Spotify: JTL FM: This Summer
Look, those white linen dungarees you bought in a frustrated, which way is up moment back in the deepest, darkest depths of winter are not going to wear themselves. The breeze won’t catch the light tick of their fabric, and you’ll never savor the aroma of Impossible Burgers grilling as you sip a Stiegl Radler with Hendrick’s over ice and catch someone’s eye across the side yard in the fading light of a warm June evening. This will never happen if you don’t let it. It’s key, in these clown show times, that you take a sloppy, mirthful bite out of your warm weather weekend, and watch the soy leghemoglobin drip down the bun and soak into your pant leg. Because woo! My god, you look good today.
Camila Cabello’s “OMG” could be a contender for the vaunted “Song of the Summer” perch; after all, it was designed and built to seize that gauntlet. In the same way, “Fuego,” from 2018 Eurovision finalist Eleni Foureira, feels purpose-built for elation. Or as the peanut gallery in the GLONO break room put it, “‘Fuego’ takes place in that moment when someone on a rope swing lets go and splashes into the cool water of the secret lake out by the armory, only that instant is stretched out for the entire summer.”
After a round of powerful live shows in support of 2016’s Puberty 2, Mitski has returned with “Geyser,” from her forthcoming fifth full-length. Grace, grab, yearn, riff: this track has everything a hot summer night spent on the roof of a garage needs. Savory new material abounds in the set, from Mitski to the welcome return of Madrid’s own Hinds (“Finally Floating”), the heady grooves of J-Cole’s “KOD,” and “Black Walls (Minimal Oxygen)” from Chromatics, house band at the Bang Bang Bar in Twin Peaks, Wash. And don’t forget to pack your glitter cannon, because Rita Ora is out here writing songs about her ex Cara Delevigne, and her pals Cardi B, Charli XCX, and Bebe Rexha were happy to roll through. Roll J’s, love kush.
What is Summer without throwbacks? May, June, July, and August 2001 called, and they are STILL kickin’ it to “Let Me Blow Ya Mind” from Eve and Gwen. If sixties bossa nova goes better with your cocktail, please take a seat on the patio and tune in Nara Leão’s effortless “Chegança.” And don’t forget about the funky pulse of 1970’s Lagos, Nigeria, either. How could you? Not while the Ify Jerry Krusade is around, you won’t.
Music sounds better in the summer. Laughs are louder, food is better, and white linen never looked so good. So roll your windows down and listen as the Jeep next to you bumps the new Ariana, or Migos and Drake, or Rich the Kid. Swoon to Miguel singing en español. Because like Leon Bridges says, “If It Feels Good (Then It Must Be).”
Apple Music: JTL FM: This Summer