Summertime Music

[kenjari]

In honor of the long-overdue arrival of summery weather, I got out and listened to the two albums that I most strongly associate with summer: "Daydream Nation" by Sonic Youth and "Painful" by Yo La Tengo. There are other things in my CD collection that also go well with summer weather, but it is these two that seem to most naturally inhabit the hotter months. Some of the strong association may be that I first heard and grew to love each of those albums during summer. But I do think there's something about the songs and the sounds themselves. Nothing conjures up the feeling of a hot July day like the opening of "Daydream Nation" - that little guitar riff isn't nearly as satisfying if listened to on a snowy day in January (unless the goal is to remind myself of what summertime feels like). And Yo La Tengo's warm, almost reedy guitar sound is so strongly associated with June weather in my mind, that I often find myself pulling out the album to listen to at the very beginning of spring, as if it will speed the good weather along.

So what music do other people associate with summer?

Comments

[boof-boy.livejournal.com]

For me it has to be Virginia Astley's wonderful album From Gardens Where We Feel Secure. It's a concept album about the English countryside, all instrumental. I think you'd like it.

[kenjari.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the recommendation! I'll have to check it out.