songs for nervous wrecks - playlist #4

songs for a mysterious & magical midsummer

I love a summer-y pop song just like the rest of us (looking at you, Lipstick Lover), the kind that makes you want to sing along poolside using a can of hard seltzer as a fake microphone.

But this summer, I want songs that entrance me. I want songs that either are hypnotic, or maybe hint at hypnosis. I want songs that I feel in my core. I want my summer song playlists to be fun and dangerous, relaxing and edgy, all at once. I want songs that entrance the way a beautiful summer day can, where despite the grit of sunscreen and bug spray and dirty feet, I feel alive. If summer’s a time where everything and everyone ripens, I want to feel that magic in the music I’m listening to. I find a lot of solace in that.

This playlist is one that’s inspired by the gritty spell of midsummer while also dabbling in some of the queer artists that make me believe in magic.

“music (study)” by gustav klimt

• “All Apologies” by Sinead O’Connor: You’re telling me Queen Sinead recorded a cover of the iconic Nirvana song, but her version is full of quiet, spellbinding rage as opposed to Kurt Cobain’s gravelly angst? Sign me up.

• “Uninvited -Live/Unplugged” by Alanis Morissette: If this song isn’t the epitome of a social curse upon another woman cast out of a group, I don’t know what is.

• “Pure Morning” by Placebo: Sarah, what year is it? 1995? No, but tell me this song doesn’t make you want to ride your bike to your friend’s house with the sun beating down.

• “Waterfall” by The Stone Roses: Yeah, it was in the Ted Lasso finale, but it hypnotized me there and it hypnotizes me now.

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