Jul 2026 // Summer Sun
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Jump to the playlist on Apple Music here!
July was so lovely, lazy, and warm that I neglected to post its playlist for nearly two weeks. Soak up what remains of the summer weather with this month’s playlist!
// FULL PLAYLIST
01: Love Spells - “Love Costs”
02: Taylor Swift - “Better Man (Taylor’s Version)”
03: Tennyson - “paper moon”
04: New Volume - “Wasting Away”
05: Rebecca Black - “Worth It for the Feeling”
06: Chase Icon - “BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME”
07: 6LACK - “Bird Flu”
08: Seal - “Waiting for You”
09: Madeon - “Somebody Else”
10: Stolen Gin - “Card Declined”
11: Three Days Grace - “Time That Remains”
12: oktobernatt - “Rasa”
13: SIMHAE - “Fading (Am I?)”
14: heaving. - “carsick”
15: Half Me - “Fear Is The New Belief”
16: Bring Me The Horizon - “Dehumanized”
// SPOTLIGHTS
Chase Icon - “BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME”
The beat is the defining factor of this track for me: the evolving synth lines, the spritz of the arpeggiator, the snap of the snare. I’ve always felt like the cadence and timbre of Chase’s voice often takes a backseat to the beat as the identity of the track, but in certain situations this really works to the benefit of both. It’s much more than the sum of its parts.
Seal - “Waiting for You”
My parents love Seal, and we were accompanied on many a road trip by his iconic voice and fantastic songwriting skills. “Waiting for You” was always a favorite for car karaoke, and over the years I’ve always had such a soft spot for the ways this song evolves (and especially how the final falling melody line augments the feeling of the underlying chord progression). Seal’s melodies are infectious, lyrics sticky, and ad-lib vocals perfectly placed. And the progression is so clean and polished with a fantastic master that holds up today. Great song.
SIMHAE - “Fading (Am I?)”
In 2020, Loathe said “hey everyone, remember Deftones?” and the world has never been the same. It seems like whatever Loathe does, every other band tries to do to varying degrees of success. This SIMHAE track feels like a band succeeding at the smashed, tubular, organic-synthetic guitar direction that Loathe has more recently gone in while successfully melding it into something unique. In a post-Sleep-Token world, it’s tough to make this brand of alt metal without immediately getting comparisons, but this track feels like the formula subverted in a great way. Love the ending and how the vocals are spaced against the guitar.
