
This song gives me that Yo La Tengo, And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out feeling like nothing else has since. Just take a look at that Yo La Tengo album cover and you’ll know exactly the feeling that I’m talking about. Those deep blue night skies in June, a quiet suburban street, a flickering light. Somebody is having a camp fire somewhere, but you’re alone, wandering, lost in thought. I am constantly searching for songs with this exact vibe, and Chatterton nailed it with “Our Song”.
16. “365” by Charli XCX
Of course, I couldn’t get away with a summer 2024 list without including something off of Brat. It was Brat Summer, after all. This is one of the best of the bunch, a song that captures that messy party girl energy so perfectly. I heard this at a Brat themed club night in July, and it was absolutely euphoric. Who the fuck are you? I’m a brat when I’m bumping that.
15. “That’s What Time Does” by Oso Oso
Another one I already wrote about in a recent substack. Great summer-fun indie-pop vibes on this one. When I think about this summer, I think about sitting on my porch, this song blaring out of my bluetooth speaker, a Miller Lite in hand. Immaculate vibes.
14. “Pan over the hill” by ML Buch
“I came apart way up high / Splattered on the film of sky / Warm sun on my flapping face / Sweeping for a trail or a trace.”
This song came out last fall as the opening track on the incredible record Suntub - an album that just gets more amazing as time goes on. I seriously think that this album will end up as one of the best of the decade. This song in particular came back into my rotation heavily this summer, with its sun-drenched guitars, glowing vocals, and punchy drum machines perfect for this season.
13. “Girl In My Dreams (Midwest Accordion Emo)” by Anatole Muster
Yes, accordion-based midwest emo music is a thing now. At least, this song is so good that it might as well have spawned an entire new sub-genre. Despite the concept feeling a bit gimmicky, the end result feels natural, like duh, of course there should be midwest emo songs played on the accordion. The intricate, noodle-y riffs are so catchy when played on this instrument, and his vocals pull off the emo earnestness required for this sort of song. Highly recommend.
12. “Knock Yourself Out XD” by Porter Robinson
“Don’t know my schedule on the 5th / BITCH I’M TAYLOR SWIFT!!!!” had to be the most fun lyric to sing along to in a crowd at a Porter show I went to recently. This is pure unadulterated fun, bottled up into an explosive 3 minute pop song. XD is exactly what my face looks like while listening to this.
11. “Dotted Line” by Why Bonnie
There are a million alt-country-indie-rock bands in the year of our lord 2024, so it takes a unique songwriting prowess to have a song cut through the murk. Why Bonnie had a few solid tunes on their 2022 album, which I liked but wasn’t fully won over by, and at the time I distinctly remember thinking “I bet their next album is going to be really great”. Turns out I was right. “Dotted Line”, the incredible lead single for their stellar new album, came out just in time to add to my 4th of July Party playlist, and is one of those great rock songs that you feel like has always existed. That chorus is always stuck in my head.
10. “:)” by The Japanese House
One of my all time favorite bands. There isn’t much to say about why I love this one without doing a full deep-dive into this band, but if you’ve heard this song you already know how perfect it is. It’s a classic Japanese House love song, effortlessly catchy, with a bouncy instrumental that forgoes synths in favor of a more country aesthetic. Sunshine pours from every corner of this tune.
9. “Clams Casino” by Cassandra Jenkins
I really could have put any song from this album on this list - it’s my favorite album of the summer, and maybe my favorite album of the year - but I chose this one just for its “classic summer road trip” vibes. Cassandra’s lyrics about ripping knees open on the pavement, American cars, hotel bars, driving out to the ocean - all feel so summery to me. That gritty guitar solo, that euphoric bridge - how can you not fall in love with this song? “Hey, I might never land on solid ground / Part of me will always be in the clouds / in my old suit, in a hotel room / But I don’t wanna laugh alone anymore.”
8. “No És La Llum” by Rita Payes
At the beginning of the summer, I made a playlist that has been with me a lot throughout the past few months, called “bossa nova summer”. There’s something about Latin jazz that is so lovely this time of year. Rita Payes’ 2021 album was a favorite of mine a few summers ago, so I was excited to hear she was releasing a new one this July. This new record leans more into jazz and chamber pop than bossa nova, but it is just as beautiful if not more-so than her last record. This song is my favorite on the album - I love the simple Spanish guitar and languid vocals that start the song before it opens up with these gorgeous, sweeping strings that make my heart ache.
7. “Lucy Takes a Picture” by Youth Lagoon
As far as I can tell, this is just a random stand-alone single following last year’s great Heaven Is a Junkyard record. But man, I hope there are more songs like this on the way from Youth Lagoon. The 80s-ballad, The Blue Nile-type drums and orchestral synth stabs, the dreamy vocals and a piano floating on top of all of it - I’m in love with everything here. And that ethereal outro, with the strings and background vocals all swelling up together, this music is just too good to be true. “And I feel the autumn die and the winter hold its keep / I can see it in your breath, I can taste it on your cheek”.
