Gift Two – Kate
January 28, 2008
In a season of muddy snow, scrapping off car windows, the gloom of short days and long nights, the cold and solitude, I want to share with you a moment of summer. A taste of long, warm evenings with friends, slurpees, sun screen and flying kites. I think P. Diddy said it best, “There’s 3 things I like about the Summertime: Drop-tops, long hot nights, and summer love… “
So roll down the window, stick your head out and let the warm breeze brush your face. My gift to The Collective is some summer love.
List of Songs to be found under the playlist: Summer Mix
- Cat Stevens – The Wind
- Elbow – Fugitive Motel
- Band of Horses – Great Salt Lake
- The Mamas and the Papas – California Dreamin’
- Emeliana Torrini – Unemployed in Summertime
- The Postal Service – The Dream of Evan and Chan
- The Smashing Pumpkins – 1979
- Arcade Fire – In the Backseat
- Ryan Adams – New York, New York
- The Smiths – There is a Light That Never Goes Out
- M. Ward – Chinese Translation
- Kate Bush – Cloudbusting
- Radiohead – Subterranean Homesick Alien
- Amy Winehouse – You Know I’m No Good
- Modest Mouse – Dashboard
- Bjork – All is Full Of Love
- The Veils – Lavinia
- David Grey – Sail Away
- Vanessa Carlton – I’m The One
Featured songs:
Band of Horses – The Great Salt Lake
The Mamas and the Papas – California Dreamin
Radiohead – Subterranean Homesick Alien
Solid. Good summer picks. Particularly “Cloudbusting”, which is basically the only summer song on Hounds of Love. There were also some very nice song combos in here, like Emeliana > DNTel > Pumpkins… seamless! Also excellent was Veils > David Gray. Summer love, indeed! My only beef: where’s “Fugitive Motel” by Elbow?
This is a very interesting mix for me.
I actually find it very non-summer, save for a few songs. Most of the songs put me in a very autumn/winter mood (mostly autumn).
California Dreamin, par exemple, the unnamed anthem of this mix with a lyric vastly darker than the title suggests. Through the words unspoken in the lyric I hear a person in torment. Maybe over love. “California Dreamin”, a parallel to something or someone better. The grass is always greener… “I’d be safe and warm if I was in L.A.” But would I?
The tracks here that speak true summer to me are “New York, New York”, “1979″ and “Chinese Translation”.
I am not prepared to comment on this mix yet. soon.
A note to Dustin: I did happen to include Fugitive Motel by Elbow on the mix, it was #2. The distant sound of a dog barking on that song is what gives it a significant summer feel.
I really appreciate Mark’s comment on how the mix made him feel “very non-summer” but more autumn. It is a great example of how music effects everyone individually. Most of these songs were chosen because they represent a time in my life that they were meaningful to me- mostly the summer that Dustin and I got married. But just as with any art form, the viewer/listener receives it through their own filter of feelings and experiences. This is what makes music so incredibly special and important.
If I were to make a autumn mix I would probably include Bjork: All is Full of Love (#16 from the mix) from Vespertine. That album is very “fall” to me.
I do agree with Mark on the feel. But the feeling I get is an overcast winter day. However, I also agree with Kate on why she feels this mix is summer for her. Things like that can be very relative. I’m really digging Elbow. And Band of Horses is very reminiscent to a band that I used to listen to years ago, but I can’t put my finger on it.
I haven’t heard Kate Bush in years and I absolutely forgot how much I loved her voice! I’m really jonesin’ to hear “Running Up That Hill”. Do you have that song?
i just found that song on your iTunes. i’ve just been taken back to my sophomore year in highschool hanging out with my boyfriend, jay. it’s amazing what music can tap into.
Kate,
Totally agree on the mood of Vespertine. ‘Pagan Poetry’ haunts me!
This mix has yet to ‘grab’ me. I have listened through it a few times and to be honest, I tune it out most of the time. I sort of forget it is playing. Maybe the length – 19 songs is fairly ambitious for a mix. Tracks 6-10 hold me, but then I taper off. I don’t have any individual song opinions at this point.
Josh, remind me to “tune out” your gift when it comes around.
The elements that make this a summer mix are themes, sound, and lyrics. For example, a summer theme would be alluded to by parts of the song taking place in a comfortable outdoor setting (“The Wind”,”Unemployed in Summertime”, “There is a Light that Never Goes Out”) Or have a listless feel, causing the singer to muse about traveling (“Great Salt Lake”, “Fugitive Motel”, “1979″, “Subterranean Homesick Alien”, “In The Backseat”, “Sail Away”). But perhaps the most persuasive to me is the sound. To me summer songs either have straightforward triumphant pop sound (“New York, New York”, “Cloudbusting”, “You Know I’m No Good”, “Im the One”, “Sail Away”)… or better still, the echoing, shoegazer sound of music being heard from a distance as it drifts, languidly, through the warm, dense air of June-August. (must I list all the rest?) This is my case for the summer mix… am I not convincing?