Pandemic summer sounds may leave lasting memories
Some solid contenders for 2020’s album of the season
The song of the summer is one of the most sought-after prizes in any musician’s career. It’s one of the more elusive achievements, and can yield big bucks. Conversely, landing that seasonal earworm can be something of a curse for the rest of a career.
Don’t believe it? Then name another song by Robin Thicke (Blurred Lines, 2013), Tag Team about Whoomp! (There It Is, 1995) or Survivor (Eye of the Tiger, 1982). But drop an album that becomes a summer soundtrack and you have a legacy wrapped up in a sun-screened package for perpetuity.
Ask a Boomer about Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and the tale begins: “It was May/June 1967, when I got my copy. It was all I listened to that season.”
Many Millennials’ memories of the summer of 2006 involves cranking up Hollaback Girl from Gwen Stefani’s Love.Angel.Music. or Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy, from St. Elsewhere.
At a time when the industry was sprinting toward its single-minded mentality of today, those were both huge records.
As the hotter days of Pandemic Summer 2020 arrive, a look ahead at some albums that could become the sound of the season is in order.
With all of the usual promotional campaigns tied to support tours sunk by COVID-19, many artists postponed their latest releases with hopes of a more opportune moment in time to be marketing music.
But, as it became clear that optimal time wouldn’t arrive, many artists announced summer release dates for their new records.
In a year that has so far seen Dua Lipa’s club-heavy disco-laden Future Nostalgia became a massive hit for at-home isolation dance parties, and Bob Dylan’s 17 minute-plus Murder Most Foul go viral, it’s impossible to predict what’s going to stick this coming season.
Here are five recordings likely to resonate between now and back to Zoom, er, school in September:
1 NAEEM
STARTISHA | 37d03d
Baltimore-born, L.A.-based Naeem Juwan previously recorded a number of banging records under the pseudonym Spank Rock in the 2000s. Now involved with the 37d03d musical collective conceived by Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon and Bryce and Aaron Dressner of The National, Naeem is back fully reinvented on Startisha. Appropriately recorded in Minneapolis at Vernon’s home studio, there is an unmistakable air of Prince on the poppy Stone Harbour and the funky title track. (Release date: June 12)
2 BOB DYLAN
ROUGH AND ROWDY WAYS | Columbia Records
The first release of new material since 2012’s Tempest arrives at a time when the legendary folksinger is back in the news after dropping opus Murder Most Foul, about the JFK assassination. The 17-minute-plus long song topped the Billboard Rock Digital Song Sales Chart, which was a first for Dylan. It’s yet another surprise in the later career revival of the 79 year-old artist’s 50-plus years in the music biz.Always iconic, he was kind of out of all but fans’ attention until 1997’s Time Out of Mind invigorated his music and led to a string of some of his best recordings. Then he decided to get all Bublé for a string of cover albums of songs best known as sung by Sinatra, as well as Dean Martin. So far the singles I Contain Multitudes and False Prophet have dropped and suggest Rough and Rowdy Ways will be rocking. Just don’t let the answer be blowing in the wind unless everyone is wearing a mask.
(Release date: June 19)
3 LAMB OF GOD
LAMB OF GOD | Epic Records
The first album to feature longtime touring drummer Art
Cruz behind the kit and the first new album of material from this hugely popular metal act in five years. It finds vocalist Randy Blythe offering up some pretty pointed criticisms of contemporary American society on such raging tracks as the opener Checkmate, which appears pretty targeted in claiming Divide and conquer and close them in/And bury secrets deep/Make America hate again/And bleed the sheep to sleep. With songs tackling everything from the opioid crisis to school shootings and the front lines of immigration debates, Lamb Of God isn’t exactly full of feel-good, sudsipping sounds. Neither is life.
(Release date: June 19)
4 HAIM
WOMEN IN MUSIC PT. III | Columbia Records
The new album from chart-topping sister act Haim coincided with the announcement that they were headlining the now-cancelled 14th annual Pitchfork Music Festival. Originally slated for an April 24 release date, it was postponed, although the trio of singles that have already been released from “wimpiii” — Summer Girl, Now I’m In
It, Hallelujah and the Steps — have remained in rotation on radio. I Know Alone, the most recent single out on April 29, has all the right qualities to be a summer hit. It’s one of the most dance-heavy songs from the sibling trio of Este, Danielle and Alan Haim, right down to a socially-distanced dance routine in the video. It’s hard to overstate how influential on pop music this band has been since it first arrived on the scene. This album already has yielded five singles and it isn’t even out yet.
(Release date: June 26)
5 VARIOUS ARTISTS
ANGELHEADED HIPSTER: THE SONGS OF MARC BOLAN AND T. REX | BMB
A tribute both to the late great glam boogie electric warrior Marc Bolan, as well as a tribute to the eclectic genius of the late American music producer Hal Willner, who died on April 7 due to complications of COVID-19. Throughout his long career, Willner was celebrated for his concept tribute recordings. On Angel-Headed Hipster, Willner aimed for the same kind of wide-range roster with Elton John, Father John Misty, Kesha, Metric’s Emily Haines and Nick Cave on board, among others. Landing right before that September back-to-school period that seems locked in all of our heads forever, it is a fitting end-of-the-season release to recommend.
(Release date: Sept. 4)