Friday OT #1 - Feels Like Summer

[Angie]

Thanks so much, @Entropy (that's a sentence I've never written organically) for this great idea!

What are the music albums that embody summer to you? Could be an album that you played for a particular summer or one that reminds you of summer.

For me, The Chronic is an album that didn't come out in summer at all, but had just reached platinum right before the summer, and was everywhere. You couldn't go to a pool party in 1993 without hearing "**** With Dre Day."

What are yours?

 

[cycloneG]

Maybe a little heavy handed, Homebase by DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince. Summertime!

 

[Angie]

Maybe a little heavy handed, Homebase by DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince. Summertime!

That was my other immediate thought - that was 100% the summer jam for years. Honestly, Will Smith was pretty good at dropping big singles right before summer, if I remember correctly.

 

[GMackey32]

Hoodie and the Blowfish - Cracked Rear View

I still listen to this album when enjoying beers on my deck.

 

[Angie]

Hoodie and the Blowfish - Cracked Rear View

I still listen to this album when enjoying beers on my deck.

For some reason, I remember this album and Dave Matthews' "Ants Marching" being huge around the same time. I did not personally love either, but remember that they were infectious! My spouse was a Hootie fan, and this is a source of much discussion over the years.

 

[Entropy]

Thanks @Angie. Glad you like the idea.

I have several for different times in my life.

Summer 97/98 - Phish “A Live One”
I worked at a summer camp with a bunch of Phishheads and this was on heavy rotation.

Summer 2002/3 - Wilco “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot”
I spent most of my summer inside a lab doing research and this album was how I relaxed afterwards.

Summer 2012 - The Lumineers “The Lumineers”
My first summer working in the BWCA and this was an album that was easy to sing when paddling across the lakes.

 

[oldman]

"Brothers In Arms" by Dire Straits. We listened to it HARD while going to Wyoming backpacking right before school started.

 

[jcyclonee]

As much as any album, "1984" by Van Halen. Panama was released during the summer.

I know it's a compilation album and a lot of people don't like his music but "Songs You Know by Heart" by Jimmy Buffett reminds me an awful lot of boating on the Okoboji Lakes.

 

[JP4CY]

This. 100% this.

 

[BCClone]

Kenny Chesney The Road and the Radio.

I announce some local softball games (used to do baseball), and always have to break into a few of these, especially summertime, for tweener songs.

 

[Gunnerclone]

 

[cyclones500]

Several would fit the bill for me, but when someone says "summer album," this is usually the first that comes to mind.



It was released in August '86, but I associate it with summer '87. I didn't own the LP until late-fall that year, but by the next summer it was in heavy rotation. It also "sounds" like a summer album to me.

Lyrics from the opening track, "Good Guys and Bad Guys," fits a laid-back seasonal vibe, too, although I'm guessing it was intended at least partly to be satirical.

"So just get high while the radio's on
Just relax and sing a song
Drive your car up on the lawn ... "

 

[throwittoblythe]

I don't have an album, necessarily, but this song by the Nadas always reminds me of summer. I'm not sure why, other than maybe I just discovered it in summertime.

 

[Sigmapolis]

The summer of love album of the summer of love...

I think the ultimate one for me will always be this one, though.

Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!) by the Beach Boys

"The Girl from New York City"
"Help Me, Rhonda"
"California Girls"
"Let Him Run Wild"
"You're So Good to Me"
"Summer Means New Love"

That is about as summer-themed as you can make an album.

 

[Pat]

There are probably at least a dozen CDs that got super-heavy summer rotation in the Discman hooked up to my car’s cassette deck, but the one that stands out is Pete Yorn’s musicforthemorningafter. On the first days of spring where it’s warm enough to roll down the windows, it always seems to wind up playing.
Honorable mention: Enema of the State.