I’ve had three dreamy and melancholic albums on repeat for months: Recovering the Satellites by the Counting Crows, Swamp Ophelia by the Indigo Girls, and Folklore by Taylor Swift. This is wistful, pensive music, perfect for staring out windows as the rain slowly slides down the pane or for crying as you handwrite a letter to a man lost at sea. Like all the best music, the songs are mostly about love. True love, lost love, forbidden love, unrequited love, infatuation, obsession, all the ways love makes us insane. This music fit my mood this cold, rainy spring.
And then I saw my first firefly of the year and knew it was time to put some new vinyl on the turntable.
Summer has a soundtrack, music bluetoothed to be heard just above the sound of the crickets, the clanging bell of the ice cream truck, the far-off splash of someone’s cannonball. Summer is heat, freedom, celebration. As days grow longer, we embrace a shift from the structured rhythms of daily routines to the spontaneous beats of adventure, travel, and relaxation. It’s drinks on the patio, toes in the sand, driving with the windows down as you scream hold on for one more day!
Summer music is a vibe: upbeat tempos, catchy melodies, and rhythms that match the heat and passion of the season.
It’s for songs that make you feel seventeen in your heart.
For me, that means Elton John, Tom Petty, Fleetwood Mac, and Taylor Swift (Reputation and Lover, obviously). Women who are (still) pissed like Miranda Lambert and Alanis Morrisette and the Chicks. 90’s Country Radio. I mean, who can feel sad when Shania whispers let’s go, girls?
So, here’s my summer soundtrack to get you started. It’s not overly curated and it’s definitely not cool (it’s admittedly and unabashedly centered around pop and what my guitar teacher calls white people classic rock).
Some songs hold a specific memory. For instance, for the last thirty years, the Lake Herrington cabin, where the Quarters convene, only has one CD in its boom box: The Best of Salt-N-Pepa (Girls, what’s my weakness? Men!).
Some just have a certain vibe (see the entire soundtrack to The Greatest Showman, which must be played and sung at the highest volume available).
Others have a bridge or key change so powerful it makes me want to kick down a door (looking at you, Love on Top and Live Like You Were Dying).
This music is stored, not just in my heart, but in my freckles and tan lines, in the smell of coconut sunscreen, in my shoebox filled with ticket stubs and sand dollars.
Music is the heartbeat of summer. Turn it up and start dancing. And let me know below what I missed so I can make it even sunnier.
Download my Summer Soundtrack Playlist here (on Apple Music)
