What Are Your Favorite Summer Tunes?

Ahh yes, summertime and the livin’ is easy. But sometimes finding music to include in your playlist for the warm months? Not so easy.

We can only listen to so much Jack Johnson and Jason Mraz before it’s time to trade in the traditionally beachy-vibe music for a new summer sound. To help you out, we asked our artists this week what their favorite summer tunes are. Check out their answers below!

Got a summer playlist you love? Feed our playlists by leaving your favorite tunes in the comments!

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quotes_boldbotanicals — “Bold Botanicals” by littlepatterns

Summer is all about classic R&B, Soul, and Motown. My favorite song is “Bad Girl” by Lee Moses. Oh, and I also love Drake. Because obviously.

Maggie Sichter (littlepatterns) | Chicago

I live in a 2 seasons country, so there’s no summer here haha. I love music so much in a broad range of genres, such as classical, reggae, folk, jazz, rock, dubstep, and progressive metal. I have no seasonal favorite tunes, sometimes I just listen to them randomly or choose a certain genre for certain purpose/activities. At summer time, I think these musics will be a good pick: Paolo Nutini, Coheed and Cambria, Jack Ü, Santana, and Xavier Rudds.

Zulfikri Mokoagow (fikri) | Bali

quotes_camille — “Strange Fortunes” (left) and “Ouija Board” (right) by lordofmasks

I’d say Disney songs are always the best to listen and sing along to – my sisters, cousins, and I can be found belting them out at our lakehouse family reunion every summer.

Camille Chew (lordofmasks) | Ithaca, NY

quotes_rain_dance — “Rain Dance” by thepapercrane

Well it is supposed to be summer right now in the UK and raining again! We spend a lot of time moaning about the weather here so the perfect tune might be “About the Weather” by Tom Rosenthal. I’m a big fan of his quirky songwriting over slightly melancholic and minimalist piano. Check him out if you like that kind of thing.

Rick Crane (thepapercrane) | UK

quotes_NDTank — “Adrift in the Mountains…” by NDTank

That’s an impossible question! My music tastes are all over the place and constantly evolving and revolving. I’ll cheat and just say that at this moment, Big Thief’s Masterpiece is on the turntable, First Aid Kit’s The Big Black and The Blue is in the Jeep, and the last three tracks listened to on Spotify were “Late Greats” by Wilco, “Leave the City” by Magnolia Electric Co., and “Deep Red Bells” by Neko Case…

NDTank | Daniels, WV

quotes_quickshower — “For a Quick Shower” by RicoMambo

I don’t have a fast car, so I took a plane to Ibiza, to get rest from work, work, work, work, work, and hopefully get some cake by the ocean, cause I don’t need dollar bills to have fun…I love cheap thrills.

Branko Ricov (RicoMambo) | Split, Croatia

Screen Shot 2016-06-20 at 10.49.11 AM — “GeometRUG Abstract” by

My favourite thing to listen to at the moment has got to be the album Engravings by Forest Swords, especially the last track, “Friend, You Will Never Learn.” It’s a few years old now but I keep coming back to it. The warm and hazy sound is perfect for slow summer days and I love the contrast between the very scratchy analogue sounds and the ghostly chopped up vocal samples.

Alex Gough (gogoalexgo) | London, UK

quotess_pencils — “Mondrian’s Duvet: Study #2” by BeanePod

Whenever summer starts to roll around, I find myself gravitating back to old ’70s gold tunes like Gerry Rafferty’s “Baker Street” and Head East’s only single, “Never Been Any Reason”. Not sure why, probably because it reminds me of beach trips in the back of my parent’s station wagon.

Also, I can’t go through the summer without listening to Mr. Bungle’s California album. It’s like listening to the beach…only the beach just ate a ton of acid and had little man babies with the Beach Boys.

Perry Beane (BeanePod)