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Today: November 9, 2024
August 4, 2024
5 mins read

Summer classics playlist: 5 artists pick sunshine tracks

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From road-trip energy to lazy-days vibes, artists including Nia Archives, Joe Goddard, Beabadoobee, Arlo Parks and Lias Saoudi name the best summer tunes of the past decade

Nia Archives

The DJ, producer and singer-songwriter is a rising star of UK jungle and drum’n’bass. Her debut album, Silence Is Loud, is nominated for the 2024 Mercury prize. She tours from 30 October

Joe Goddard

Co-founder of electronic record label Greco-Roman and member of Hot Chip; his third solo album, Harmonics, is out now on Domino. He tours from 16 August

This song came out recently – I heard it two weeks ago and loved the vibe. I really liked the Dare’s big tune Girls last year. Perfume is really cool: it’s New York indie sleaze vibes, sort of retro. It’s a good song to listen to when you’re getting ready, or when you’re going from A to B, maybe on the way to the pub. Wherever, really. I just have it on loop at the moment. Some songs are definitely more suited to listening to in the sunshine, and some songs you need to listen to in the rain. My favourite thing about summer is the festivals. It’s been quite an intense one this year, but I do love it. I’m on the road a lot so it’s nice to travel, explore new places, taste new foods, and chase the sunshine, because we didn’t really get any here this year.

This record is very new and I have been listening to it a lot recently. Channel Tres has been around for a few years now, releasing great stuff. I saw him live a while back in Australia, it was an incredible show. What I think is really great about it is he comes from a hip-hop world – I came across him through his work with Tyler, the Creator and people like that – and he’s moved into this space which is very Prince-like. It’s a little bit house and grimy disco and he’s really smashing it, particularly with this new one. To me, it feels like a summer record. It’s the kind of music you want to listen to driving down the PCH [Pacific Coast Highway]. It’s very much made for hot weather and late nights: it’s laid back, the mix is incredible, and it makes me want to be outside drinking cocktails.

James Smith (Yard Act)

The Mercury-nominated Leeds post-punk outfit put out their second album, Where’s My Utopia?, earlier this year. They are currently on tour across the UK and Europe

I do love the sunshine. I think the rays give us a much needed boost of serotonin in this country. This track came out in 2018, before Yard Act had started and I was DJing a lot around Leeds – I’d moved away from doing late nights and club nights, and I was doing afternoon, early-evening slots around bars and on terraces. There was a place called Headrow House, and friends working in the city would come and have a drink and hang out while I was DJing. It felt like a simpler time, very carefree. This track reminds me of that summer specifically: it’s a downtempo, throwback disco soul tune. I love Unknown Mortal Orchestra. He taps into hedonism very well, but with a real sense of melancholy that penetrates through it. I read through the lyrics yesterday, and I didn’t realise how scathing it was – “As sweeter a sting”. Apparently he wrote it for his daughter. But it’s bittersweet: it’s euphoric and uplifting but there’s also that warning about the dangers of the world. I think we should always have those at the back of our mind when we’re sipping an ice-cold beer in the sun.

Arlo Parks

The London singer-songwriter won the Mercury prize for her debut album in 2021, along with Grammy and Brit award nominations. Earlier this year, she had writing credits on Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter

Fleshless Hand by ML Buch (2023)

Photograph: Ani Liv Kampe, Agnete Hannibal Petri & ML Buch

The songs I listen to in the summer always have this bittersweetness and this eeriness, which gives a fuller, richer experience when you’re lying in the sun. There’s something really emotional about this song, in a way that’s quite complicated. ML Buch is an artist from Denmark – I was reading about her process, and she records a lot of her vocals in the car and in motion. I’ve always gravitated to a more DIY sensibility when it comes to music, that shoegazey indie space, especially in the summer, because that’s a time of year when I feel really inspired. My favourite line is the opening: “The sun starts a fire / Sun starts a fire across the sky.” Linking that to the blazing heat of summer is really beautiful. There’s something dreamy about this song – otherworldly almost. I do think music sounds better in summer. There’s a sense of hope that envelops the city when it’s hot. And music is most beautiful when it is shared – I think that’s why music in the summer just hits different.

London singer-songwriter Beatrice Laus releases her Rick Rubin-produced third studio album, This Is How Tomorrow Moves, on 16 August via Dirty Hit

Are you one by Basement (2019)

I discovered this recently. A band called Title Fight have been on my summer playlist a lot, and one of the related artists Spotify showed was Basement. They’re an awesome band. I love the chorus – it’s a melody I wish I’d come up with. I like it when a band has the sweetest, most romantic lyrics, and they’re screaming them over a raging guitar. I love the lyrics: “Cos I’ve been waiting / Waiting for the end / Maybe we could be / Sweet eternity / Are you the one?” It’s a cool song for summer. It’s giving “road trip song” – it feels like you should be driving and listening to this. The chords are so open and it feels so freeing. What I love most about the summer is when it’s actually sunny in London. When Brits see sun, they’re like: “Oh my God, we have to take every opportunity to soak up this little amount of sun.”

Lias Saoudi (Fat White Family)

The south London band put out their fourth album, Forgiveness Is Yours, earlier this year on Domino. Saoudi is also a member of the groups Moonlandingz and Decius

The opening line is tough when you’re writing lyrics, but this one’s great: “I’ll wear a watch on each wrist so I cannot be missed.” You’re that obsessed with the time of day, but what are you waiting for that’s so important? It turns out: good times! I also love the notion of wanting to just spontaneously combust. You don’t really hear about spontaneous combustion any more. The idea used to make me really anxious as a kid. This song sounds like summer: good times at the highest possible cost. You can sustain that in the summer because there’s all this regenerative energy and vitamin D, so you can push it slightly further. You can go up in flames if you want, and maybe you’ll be all right by next week. Other than Christmas tunes, I think pretty much everything sounds better at this time of year. I’d say the ideal scenario for this song would be sunbathing, maybe in the Maghreb, Morocco or Algeria, with the aroma of someone else’s sausages carrying over gently on the breeze.

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