Summer Mixtape (Labor Day Edition)

This may be the final mixtape of the season–it’s become instantly cooler since August ended and suddenly, the hot weather complaining is turning into hot weather nostalgia. It will soon be time to say goodbye to jorts, t-shirts and mini skirts, so it’s important that we get another playlist in before you start hibernating with Bon Iver and that Fleet Foxes record that everyone went gaga over. Alas, do not worry, this mix will help you hang on to summer at least through Halloween.

Let’s hear it for New York.

Jay-Z (featuring Alicia Keys) – Empire State of Mind
Curtis Mayfield – Move On Up
Michael Jackson (Telepopmusik Remix) – Remember the Time
Crystal Castles – Vanished
The xx – Heart Skipped a Beat
Camera Obscura – The Sweetest Thing
St Vincent – The Party
Cat Power – Fool
Broken Social Scene – I’m Still Your
Feist – Major Label Debut (live)

Summer Sounds Mixtape I

More than any other season, summer seems to naturally grow into its own soundtrack. This kind of natural association that forms between a track or album and a time was the primary motivation for this blog when it began. I really can’t explain why summer is the most likely season to become its own musical genre, maybe it’s major chords, or maybe it’s just sunshine.

So here it is, with as little pretense as possible, after all, a mixtape like this makes itself.

Grizzly Bear and Dead Prez – Two Weeks of Hip-Hop (The Hood Internet Mash-up)
Dirty Projectors – Stillness is the Move
YACHT – Psychic City
The Hundred in the Hands – Dressed in Dresden
Phoenix – Lisztomania (Classixx Remix)
Passion Pit – The Reeling
Santigold – Lights Out (Tepr Emo Remix)
Kleerup featuring Lykke Li – Until We Bleed
Camera Obscura – French Navy
St Vincent – The Party
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Heads Will Roll

Color Explosions And

Lately I’ve been listening to the new Camera Obscura album to help decide whether or not to see them this Wednesday at Webster Hall. The album evokes many familiar images, and its carefree folk vocals along with the use of twangy-country strings first made me think of She & Him with less prominent guitar parts. The compositions of both are comparably melancholy, and both immediately remind me of 60′s country, but what distinguishes them is the depth of sonic layers. I liken She & Him to a re-interpretation of Patsy Cline, while Camera Obscura is a fuller sound frequently with a groove (ie. groovy); I would call it dream-folk pop.

For songs about heartbreak, My Maudlin Career just makes me happy. It’s a record I imagine playing in the background while dancing on furniture.

Camera Obscura – French Navy