Good morning, folks,
I am a week behind schedule. Last week, when I sat down to write this, I decided to do a playlist inspired by the changing of the seasons, with song titles referencing different seasons and months. I chose to do this as a sort of commemoration of the end of summer 2021, which was without a doubt the best summer of my life and likely the best season of my life. I did, however, tempt fate by choosing this. I ran into some issues immediately after starting. None of you asked, but as the weather cools, my yearly cagefight with my demons begins as I attempt to ward off what seems to be some flavor of seasonal affective disorder (please reference my monthly average mood chart on figure 2).
The music, yes! Playlist link is also here.
Águas De Março (Waters of March) - Antônio Carlos Jobim, Elis Regina - Elis
I think I like starting these playlists with a pleasant bossa nova track as a sort of palate cleanser before launching into the rest of the music. I’ve certainly got a wealth of these tracks hanging around my library, but I’ll concede that I am leaning a little hard on the Jobim and Elis Regina as of late. I am okay with this, because Rolling Stone listed this song as the second best Brazilian track of all time (link in Portuguese, of which I speak a rudimentary amount). I have to say, I’ve always found Jobim’s weird groveling at the end to be really odd! I’ll devote the rest of this description to a block quote from this track’s Wikipedia page, which is wonderfully written.
“The inspiration for "Águas de Março" came from Rio de Janeiro's rainiest month. March is typically marked by sudden storms with heavy rains and strong winds that cause flooding in many places around the city. The lyrics and the music have a constant downward progression much like the water torrent from those rains flowing in the gutters, which typically would carry sticks, stones, bits of glass, and almost everything and anything.”
Fall In Love (Your Funeral) - Erykah Badu - New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh)
This is one of my favorite tracks from deeply odd multi-hyphenate Erykah Badu. Is it a little too long? Probably. It did take a couple of months to grow on me, actually, so I encourage you to give it another chance around the end of the year. “Fall In Love” masterfully samples Eddie Kendrick’s “Intimate Friends,” which is a great song in its own right. I encourage you to check it out if you liked this!
Walk Out to Winter - Aztec Camera - High Land, Hard Rain
Aztec Camera, the project of Scotsman Roddy Frame, knocks it out of the park on this one recommended to me by my good friend Peter Torrente. What an incredible opening riff! I will be referencing another Scottish 80s band on an episode soon, so I won’t spoil, but I am such a big fan of the unique sound from this era. I believe Peter found it on the George Clanton’s Favorite Songs playlist, an excellent source of cool new tracks which I highly recommend.
Sure As Spring - La Luz - It’s Alive
Modern surf rock band captures a summery sound on their track “Sure As Spring”, is something I would say if I worked for a music blog. I love the organ solo on this song, as well as the dreamy vocal harmonies. It reminds me of Cayucas and their most recent album, which very nearly got onto this playlist.
Summer Breeze - The Main Ingredient - Euphrates River
Did you hear that? Right at the beginning? I got you more harp music, enjoy! I didn’t remember this track in time for episode 2, but of course it fit this episode’s theme as well. Though this group is best known for their track “Everybody Plays the Fool,” a track I am not linking to because I think it could be fun in another episode, some other fun facts include that the main vocalist on this track is Cuba Gooding, Sr., father of the actor (and bad guy).
Autumnbreeze - Master Soul Boy - Autumnbreeze/Singmetosleep
Master Soul Boy, a new favorite musician of mine from England, delivers with his characteristic vocal layering, mastery of the keyboards and whatnot on this song. I am certain that if I committed myself to music, I would try and make stuff like this. I love the sound of the keyboard as well as the DIY nature of the production. Yet another great musician in the tradition of James Blake, Jacob Collier, etc etc.
Hot Fun in the Summertime - Sly & the Family Stone - non-album single
Listening to this track in the fall feels illegal, so for those of you in the Northeast United States, I encourage you to listen later this week as the weather enters the mid-to-high 70s. I don’t know if you’ll be able to capture it, but there really is nothing like going for a drive on a summer day, windows down, and playing this bad boy at a respectful volume so as not to bother passersby.
