Hear This! | Five Tracks to Make You Forget Fall is Here

I've started watching the television show 90210 on Netflix. And I'm hooked. While I wish I could say it's the Tori Spelling version, it's not. It's the flashy new version with the kids who are basically falling apart at The Beach Club because high school is super hard and living in gorgeous Malibu weather doesn't make life any easier.

In fairness, I figured out why I'm watching it.

As I got home from the movies last Friday night (everyone needs to see Drive with Ryan Gosling – best movie soundtrack I've heard in awhile), changed out of my damp, muggy and COLD clothes, pulled on a sweater and booted up my computer to watch a few (EIGHT) episodes of 90210, I came to a startling realization: this show was trying desperately to fill the void of summer in my life. 


While the bikinis, beaches, and the various pretty "teenagers" running through golden sands playing tether ball (ed note: I don't think they play tether ball but they really should do that more) was making me feel a bit better, I couldn't help but feel UTTER despair – summer was dying right before my eyes, and there was nothing I could do about it. Autumn is all right, but it's weather that prohibits iced beverages, shorts or outdoor fun. This is the end. Bummer.

As I closed the Netflix tab in Chrome, pulled up my sweater, and opened my iTunes, I thought about creating a new playlist – a tribute, so to speak – to summer. Here are five songs that will hopefully extend the season for AT LEAST another week!

1. David E. Sugar - "Party Killer"

In Sugar's track, the synths bubble, whizz, and stutter with such airiness that it makes me feel like I'm cruising in my imaginary convertible down some sun-drenched boulevard in Beverly Hills. The destination: a cool house party where someone is gonna give me a fun drink and the guy with the long, sort-of dirty blonde hair – that you just know is a gnarly dude – is gonna jump in the pool and splash those three girls with perma-sneers. “MY BIKINI!” the tallest and blondest of the girls will cry, “I'm not supposed to get it wet!” The camera will pan over some skateboarding dudes with backwards hats, flashes of crimped hair and the rippled waves of blue pool water.

Sugar's youth-riddled voice soundtracks this scene, and to me, Sugar's vocal delivery makes me think of the rebel with a heart of gold in a John Hughes movie – all he has is his punk attitude, a jean jacket, and a catchy synth loop. A perfect summer song.

2. Annie - "I Don't Like Your Band"

In this standout from Norwegian songstress Annie, the track loops, stutters and rumbles with the same fun and youthfulness presented by Sugar, yet Annie's thin and processed vocals conjures up the best of Stacey Q, Swedish indie star Robyn, and Madonna on acid. Annie's mocking insults about not liking her boyfriend's band is delivered with such coyness – as if she's swaying to her own harsh criticism. But she's not trying to be mean, she's just being honest!

The song's sunny energy feels right for a trip to the beach or just cruising with friends – it almost seems Annie is using these fizzy, carbonated synths to show her boy and his band what a good pop song should be about. If only all harsh criticism about music could be in itself a winning pop song.

3. Washed Out - "Echoes"

Washed Out's Ernest Greene is good at making music to chill to. In this standout from his debut LP, he captures the ambiance of summer night life – drinking beers in your best friend's backyard, dangling your bare legs off the pier, or just hanging on the patio of your favourite restaurant – the track just works. The cymbals buried beneath the track clash together like ocean waves hitting shore rocks; a beach bon fire filling the shore air with smoke while you run through sand. 

Greene's song works like an imagist poem – the instruments painting a picture of the perfect summer night. It's a track that pulsates and moves with ease, and while listening to the song in isolation reveals an intelligent and sophisticated production, the track is also able to lay low in the background as it soundtracks an evening with friends; making you feel as cool as a night summer breeze.

4. Sleigh Bells - "Kids"

Brooklyn based band Sleigh Bells are known for their ability to use audio distortion to create slick, catchy pop. The harsh audio buzz juxtaposed with precision against Alison Krauss' soft voice creates a catchy yet original body of work. In this track, originally titled "Beach Girls," the band bottles the energy of a trip to the beach, splicing in distorted dialogue to make a track you just want to blast from a stereo as your skin burns and blisters near the foamy ocean water – the redder the better, the louder the better.

5. Kisses - "Midnight Lover"

Summer lovin' doesn't always happen so fast; especially if you're Jesse Kivel from the band Kisses. In this track, Kivel moans for his unrequited summer lover – but he's not asking for anything outrageous. Kivel coos "I would like to take you out for a nice steak dinner, just me and you," and with this line, we get a sense of summer in its most maturest form: romance. Midnight walks on the beach side, or through the city – the sun gone and the air cool. Light sweaters and laughter; all worries melting away like a child's ice cream cone. 

Kivel highlights one of the best, and sometimes underestimated parts of summer: the summer fling – something that can never last, but something you can always remember. The softer part of summer exposed, and finally, somebody chose to embody the feeling through song.

What do you think? Are these songs enough to fight off summer withdrawal? Choose your favourite in the comments below!