SOUND Summer Playlist ’12
Look outside. Feel it on your skin. See it in the streets. It’s that time of year again.
The sun is heating up the asphalt of the concrete jungles of New York City and the shores of Coney Island. Texans seek shelter in shaded, air conditioned bliss (when they aren’t floating a river or wakeboarding on the lake). Midwestern malls are filling up with angst-y preteens and carefree young adults who no longer have boring classes and stupid tests to impede on the fun. As snow melts atop the peaks of the mountain west, everyone in the Four Corners is packing up their skis and snowboards in exchange for tents, sleeping bags, kayaks and carabiners. And out near Los Angeles along the Newport coast, rolling the windows down elicits a warm sea breeze as it wafts past the palm trees and Bentley-driving celebs, accompanied by the sound of kids playing in the sand.
Summer, it’s been far too long since we last met.
Thankfully, the surge in warm weather and a sudden sensation of freedom also mean something else. That’s right: it’s time for the next installation of everyone’s favorite collection of summertime tunes. Last year’s playlist was a raging success, and we expect nothing less of this year’s set, which will be updated in daily, one-track installations. So hop out of those tanning beds (for your skin’s sake, if nothing else), put down the junk food (for your dating life, if nothing else) and turn up the volume — this is your fantastic summer in music.
“Feel It All Around” – Washed Out
Just listen to that opening, would you? The steady bass riff, the top notes that sound like sunlight bursting through trees and signature choral-synth underneath it all comes together to form a soundtrack that’s as refreshing as a slow-motion cannonball into a pool.
The creative minds behind Portlandia apparently agree with this, seeing as this track from Ernest Greene’s second EP, Life of Leisure, is used in the hit IFC comedy’s title credits. If you hadn’t figured it out by now, Greene is the musician and “Washed Out” is his stage name, but whatever you want to call him/it/them, there’s no denying the way our opening track for this year’s Summer Playlist immerses you in absolute summertime bliss.
A life of leisure, indeed.
Feel It All Around – Washed Out by Constant Artists
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