Spooky - Dusty Springfield - (1970 single, I think? unclear)
Though this track qualifies on a technicality because of the presence of the word “Spring” in Dusty’s surname, it really does capture a distinctly fall-ish feeling, for those of you who like that sort of thing. Perhaps a spooky episode could be in the cards for the end of the month?
Summer Love - Justin Timberlake - FutureSex/LoveSounds
Yes, I really am a big fan of Justin Timberlake’s first couple of albums. The little bridge from 2:40-3:00 is a cool reprieve from the blaring keys- which I also like!- present throughout the rest of the track. I’m not a huge scholar of *NSYNC’s work, but I am told by the Internet that this is reminiscent of their work.
All Summer Long - The Beach Boys - All Summer Long
I don’t even like the beach (I’ve gone swimming twice in the past five years) but this song makes me want to go out to the south shore of Long Island with a cooler full of ice-cold Coca-Cola and some fudgsicles or something. (can you believe that’s how it’s spelled?). Hot take alert, but the Beach Boys were really good at vocal harmonies, and it shows on all 129 seconds of this song. The whole album is just trite little ditties about getting into a longboard car (pictured below) with some pretty ladies who you met at the soda fountain, and they all go hard. Highly recommend.
SUMMER - THE CARTERS - THE CARTERS
Yes, there are a lot of songs about summer here. Beyoncé carries this song. Like, she’s doing her cool thing with her deep singing voice and Jay-Z is just yelling “LET IT BREATHE!” atonally. I do like his verse, to be fair, but still. None of this description is terribly groundbreaking.
Sweet November - SZA - Z
New Jersey’s very own SZA flexes her considerable vocal talent on this gorgeous track. It is officially credited as having been produced by Marvin Gaye, because the instrumental is fully just a Marvin Gaye instrumental, “Mandota”. It is genuinely the same instrumental, just lifted. I’m not complaining about the combo, just surprised and grateful!
Samba de Verão (Summer Samba) - Marcos Valle - Marcos Valle
This album cover is such a vibe. Goals. Sorry for the uncreative language. No one man should have all those beverages. The track itself has that specific, distinctly electric-sounding keyboard sound present in a lot of 80s Brazilian sound. I’ll be candid. To me, though I like the track a lot, that’s a little off-putting to me because it reminds me of the $200 Yamaha keyboard, with the non-weighted keys, that I learned how to play piano on as a wee child. It offered a lot of not great keyboard sounds you could switch around, many of which sounded like the ones present here.
Spring of Choice - Gabriel Sayer, Riley Geare - (Single)
Gabriel Sayer, the solo project of Gabriel Gundacker, also known for his work on Vine/social media more generally, Fat Night, and his ode to Richard Dreyfuss, continues perfecting his singular glitchy sound with Riley Geare. I was fortunate enough to see Fat Night live last month, which was a great, great show. You’ll be hearing from them on future episodes.
Summer Soft - Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life
I maintain the right to do a playlist and email exclusively on this album in the future. I feel that it’s a great way to cap off a playlist reminiscing on the end of a summer. Below, please find a tweet from Thundercat that I think about frequently.
Folks, thanks for your patience and reading through. I wanted to tell you that I appreciate this nice work from you in particular:
(many of you open the emails multiple times so the numbers appear off, but I am just showing you what I’m seeing)
To make up for my week off, I will be sharing a reflection - not a review - on a favorite album of mine sometime this week or next. I also strive to return us to the biweekly schedule I’d established by doing another playlist next Tuesday/Wednesday.
Happy listening!
Love this content, great theme, but… come on… no representation for the FOUR SEASONS & Franky Valli?!?! Their top song is DECEMBER. OH WHAT A NIGHT!!!! NJ needs the love.