My Summer Music Playlist (So Far), From Vetiver and Neutral Milk to Simon & Garfunkel
No, it doesn't feel like summer. And, if we're lucky, the Seattle summer will start a day earlier than usual and we'll have a happy Fourth. But my summer playlist is coming into focus. I've still got room for more, but here's a look at what's dominating my leisure listening this season:
Renee McMahon Sub Pop released Vetiver's new record, The Errant Charm, on June 14.
Simon & Garfunkel, Bookends (April 3, 1968): I brought the Bookends cassette out to Sasquatch! and I've been spinning S&G constantly ever since. Like Neutral Milk, I'm certainly not new to these guys, but for some reason, they seem to be resonating particularly strongly with me right now. There's something about the percussive way Simon strums his guitar, and the distinctly urban nods in his lyrics, that are particularly refreshing against the backdrop of so much Americana nostalgia from young, urban songwriters of late.
Jesse Sykes, Marble Son (Aug. 2, 2011): This is a Sykes album you can listen to on repeat. Her vocals have had a tendency to grate after heavy rotation in the past. Blended sparsely here among the guitars during the five- and six-minute jams, her vocals are tastier than they've ever been.
Neutral Milk Hotel, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (Feb. 10, 1998): A wise woman (cough, Hannah Levin) once wrote that some albums just come to different people at different times. This classic caught me good about two months ago, and has been a near daily-listen ever since. I don't know why it resonates stronger this year than any other of the past decade, but it has.
Vetiver, The Errant Charm (June 14, 2011): This is the newest addition to my summer playlist. But it's obvious that that these mellow jams are going to keep me company well past Labor Day.
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