My SOTS (Song of the Summer)
ISSUE #116
Professionals like to insist that every year has a Song of the Summer. It's a media thing. They even come to a consensus sometimes, though that's been harder and harder to do the farther we get from 2010. The idea of a whole society listening to the same song over and over feels crazier every day, unless you're talking about kids who can't reach the radio or who only listen to meme songs.
Still, I don't deny that SOTS exist. I recall vividly the summer of "Promiscuous," when I went to our carnival on the Mississippi River and rode Pharaoh's Fury thirteen times a day in what I now realize was an attempt to sublimate my first time being inconsolably horny.
So I contend that a Song of the Summer does not have to be heard by everyone, because that's impossible. No, the SOTS need only to embody the sounds of summer—though this year, contenders should have quarantine vibes as well, which makes the batch more interesting. But who really deserves the prize? Let's do the math:
JESSIE WARE | Ooh La La
Classic SOTS should make you sweat, and this one hands you an exercise bike and a free leotard.
ARCA | Mequetrefe
Cooped-up chic—this is Vyvanse brain getting you to type one-handed so the other can frantically finish up a crossword.
HAIM | The Steps
The music video nails my depression routine—refuse to get dressed, spit in the mirror, plan the day around a phone call, then go slam on some night drums.
GORILLAZ | Aries
Co—Star: Hire the guy from New Order to write you a New Order bassline.
JESSY LANZA | Anyone Around
I found this is great for empty parking lots and trying to learn how to run up walls.
RINA SAWAYAMA | XS
Big Britney energy, queen of the SOTS. We hope she's doing okay.
KNXWLEDGE | dont be afraid
I tell myself this every day!
JORJA SMITH | Rose Rouge
Hear that saxophone? Saxophones were instruments from the 80s played in warehouses by persons in jumpsuits.
DABABY | ROCKSTAR
This gets the Despacito Award of biggest hit of the year in a minor key.
CHROMATICS | TOY
There are those summers where the mother of your dead husband comes to stay with you to figure out if you were the one who did it, so you start taking Ambien just to sleep but then you keep waking up behind the wheel with no memory of how you got there and this song keeps playing on repeat.
HAYLEY WILLIAMS | Simmer
What is simmer if not summer in the first person?
THE BETHS | Acrid
Opening with "The smell of burning rubber" puts this one in the race. You can smell my neighbor's dumpster from down the block.
MUNYA | Boca Chica
The title is 100% summer and it's about moving too fast, which time always starts doing in the middle of the year.
JESS WILLIAMSON | Wind on Tin
In a world of masks, we all look like outlaws, day-drunk on our walks to the liquor store (which is this song in a nutshell).
Or you can always pick your own. We all went through our own thing this summer, and we'll be starting over next year anyway—our nationwide mulligan, back to the same age as before.
Technically, halfway through the year is next Monday, July 1st. This is a leap year, after all. They’re the only years where there’s an even split in days; the only times the divide falls at midnight, not noon.