By wink of water

My apartment is unbearably hot. The cats can’t do much more than search out the coolest corner and sleep, except at night, when they delight in knocking things off the dresser. This whole week it’s been in the upper 80s. Work has moved to a nice new building at Place d’Italie, where we have plenty of space and air conditioning, though the latter has yet to actually work.

Summer means music, specifically pop, specifically infectious, danceable, gooey stuff that I always associate with hot days and long, fun nights. I went in search of the latest and greatest while in the States, but even the Miami Beach clubs weren’t playing anything new. A quick tour through Billboard’s singles this year reveals why – it’s been a very very bad year for pop thus far.

Luckily it’s been a fantastic year for indie, and pretty decent for remixes. So without further ado, here’s my summer mix…starts with some pop, segues into remixes, next some indie, and finally some nostalgia. (But no MJ. I actually don’t own any. Not a fan, sorry.)

1. Summertime Clothes – Animal Collective: This song is so happy, so summer. The lyrics in the beginning pretty much describe every night for me.
2. Just Dance - Lady Gaga ft. Colby O Donis: I think this might be the best pop song of 2009. Lady Gaga has some pretty stupid songs, but I actually think the lyrics on this one are funny (maybe unintentionally so).
3. Old Time’s Sake – Eminem & Dr. Dre: Eminem’s new album is definitely better than Encore, but not as good as any of the others. This is my favorite song off it, classic Dre, the two of them not taking themselves very seriously.
4. Kids – Chiddy Bang: MGMT sample, fantastic.
5. Boom Boom Pow – Black Eyed Peas: It’s my understanding that the Black Eyed Peas is getting lots of playtime right now. Maybe they’ve released the seminal summer songs this year? They were better with Fergie, oh well.
6. The Fear – Lily Allen: She’s so great.
7. Halo – Beyoncé: So I don’t like Beyoncé as much as I like Rihanna, but I have to admit, she has a better voice. Rihanna couldn’t pull off this song. Guilty pleasure, the kind of song we’d listen to in the car, windows down, really loud, belting out the high notes.
8. Armistice – Phoenix: Loving Phoenix right now. They’re playing a pricey concert at the Zenith (big venue) in October.
9. Day ‘N’ Nite (Crookers Remix) – Kid Cudi: It’s sort of a boring song, so great for a remix.
10. That’s Not My Name (LA Riots Remix) – The Ting Tings: Not really sure what’s up with The Ting Tings. They have indie cred? Somehow? Even though they’re veterans of the British version of the Mickey Mouse Club? But again, the repetition/generally catchiness works well in a remix, where you can ignore the stupidity of the lyrics.
11. Ce Jeu (D.A.D 4evr Remix) – Yelle: I totally grabbed this from The Tape and it turns out, a. it’s in French and b. it’s awesome.
12. Two Weeks – Grizzly Bear: Another great indie album released this spring.
13. The Ghost Of You Lingers – Spoon: This is my favorite song off of Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. Odd choice, I know. Something about the keyboards and the ethereal question “would you ease my mind?”
14. Soft Shock – Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Missing them at Belfort this weekend. I love this song, love her voice, so sweet, so sad – “what’s the time, what’s the day, gonna leave me?”
15. Why Can’t I? – Liz Phair: Came on while on shuffle the other day. Nostalgic.
16. Mona Lisa – Guster: And the quintessential in nostalgia. Early college. Man, these guys have been around a long time now. Fun fact #1: they went to Tufts. Fun fact #2: they played ultimate there. A few years later, they came to watch Sectionals before their performance at Spring Fling.

Enjoy! (Link in comments section on facebook, or email me.)

This entry was posted on Friday, July 3rd, 2009 at 5:39 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.