6. “Fear” by Armlock
I sent this song to my friend Rick over the summer and he responded that this was an immediate add to his “I’m just a lil guy” playlist, which sums up this song’s vibe perfectly. At face value, there isn’t much about this song that is exceptional - its a simple, emo-tinged pop tune, with strummed acoustics and soft indie vocals and plodding drums - nothing out of the ordinary in today’s indie landscape. But there’s something about this song that is so addictive. I keep coming back to it, over and over and over. I find myself singing along to that simple, repetitive chorus, eating up every moment. Sometimes the best music is the most uncomplicated.
5. “Juna” by Clairo
You know this song. We all know this song. This was my immediate favorite from Clairo’s new album Charm, won over by the off-kilter 70s soul vibes, those tender vocals, that dusty piano, those goddamn horns. Yeah, TikTok got it right by choosing this song to be the viral one off the album. Everything about this is great.
4. “Sun Girl” by Julia Holter
Yes, this song came out last year, and the album that it’s on was a mid-winter favorite of mine. However, the vibes of this song live up to its sunny title, so I couldn’t resist putting this on every playlist this summer, walking around the city with this colorful, strange tune in my ears. This song captures what New York is like in the summer to me - vibrant graffiti on every corner, jazz musicians busking in the park, old men feeding the pigeons, beams of sun reflecting off the Manhattan skyline as you sit on your Brooklyn rooftop. This music is so vivid, so immersive. I love it.
3. “Soft Guitar at Night so Not to Wake Anyone” by Samuel Organ
There is ambient music for every season. To me, ambient music with more piano feels wintery, ambient music that is lo-fi or muted is very fall, and ambient music played with a guitar feels like summer. This song is already one of my all-time favorite ambient guitar pieces. I can’t get enough of it, especially when I’m sitting on my porch as the sun goes down. A great song to cool down with during a heat wave. One of the best songs of the summer.
2. “The Last Year” by Jessica Pratt
“And wouldn't you say the past's no longer quite / As near as you'd like, and it's gonna hurt you now?”
We’ve made it to my top 2 songs of the summer. I really couldn’t decide which of these two would take the top spot - although, I couldn’t quite justify putting a song this slow as my definitive “song of the summer”, so here it is at number 2. This is my favorite song from the latest Jessica Pratt album, for reasons that are difficult to put into words - you know when a song just hurts when you listen to it? In a good way? Yeah, my whole body aches when I listen to this. I spent so many summer nights with headphones in, this song playing as I’m walking home or getting on the subway. There was one particularly vivid night when I listened to this while walking to pick up takeout for dinner in the pouring rain. Looking back years from now, I’m sure I will remember this as a defining song of summer 2024.
1. “I’m All Fucked Up” by This Is Lorelei
Here it is. The Song of the Summer. Anybody else telling you otherwise is wrong!
Jokes aside (yes, the whole “song of the summer” thing is silly, but I’m still a sucker for it), this song really is everything to me. It is pure summertime energy, an electrifying jam for the ages, a song I look forward to passing on to other summers to be lived with again and again. Every time this song ends I want to click that replay button immediately, submerging myself in this sugary jangle pop bliss forever. The way he sings lines like “I got a nosebleed and my blood tastes like God” and “Babe, my body’s on the ground with the dogs outside the pound” is so hooky and fun, I can’t help but smile. Yeah, this is awesome. This is the song of the summer. “I wanna steal every happy thought you have / Fucking nickel, fucking dime / Trade them back to you for mine / Put my own inside my bag and fly back to New York City again.”
Thanks for reading! What are your Songs of the Summer this year? I would love to know - feel free to leave them in comments or message them to me!
Here are 21-40 of my list:
“You Know Me” by AG Cook
“Pantalla Azul” by Mabe Fratti
“She’s Leaving You” by MJ Lenderman
“I Said What I Said” by The Softies
“Aey Nehin” by Arooj Aftab
“Potluck” by Holly Waxwing & galen tipton
“Double” by Wet
“Fortnight” by Taylor Swift
“Beach Vacation” by Macseal
“it wasn’t just you, i felt it too” by kennedy mann
“Tell Me” by Loidis
“Slob Air” by Mica Levi
“Killdozer” by Midwife
“Love You Got” by Kelly Lee Owens
“The Alternative” by Cusp
“Birds of a Feather” by Billie Eilish
“Drifts II” by Elori Saxl
“Bad News” by Hovvdy
“Soft Power” by Ezra Feinberg
“Dog Days” by Dehd
dan's a brat when he's bumping that
are you copying obama