Summer 2022 Playlist: Annotated
Let’s go on a journey, shall we? Amazingly, I created my Summer 2022 playlist the day before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, but it already told a story of rage, despair, and finding a way to muddle through no matter what.
1) “Training Montage” by The Mountain Goats - “I’m doing this for revenge.” Somehow The Mountain Goats always have the right song for the moment. And it’s brand new, too! John Darnielle just knows somehow. He’s a prophet.
2) “The Hardest Cut” by Spoon - This is a song about being on the run, hunted down. Sound familiar?
3) “Hippy Elite” by Billy Nomates - Found this one on a Discover Weekly playlist. It’s about the cynical feeling that comes over you when you’re so sick of performative activism, when nothing you could do feels like enough, and no one will ever give you credit for what you do, anyway. Is this a positive, helpful attitude? No—but I think it’s normal to feel this way sometimes!
4) “Next to Normal” by Lucius - First of all: disco is the moment. (Maybe not that surprising, since we’re rolling things back to the 1970s. Sigh.) This is a song about being with people who make you feel good even when everything else feels shitty. We need those people more than ever.
5) “Dystopia (The Earth is on Fire)” by YACHT - A friend introduced me to this song a million years ago (by which I mean something like 2013). Recently it popped up on a playlist and I couldn’t help but notice how well it captured the vibe of 2022. The earth literally is on fire!!
6) “Phenom” by Thao & The Get Down Stay Down - “Don’t you fucking touch me, I will gnash gnash gnash.” This is a song about violent urges.
7) “Selfish Soul” by Sudan Archives - This is a song about loving yourself no matter what other people think of you. It’s an important thing to remember when, as previously mentioned, the earth is on fire. People are going to judge you for every little thing, and that’s their problem.
8) “Desert Horse” by Melody’s Echo Chamber - This French song is about bleeding and it also involves screaming. Let’s all scream together, bien?
9) “It’s a good day (to fight the system)” by Shungudzo - Some days it feels easier, better to fight back than others. This song is for those days.
10) “Steal My Sunshine” by Portugal, The Man feat. Cherry Glazerr - Then comes the part when you sink into denial and try to glaze everything over with sugary pop music. This nostalgic cover should do the trick.
11) “Music for a Sushi Restaurant” by Harry Styles - See the aforementioned note about sugary pop music.
12) “A Minha Menina” by Os Mutantes - You know that Emma Goldman quote that gets butchered everywhere? I don’t even know what the real quote is—Goodreads says: “If I can’t dance to it, it’s not my revolution.” Anyway, this is the part where we start dancing.
13) “En Busca de Mi Amada” by Juaneco Y Su Combo - The dance party continues. Side note: I love living in the age of digital music because it allows me to spend my summer listening to Peruvian songs from the 60s and 70s that I never would have discovered otherwise.
14) “Effigy” by Creedence Clearwater Revival - I wasn’t alive during the Vietnam War, but based on the music from that era, I’m guessing things felt similarly horrific and urgent. According to this song, the world was burning then, too.
15) “Dream Girl Evil” by Florence + The Machine - “I’ve been expecting you, I’m ready. Deliver me that bad news, baby.” People think we’re evil? Great. Bring it.
16) “He Was a Guitar Player and Now Plays Machinegun in Vietnam” by Pompeo Stillo & The Companions - Back to the Vietnam War for a second. I find this song fascinating! It popped up on a Discover Weekly playlist, and I can find hardly anything about it on the internet. All I’ve got is this audio interview from 1977 recorded in Chicago, after he emigrated from the Calabria region of Italy. The song is so plaintive. We’re allowed to mourn what we’ve lost, too.
17) “I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor” by Baby Charles - Back to dancing! We need to keep that energy up. This is a goddamn amazing cover.
18) “Get Lost in the Music” by Ambar Lucid - This is a song about drugs. But it’s also about moving forward, finding joy where you can. “What's the point of living if you're already dead?”
19) “Edge of Midnight (Midnight Sky Remix)” by Miley Cyrus, feat. Stevie Nicks - I love this mashup of Miley Cyrus’ “Midnight Sky” with Stevie Nicks’ “Edge of Seventeen.” It takes away the lyrically creepier parts of Nicks’ song and combines the two into a forceful ballad about needing no one’s approval. (No shade on “Edge of Seventeen"—it’s one of my all-time fav karaoke songs. But it is creepy, let’s admit it. I like to pretend that she’s referring to the other edge of seventeen, i.e. eighteen.)
20) “Forever in Sunset” by Ezra Furman - “The future is a text message sending out, out, out.” They can’t bring us backward—progress happens no matter what. Our fighting will only bring it about sooner. We’re on the right side of history.
21) “Miles from Nowhere” by Yusuf Islam (fka Cat Stevens) - I put this song on here because I’m obsessed with Our Flag Means Death, and I wanted to bring you all back to the most emotionally devastating part of the show. I’m just devious that way. BUT ALSO this song is about going on a long, hard journey and knowing how good it will be once you reach the end: “I have my freedom. I can make my own rules. Oh yeah, the ones that I choose.” We’ll get there.
Need more Summer music?