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Tokyo Rush - Haruomi Hosono (1978)
You gotta start things off with a blast, and "Tokyo Rush" is just that. While The Yellow Magic Orchestra has been getting a lot of love online as of late, I don't see as much appreciation for Haruomi Hosono's solo work. I always love Hosono's use of layering to create incredibly lush and vibrant soundscapes, but in this track he uses that method to approximate the sounds of a busy Tokyo street, with overlapping rhythms and sound effects peppered in. If there's one song that's going to get you up and moving this summer (maybe even outside your home), this track is it.
My Baby Loves Sad Songs - Boyce & Hart (1969)
Boyce & Hart will always primarily be known as songwriters for The Monkees, but they also penned an entire back catalog of quirky, Wall-of-Sound-inspired bubblegum pop that was never recorded by NBC's own fab four. The handful of albums Boyce & Hart recorded themselves show they didn't just understand where pop music was headed lyrically in the late-60s, but also had an ear for synthesizing the new sounds coming from rock music into catchy tunes digestible by even the most middle-of-the-road teenyboppers (and may have even made them interested in expanding their palette to the more "out there" music groups).
Blues Magician - The Bug Club (2023)
Now here's a tune you can crank at the next function without everyone wondering who the hell is on the aux right now. There's a lot to love about Bug Club's sound, and you probably won't be surprised to hear how much I dig the fact that they sound like a garage band out of time. With only a few tweaks one way or the other, Bug Club could easily sound like a group from 1967 or 1997. I'm also always a sucker for tight vocal harmonies, something they consistently feature but is sorely missing from the current rock scene (or maybe I'm just woefully uninformed. Don't send hate mail, but do send your favourite current groups nailing those harmonies).
Where's My Phone? - Mitski (2026)
Those who know me may be surprised to learn I had never listened to Mitski. Here I am, begrudgingly yet chronically online, a lonely, jaded music snob, and I didn't have Mitski to soundtrack my experience? I heard "Where's My Phone?" for the first time this summer, while listening to the radio in my apartment, hiding from the heatwave by endlessly scrolling social media. The song held a mirror to my heat-addled brain, caught in a loop of anxiety and apathy, and it was slightly reassuring to know it's not just me. We're all stuck in this hell together. I just have to put my damn phone down. It's probably also the first time I've heard an actual banger about cell phone use (again, if I'm wrong, send me those tracks).
Books About UFOs - Hüsker Dü (1985)
Back to the fun tracks. This song's been in my noggin a lot recently, and not just because my husband and I are currently rewatching The X-Files. Even though it may be a song about going to the library and reading books, "Songs About UFOs" to me sounds like one of those bizzare yet spectacular summer nights, where at 6pm you have no plans, but by 10 you find yourself stuffed into some over-capacity venue, you're smoking joints in the alley with an old friend while echoes of the band playing inside waft through the open door, you're thinking about your new crush, a girl at the library reading books about UFOs.
Long Haired Country Boy - The Charlie Daniels Band (1974)
Sometimes, you just need a song to drink beer on the porch (or balcony) in the sun to, and you have few better options for this than outlaw country. Don't we all just want to drink whiskey, smoke weed, and mind our own business? Of course, many of the men who preached this lifestyle were wild delinquents who ruined the lives of those around them, but allow me to live in my fantasy that the world would be a better place if we all lived a bit more like Charlie Daniels (or at least, what he sang). Sober up, go on a bender, quit your job, double down on your career, listen to good music, listen to bad music, just leave this long haired country boy alone.
