Every month, I keep an ongoing playlist of songs that I want to keep in my listening rotation. These could be singles, loosies, album standouts, or just songs I can’t get out of my head, but they often have some significance to my own life or the state of the world. May is often one of the busier music months of the year, with artists trying to get songs out before the summer brings festivals and parties. This month, that is even more true, as the festivals and parties will be in full swing. So begins the brutal king-of-the-hill competition that is the Song of the Summer of 2021.
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Here what I’m listening to:
The Alchemist
Loose Change (feat. Earl Sweatshirt)
The most outside summer in years is hurtling toward us with the velocity of a modified 2012 Honda Civic driven by a 17-year-old. Every summer needs its song, a Song of the Summer (SotS) one might say, that rises above the chaff to define, basically, the entire year.
There are also lowercase songs of the summer. These define small, moments we find ourselves suddenly stuck in, ones that happen without any warning but remain a visceral memory for years. A picnic, a humid night, or, perhaps in the case of “Loose Change,” simply walking down the street.
The Alchemist has a reputation for a dusty, throwback style, a menacing oeuvre that could soundtrack the life of Don Corleone as much as it could fit on the fifth album of a washed Wu-Tang member, but he’s more of a chameleon than people give him credit for. Sure, he’s got a thing for old samples and drum patterns indebted to the early 2000s, but that can be a lot more versatile than expected.
This last cut off of Alch’s latest EP is all horns and live drums. Earl rises from his usual muddy, earth-ending proclamations to meet the upbeat energy of the track:
Pretty penny, you my luckiest find, skin copper
Titties bouncing
Save a generous slice for me
Please, save a generous slice for me
Change jingling in my pocket
The song is a kind of vignette, Earl strutting down the street, painted in the same pastels as the cover of This Thing of Ours. You can hear his loose change jingling; he’s blessed with the joy of going somewhere, even if it’s down to the corner.
Nicki Minaj
Seeing Green (with Drake & Lil Wayne)
In the fierce competition for the song of the most summery summer in recent memory, Nicki brings out the big guns. The inimitable YMCMB trio, despite arguably being past all of their primes, or at least past the mixtape-rattling energy that they had when “Young Money Cash Money Bitch” was regularly adorning snapbacks and tight tees, makes a compelling claim for the Song of the Summer. It’s a banger that will certainly get plenty of play out of speakers carried down the street, but still the world searches for the true SotS.
Bladee & Mechatok
Drama (feat. Charli XCX)
An unexpected SotS contender is Charli XCX’s remix of the standout song from Bladee and producer Mechatok’s 2020 collaboration, Good Luck. The original was compelling itself, but Charli’s rare rapped delivery dominates the 2-ish minute runtime.
Charli’s actual verse is short but it reminds us why she’s a force to be reckoned with; even as she’s collaborating with the pop-minded band The 1975 and declaring that her next album is going to be more “mainstream” and “digestible” while also getting her first official P.C. Music collab (on the monthly playlist but not featured here), she’s veering left with a drain gang collab in which she out-raps the actual rapper.
Sharon Van Etten & Angel Olsen
Like I Used To
Two TITANS of making me feel like dancing around in a really sad way have teamed up for the first time to hijack the summer vibes and drive them off a cliff, Thelma & Louise-style.
Even as we move forward at full-tilt to new and exciting possibilities, we’re also discovering that new means different, and different means moving past some things we might not want to. Suddenly we find ourselves going back to old habits and old friendships, but maybe getting a little blasted off of vodka-crans and taking an Uber back to your place has lost its sheen.
Nobody is more ready to point out how sad being happy again can feel than the two queens of melancholic nostalgia. There are happy moments in the chorus, but the duo realizes that maybe loneliness doesn’t go away once you can be around people. It is very much a song of this coming summer, but not exactly the Song of the Summer (except when I’m off of three gin and tonics twirling around with all the windows open, a simple inevitability). SotS? No. Song of the year, though? Yeah, maybe!
WILLOW
t r a n s p a r e n t s o u l (feat. Travis Barker)
This summer, the girls are trying as hard as possible to, much like the Carthaginians crossing the Appian way on their elephants, conquer through unorthodox tactics: reviving the early 2000s pop-punk and nu-metal. And by god, they’re succeeding.
Willow Smith came out of the gate incredibly strong, aided by the official ambassador to the Old Ways, Travis Barker. His drumming and powerful necromancy are welcome on the track, but Willow carries it with her true-blue rock star vocals and general charisma. Willow is doing her damnedest to put herself up with the most belting performances of Avril Lavigne and Gerard Way, and she does it pretty well without sounding like too much of a nostalgia act.
Obviously, given her experience tagging along with (and covering) her mom’s nu-metal band, Willow isn’t new to the game. She may be following a trend towards pop-punk revival, but she does the genre justice and seems to have enough left in the chamber to put out a really solid rock album.
Slayyyter
Over This!
Another girlboss gaslighting the gatekeepers of 2000s pop-punk: Slayyyter, who brings her signature Britney-esque delivery and hyperpop sensibilities to the table of Avril appropriators on her latest single, “Over This!”
The lyrics aren’t exactly revolutionary, but that’s not why we come to the Slayyyter show. We come to feel bad as hell and also a little psychotic! The guitar/synth situation that drives the instrumental is punchy and addicting and Slayyyter is providing windows-down-on-the-highway vocals–basically, the song has all the ingredients for a major SotS contender. The people will never give our bimbo queen her flowers, so, unfortunately, “Over This!” won’t be coming home with the crown. It’s a solid number two or three in my heart, though!
Curren$y & The Alchemist
The Type (feat. Prodigy)
A little new and a little old for Alchemist this month as his 2011 collaborative mixtape with Curren$y, Covert Coup, finally hit streaming. The whole thing is the blueprint for any rapper who wants to do a tape with Alch; Curren$y floats on every beat, each one teeming with the dirty, boom-bap-adjacent drums that Alchemist is famous for.
“The Type,” featuring the late Mobb Deep star Prodigy, is prime content for cruising side streets on a humidity-soaked summer day. Prodigy is just as menacing as always, delivering a verse that, as always, cuts us off a gritty slice of life. It’s a song of the summer simply because, when we’re so hot that we’re just wearing undershirts, it will be the perfect soundtrack to the bead of sweat rolling down the backs of our necks.
Trippie Redd
Miss the Rage (feat. Playboi Carti)
Here it is, the rare Trippie Redd song, surfacing every year or two, that I actually like. And what a banger! Trippie’s performance is not bad, Playboi Carti’s verse is fine if not underwhelming, but the real star of the song is the beat.
The gliding, squealy synths are almost certainly laced with something. When the song comes on I have to fight the strong urge to go full “Mask Off” acapella. This may be the strongest contender for SotS off of popularity alone. I’ve heard this song, or at least the instrumental, about every day, but that might be due to my debilitating Tik Tok addiction. Is this the winner? Who knows.
Olivia Rodrigo
good 4 u
Wait, never mind. This is it. Pack it up folks, we found it.
You can listen to my full May 2021 playlist, including extra songs by Little Simz and A.G. Cook, here:
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