Summer Fun 2022 Playlist

Ahh summer! When it finally arrives, we almost can’t believe it. The ups and downs of the temperatures, and one too many chilly, wet days have teased us for so long here in the Northeast it’s started to feel downright mean. But summer is finally here! We can breathe a happy sigh of relief and ease into the heat and luxury of longer days with a deliciously slower, more languid pace. Everything’s sweeter – the fragrant breezes, the icy cold drinks and sticky treats, and an undercurrent of fun flows through the season. The long cold winter has abated, and we can revel in the warmth of the sun and sensory magic of the outdoors in its brightest, fullest green majesty.

There’s a natural soundtrack to summer – seagulls cawing, roaring surf, crickets chirping, so rains … and of course, the songs of summer. I invite you to take a listen to this year’s Summer Fun playlist, which includes a few extra tunes for the longer days ahead offered to enhance your reading, relaxing, playing, cocktail mixing, and overall enjoyment of the season. Soak it all in while it’s here – because it’s all too fleeting!

Listen via Spotify here: https://tinyurl.com/2s3kuyf5 And if you’ve got some favorites of your own, I’d love to know about them! Feel free to email me at sharonjohnsonnyc@yahoo.com and follow me on Instagram @sharnyc1.

New Moon
Steve Gunn

Jangly guitars and a traveling standup bass kick o the season in a languid tribute to the New Moon, symbolic of new beginnings and the opportunity to refresh your dreams

Doin’ Time
Lana Del Rey

On that same note, Lana offers this dreamy take on the Sublime original - which borrows from Gershwin’s Summertime – a seasonal classic.

Deep Down Way Out
Orlando Weeks

This groove that Weeks’ calls “unapologetically head noddy” is perfect for getting out into the big blue - an ocean or lake, or just gazing up at the sky from a beach blanket, or a tree-strung hammock.

Summer Girl
HAIM

After realizing the "doot doot doot” of this breezy toe tapper reminded them of Lou Reed's "Walk On The Wild Side," the HAIM sisters and their producer added a bass line in homage to that classic 1972 tune.

Island in the Sun
Weezer

Fun fact - one of Weezer’s biggest hits almost didn’t make their second album, but the producer (Cars’ Ric Ocasek) fought for its inclusion. Effortlessly, it conjures up the kicked back, relaxed beach vibes of a summer by the shore.

Jenny and the Summer Day
The Avett Brothers

Summer brings out the inner kid in all of us, and this brother duo’s downhome banjo and harmonies take us back to when this time of year meant freedom from school days and simple pleasures.

Lemonade
Rubblebucket

Now for some Lemonade! This experimental alternative act brings the sunshine through their raucous energy-filled live shows and with this fizzy mashup of genres from their most recent album Sun Machine.

Trip
Vacationer

This sophisticated indie pop group sum up the wanderlust that is summer vacation – “I need a trip, a trip’s what I need.”

Golden Hour
Kacey Musgraves

As only Kacey can sweetly remind us, the golden hour of each day can refer to the magic light of the late afternoon sun, or a summer love.

Hurricane Waters
Citizen Cope

With the heat of this season, also invariably comes summer storms. But a hurricane never sounded so good as this infectious soul driven beat from Cope’s 2004 album The Clarence Greenwood Recordings.

Nightswimming
REM

This classic from one of the best known, OG college-alternative bands is a fond, wistful look back on the thrill and almost illicit liberation of stolen night swims as a teen. Lead singer Michael Stipe says the song is about a “kind of innocence that’s either kind of desperately clung onto or obviously lost…”

Catch the Wind
Donovan

And we’ll close out Summer Fun on this old tune from 60’s icon Donovan. We may wish summer could last forever, but alas, we might as well try to catch the wind…