From a musical standpoint, yes, this was the year without a summer. Well, if you follow the pop charts and Billboard, of course there was music. In fact, Billboard, as they do every year, tabulates its "Song of the Summer" as they have every year since the 1980's. And the winner this year? That would be "One Dance", by Drake, featuring WizKid and Kyla.
What? You never heard of it? Okay, how about the #2 song on Billboard's summer survey, "Can't Stop the Feeling", by Justin Timberlake? Not a clue, either?
Well, you're not alone if you haven't. I haven't either. Of course, I do look towards the pop chart to find some current place-holders for the season, to mix in with my alternative and country-flavored current music that I am listening to, but the question is, nobody that I know of has even mentioned those songs, or rallied around them this summer, unlike summers past.
Last year, we had both "Uptown Funk", Billboard's big summer song of 2015, and for me, "Thinking Out Loud" by Ed Sheeran. Both songs were those that friends talked about not just for the summer, but for the entire year. And, in recent years, there was "Happy" by Pharrell Williams, "Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke, and "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen, just to name three. You couldn't go anywhere or scroll on social media without anyone talking about the song or posting it.
But, nobody seemed to care about those top two songs, and not even me, as I didn't even add the songs. The remainder of Billboard's Top 10 does have some more familiarity to it, however. The number ten song, Adele's "Send My Love (To Your New Lover", landed at #16 on my list, and The Chainsmokers, Calvin Harris featuring Rihanna, Twenty-One Pilots and Sia, which made the top echelon on Billboard, I did add, albeit in most of those cases a little too late, some of them are just starting to climb my charts. But again, with the possible exception of Adele, none of them are even household songs.
So, what gives? Was I living under a rock and didn't pay any attention to what was out there? Did a friend hum a song out loud or quote some lyrics, but went over my head because I never heard them before? I guess that's quite possible, but not probable by a long shot. Much of the people around me instead focused on the songs of the past, with one notable exception: DNCE's "Cake By The Ocean", but that was more of a spring song; it landed at #73 on my list for the summer season. Expanding the analysis to Billboard's top 20 Summer Songs, only Pink's "Just Like Fire" hit my weekly top 20; it landed at #12 Billboard and #26 on my summer list.
Now, whether it was about losing interest in current music for me (which, I admit, happens every few weeks, as I revert to listening to oldies of the 1960's through 1980's, mostly), or new music being shunned by my friends, there really isn't one song that I could identify with the summer of 2016.
Of course, I didn't go blank at all, as I maintained my SNS 100 list throughout the summer, and I did tabulate my top 100. However, past the top ten, really wasn't too influential, thus I will just list my top ten favorites of the Summer of 2016, a season doing a lot of things with friends, but lacking in the current music category. So, without further adieu, here is my top 10 summer songs of this year.
1. "Dark Necessities", Red Hot Chili Peppers
This seemed to be a logical pick; the band has been one of my favorites for a quarter of a century, and this song seemed to keep in line to what they've been doing more recently. The Getaway is their latest album, but nobody seemed to talk and refer to it this year, so it was up to me to get my share of listens to it. For me, it was a definite choice for the top spot, at least.
2. "Way Down We Go", Kaleo
This one just missed the top spot by six points, and was just as deserving. This band from Iceland impressed with their sophomore effort A/B, and this song hung out not just at the top of my list, but also Billboard's alternative chart. I'm not sure if Billboard had a "summer songs" chart for Alternative Rock but if there was, these would probably be the top two songs on that list as well.
3. "HandClap", Fitz & the Tantrums
You know that it was a slow summer, when Fitz & the Tantrums, often the talk of many of my friends in years past, was pretty much ignored this year even with their third, self-titled album, released early this summer. But this infectious poppish ditty, nonetheless caught on with me, and it's no surprise that it wound up in my top three.
4. "That Old New Jersey", Paul Czekaj
Okay, now here's one that was referred to this summer. Of course that was mostly due to the video, which shows places around our Garden State that are no longer around. Paul even performed it this summer at the WNTI Summer Stage, and many friends commented on it. Czekaj is no stranger to being on summer lists, of course; his "At the Beach" topped my 2013 list.
5. "The Hot Spot", Us Commoners
This was the summer that I started paying more attention to some local up-and-comers as opposed to those who have had record deals and stardom. The mid-Hudson valley duo, which had the biggest holiday song for me in 2015 ("Christmas and Hanukkah"), came close to doing summer honors with this catchy alt-song.
6. "My Mistake", Smash Palace
Another Jersey band that almost made it big---in 1985, but through various reasons didn't do another record until twelve years later, which is an eternity in the music business. This one came from their late 2015 endeavor Some Kind of Magic, which did pick up some college radio airplay in the Philadelphia area, and this was the latter of two singles released. Its great throwback rock sound got me through the early part of the summer.
7. "Falling", Trent Harmon
Harmon is, for those sleeping last May (or those who gave up watching the show years before, like myself), was the fifteenth and final winner of American Idol, and this bluesy song (unusual in that this guy supposedly is a country artist), captivated me and an unlikely entry into my top ten.
