Tag: random song

Songs of Summer 2024

On this last day of summer, here are a list of my 2024 songs of summer. These are songs that I heard a lot on commercial radio. My affection for them varies.

Themes: sad men (Noah Kahan influence). Trending country (see also: Noah Kahan influence)

“Wondering Why” Red Clay Strays

Hitting both themes, “Wondering Why” included a nice arpeggio throughout. There is some good writing with these lyrics: She comes from silver spoon, golden rule, private school, never miss Sunday church / And I come from blue-collar, low-dollar, out here where concrete meets old red dirt

“I Remember Everything” Zach Bryan and Kacey Musgraves

A duet in the mold of “Leather and Lace” where one person takes a verse, and then the other one does. This also fits both categories. I like the chorus especially. Some good writing here: You’re like concrete feet in the summer heat / It burns like hell when two souls meet.

Also, an 88 Ford is not a very old truck, in my mind.

“Austin” Dasha

A great jilted/breakup/I’m-better-off song. Unlike the video, the radio version doesn’t overly linger on the physical attributes of Ms. Dasha.

Nice line: In 40 years you’ll still be here, drunk, washed up in Austin.

I guess “Austin” would fall into the category of sad men a woman doesn’t have to deal with anymore.

“Save Me” Jelly Roll and Lainey Wilson

This is a very sad man song. It also is the song that really gets stuck in my head.

Chorus: I’m a lost cause
Baby, don’t waste your time on me
I’m so damaged beyond repair
Life has shattered my hopes and my dreams

“Beautiful Things” Benson Boon

In the category of songs I probably would have liked more had they not been played ad nauseum on the majority of stations I flip through is Benson Boon, with his worry about god taking away/losing “you” aka the “girl my parents love” that god “sent my way.”

Benson Boon is Pacific-Northwest born, according to many radio promos. Monroe, Washington, apparently. He’s currently 22, which is crazy.

“A Bar Song (Tipsy)” Shaboozie

This was also a song that played a lot that I grew tired of. It’s fairly plodding and weary, which fits the lyrics, but rankles when repeated.

Songs by women I liked that don’t fall into the country bucket, but do concern men.

“Please please please” Sabrina Carpenter

The chorus has a great dip into the low region that I’ve just discovered has a radio edit. Heartbreak is one thing/ My ego’s another/ I beg you don’t embarrass me/
Little sucker ahhh…

“abcdefu” Gayle

This is a very delicious breakup song and I always enjoy when people find something fun to do with the alphabet, musically. It’s quite the list of things to forget. (And yet another song I discovered is quite different in it’s original, non-radio state.)

It also is from 2022, so I’m not sure why the algorithms that program radio airplay played it so much this summer.

A song I did not like that was played a million times “Whisky” by Hozier

And for the second summer in a row, this song was a song of summer:

I guess the tortured poets didn’t produce any breezy summer hits.

Summer Songs, 2023

I drove around town a lot this summer, and that meant a lot of time with commercial radio, which remains a hellscape of too many of the same songs (some of which are more than 30 years old—I’m looking at your Red Hot Chili Peppers “Under the Bridge”) played too often.

Still, there were highlights, and here they are:

Taylor Swift “Anti-Hero.”

My favorite lyric:
Sometimes I feel like everybody is a sexy baby
And I’m a monster on the hill
Too big to hang out, slowly lurching toward your favorite city
Pierced through the heart, but never killed

Olivia Rodrigo “Vampire”

And now I know that I was listening to the clean version of that song!

Aside from the raw anger, something Rodrigo does so well, I like the backup singers who follow the line “How do you lie without flinching?”

Noah Kahn “Dial Drunk”

There are two versions of this song, the first is Noah Kahn solo, the second with Post Malone


I’ve really enjoyed Stick Season both with and without guest artists. It brings back all the New England feelings, most of which aren’t great, but contains those feelings in a good way.

Independent of listening to it, I was about the song, especially this part:
I don’t like that when they threw me in the car
I gave your name as my emergency phone call
Honey, it rang and rang, even the cops thought you were wrong for hangin’ up

I remarked to Matt that it probably doesn’t matter if the cops thought he was wrong because they probably were just saying that. Matt commented that its super common for police to agree with people if it means they will get in the police car.

I don’t love Post Malone’s verse, but I do like the harmony that comes with his appearance.

Rema and Selena Gomez “Calm Down”

This was also the summer I watched Only Murders in the Building, so it was a big Selena Gomez summer because this song played Every. Single. Time. I was in the car.

The underlying rhythm is the thing that works in this song for me. I suspect if I knew the lyrics better I might not be so hot on the message.

The Fanta callout is fun, though.

Random Song: “Da Da Da” by Trio

I love when commercial radio reminds me of a song I haven’t heard in years.

Wikipedia reminded me that I know this song because of a Volkswagen commercial. Thank goodness that commercial brought it into my life. And the video is so very fun. I like that the singer seems to be having a fun time with his serious sounding song. And some great Ferris-wheel-type stuff going on outside the window.

Random Song “How I Get Myself Killed” by Indigo De Souza

This must be another Sunday Brunch find. There is a slight chance I was looking it up based on notes from a Perfect Playlist session I heard on the radio on the way to the grocery store. There was one where a musician was the person picking the playlist and he had some great choices I did my best to remember until I could stop driving and take some notes.

It’s a good song for a Friday night drive to the grocery store in the rain.