Like most kids, summer used to be such a great time of the year for me. School was out, you had all day to spend with your friends, and it was just nice not having to get up and be at a place where a bell signals the passage of time. That first month of summer vacation was amazing! Sleeping in, staying up late, swimming, playing sports, BBQs, and that general feeling that you were free. However, as the months wore on, extreme boredom set in, you were broke, and suddenly going back to school didn’t seem so horrible.
Now that I’m an adult, it’s easy to forget how magical a season it could be. But maybe this mix can capture the spirit of the good, the bad, and the stupid of summer.
“Steal My Sunshine,” Len (download)
At first glance, this really isn’t a song about summer, but the fact that “sunshine” is in the lyrics and the Andrea True Connection loop of “More More More” is the hook has summer written all over it. There are allusions to heat, laying on the lawn, and a relationship that’s gone wrong — so yeah, it’s definitely a summer song.
“Summertime,” DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince (Download)
Even though I’m a California native, I did live in Philadelphia for a couple of years, and living in a city where there are actually four seasons instead of just wet and dry, I never really understood why people would say they loved summer since, well, California has many hot days throughout the year. But if there’s a song that reminds me of summer in Philadelphia, this would be it.
The mark of any great power pop album is its ability to not only stick in your head after the music has stopped, but its ability to make you want to listen to it over and over again. By pop, I mean: Catchy, rocking harmonies, hooky guitars, and driving, powerful drums, a la Cheap Trick, the Raspberries, Sweet and the Knack. Those groups are obvious influences on the self-titled debut album of Tinted Windows, a supergroup of sorts that consists of Taylor Hanson, James Iha (formerly of Smashing Pumpkins), Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne, and Bun E. Carlos from Cheap Trick. Clocking in at just under than 40 minutes, this 11-song collection sounds in no way dated or retro. The band goes after every track with such enthusiasm and energy that the fun they’re having gushes out of the speakers. Tinted Windows just may be this summer’s soundtrack record.
It’s your third album. You’ve written and performed songs that recall the best tunes from simpler, more fun times, yet they reveal true songwriting talent and a desire to do more than flog the studio gimmick of the moment. You’ve also somehow found yourself working with pop-music gurus Mike Viola and Adam Schlesinger. If all of this strikes you as oddly familiar, you might just be Kelly Jones, and at this moment Popdose is catching up with you.