8. "Hey No Pressure", Ray Lamontagne
Artists like this prove that rock music still has its say. At some point during the summer, this rock & blues song just gripped my mind with its long, extended blues jam. One of the current shining lights of rock these days. I would just like to mention here two other songs that had jams to them: Golden Void's 'The Beacon (#71), and The Joy Formidible's "The Last Thing On My Mind" (#45). Rock is down, but never out.
9. "Wish I Knew You", The Revivalists
Another catching but not-too commercial song that graced my iPod during the summer, as well as on some alt-rock outlets. Well done.
10. "Trouble", Cage the Elephant
Alt-rock perennials have their entry onto my summer playlist.
MORE BLUES: Santana garners their first SNS #1 as "Blues Magic", a track from the original line-up's reunion album IV, ascends to the top spot. It's the first time a pre-1980 band has hit the top of my SNS playlist. The song has really gone through my head a lot over the past two weeks. I've always loved Santana, with Carlos and its various incarnations of the band, but with the original band that played Woodstock in 1969, there is a certain kind of magic to it. Many have compared this song to the early incarnation of Fleetwood Mac during the Peter Green era. Regardless, the band successfully captured, literally its magic. Although commercial success had waned--even from the landmark Supernatural album in 1999, Carlos and the band continue to prove why they belong in the annals of rock history.
M83's "Go", which spent a couple weeks at pole position, drop to #2, and the chart topper before that, "Complicated" by Fitz and the Tantrums switches positions with the Billy Spanton Band's "Shake Your Soul". The big movers, however are The Hounds of Winter's "Oh Paige", moving from 19-7 in its third week, and Michael Kiwaunka's 'One More Night, 28-12.
The supply of country songs has, once again dropped on my SNS 100, with only the venerable Zac Brown Band's "Castaway" making any noise, but it's joined by Jake Owen's "If He Ain't Gonna Love You", a track from the Florida native's fifth album American Love. It has a country-soul feel, not unlike Thomas Rhett's "Crash and Burn". It is the top debut at #77. Also debuting are the fourth single from Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweat's debut album, "Wasting Time", a much slower turn than the first three singles, all top 20 here. Bon Jovi comes back with their 13th studio album, This House is Not For Sale, with the title track the first single, getting Adult Top 40 airplay. It is what you pretty much expect from the Jersey boys.
WHAT'S AHEAD: Given the lack of interesting in much oft the new music that is out there, I am thinking of changing the focus back to my musical experiences in listening to older music, as well as perhaps adding new songs by older acts (such as Santana, The Monkees and Bon Jovi on the current list. I will try to latch onto what has been talked about on various Facebook pages as well as those posted by my friends. Look for some possible changes moving forward as I contemplate whether to continue this blog moving ahead.
Scenes ‘n’ Soundwaves 100
September 11 & 18,
2016
| This Week | Last Week | ARTIST-Title | Weeks on List |
| 1 | 2 | NUMBER ONE:
"Blues Magic"
Album: Santana IV
|
7 |
| 2 | 1 | M83 - Go | 10 |
| 3 | 4 | Billy Spanton Band - Shake Your Soul | 9 |
| 4 | 3 | Fitz and the Tantrums - Complicated | 9 |
| 5 | 5 | Phoebe Ryan - Chronic | 10 |
| 6 | 6 | Finish Ticket - Color | 11 |
| 7 | 19 | The Hounds of Winter - Oh Paige | 3 |
| 8 | 8 | City and Colour - Wasted Love | 13 |
| 9 | 11 | The Avalanches - Frankie Sinatra | 11 |
| 10 | 7 | Nada Surf - Believe You're Mine | 19 |
| 11 | 18 | Young the Giant - Something to Believe In | 9 |
| 12 | 28 | TOP 20 IMPACT OF THE WEEK:
"One
More Night"
Album: Love and Hate
|
5 |
| 13 | 13 | Charles Kelley- Lonely Girl | 17 |
| 14 | 12 | Kaleo - Way Down We Go● | 24 |
| 15 | 9 | Red Hot Chili Peppers - Dark Necessities | 15 |
| 16 | 10 | Mayer Hawthorne - Cosmic Love | 17 |
| 17 | 22 | Barns Courtney - Fire | 9 |
| 18 | 20 | The Strokes - Oblivius | 9 |
| 19 | 16 | The Revivalists - Wish I Knew You | 15 |
| 20 | 27 | The Blossoms - At Most A Kiss | 10 |
Tremors:
| 101 | 101 | Nothing But Thieves - Wake Up Call |
| 102 | 105 | Twenty-One Pilots - Heathens |
| 103 | --- | The Lumineers - Cleopatra |
|
|
Songs
with the greatest increase in favorite points over the prior week.
● Songs
with 25 or more plays on my iPod.
▲ Songs with 50 or more plays on my iPod. 