#sundazed music

[burlveneer-music]

Sun Ra - Pink Elephants On Parade

When you wish upon a star… that turns out to be Saturn! Previously unheard Ra culled from the archives and compiled based on their association to that children's film corporation with the cartoon rodent. Pressed on earth on pink vinyl! Jazz aficionados and Disney nerds alike will marvel at how seamlessly Sun Ra and his Arkestra put their own unique twist on both well-known and overlooked Disney songs. Pink Elephants on Parade takes nine songs from Disney’s storied catalog and recontextualizes them as beautiful, fun, and sometimes terrifying pieces of Afrofuturist jazz. The collection also shows further proof of how Ra was always willing to transcend conventions of jazz. Listen to the full album and you will likely never look at the Disney music catalog the same way ever again. Originally known for accompanying Dumbo and Timothy’s colorful alcohol-induced hallucinations, this song is given a whole new life by Ra and the Arkestra in more ways than one. It also feels faithful to the original at the same time, with the cacophony of horns, drums, percussion, and cowbell resembling that of a marching band. However, the demented grandeur of the song is turned up to eleven with zany vocal lines (hence the high-pitched “What’ll I do” inflections) and other performances that somehow sound more evil and gruff here than they did on Oliver Wallace and Ned Washington’s version. Though the Sportsmen’s vocals from that particular arrangement had a certain creepiness to it, the Arkestra takes a previously innocent sounding song and makes Pink Elephants On Parade sound even more terrifying. 

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

QUITE POSSIBLY THE HEAVIEST BLUES TRACK OF 1967 -- PURE, STRAIGHT-OUT-THE-SWAMP HEAVY BLUES.

PIC(S) INFO: Spotlight on the ultra rare Buddah "Plastic Factory" (b/w "Where There's Woman") single by CAPTAIN BEEFHEART & HIS MAGIC BAND, taken from the recently unearthed mono masters to the Captain's 1967 debut LP "Safe as Milk," released on Sundazed Music as part of Record Store Day Black Friday in 2012.

But, yeah, this track boasts just the murkiest, dirtiest, most menacing blues sound you've ever heard, and with the bass guitar being totally up front in the mix as well, hence the track's power, ferocity, and overall depth.

This ain't the Summer of Love at all, people, and it's just a really super-HEAVY and scary-sounding, no frills, blues cut. The Captain's harp is absolutely masterful as well, and it remains my all-time favorite track on his "Safe As Milk" (1967) debut LP until my inevitable doom. Check that shit out if ya haven't already!

Source: www.45cat.com/record/s255.

[bandcampsnoop]

9/11/23.

Linda Smith has experienced quite the renaissance over the past few years. It all started with Captured Tracks excellent "Till Another Time" back in 2021.

Now Dot Matrix Recordings (and Sundazed Music) bring us The Woods - a compilation of a 7" and unreleased tracks. The Woods was Linda Smith's short lived band in NYC in the mid 1980s.

It really doesn't sound like anything else at the time. It sounds like 1960s British folk crossed with R.E.M. jangle. What if Fairport Convention and Peter Buck joined forces. Actually, "Miracles Tonight" has a groove reminiscent of The Feelies.

[lesdeuxmuses]

Linda Perhacs - Parallelograms (Sundazed Music, 2010)

[mymelodic-chapel]

The Luv'd Ones- Truth Gotta Stand [Compilation] (Garage Rock, Girl Group) Recorded: 1965–1968 [Dunwich Records] Released: 1999 [Sundazed Music]

[aquariumdrunkard]

Sun Ra & His Intergalactic Solar Arkestra: Space Is The Place (Music From The Original Soundtrack)

Last month marked the 109th anniversary of Sun Ra’s arrival on earth. As such, it’s a fine time to revisit the soundtrack to the iconoclast’s 1974 Afrofuturist science fiction film, Space Is The Place. The Sundazed label has it covered via their new boxed set, Sun Ra & His Intergalactic Solar Arkestra: Space Is The Place (Music From The Original Soundtrack).

[sunnypromo]

Depois do fiasco da primeira edição do festival, o criador do evento foi parar na cadeia e o público geral tomou pavor de eventos em ilhas paradisíacas e remotas, mas todo ser humano de sangue quente ainda ama o verão. Agora sob organização da SKco., o Sundaze Festival tem a proposta de unir culturas e gêneros musicais diferentes, trazendo as melhores bandas, grupos e artistas solo para a sua cidade. O lema é simples: vamos aonde o sol estiver. Com atos musicais diversos e de origem nos quatro cantos do mundo, o Sundaze Festival viaja de país a país seguindo sempre o verão, com palcos e experiências únicas, levando até você a chance de se refrescar. Siga a conta no Twitter para mais atualizações.

Sundaze Festival, Onde o sol sempre brilha mais forte.

A Sundaze é uma ideia de roleplay de festival que une a rp br com a krp br. Teremos bandas de todos os lugares do ocidente e oriente, grupos de kpop, e solistas de todas as nacionalidades. Todos serão bem-vindos independente da origem, e o único limite é a sua criatividade. Queremos acima de tudo deixar isso claro, pois achamos que é hora da nossa tag deixar diferenças e preconceitos de lado, e perceber que podemos conviver juntos no mesmo espaço.

Nossa proposta é a mistura de um rp de bandas e de idols, com personagens e histórias diversas dividindo o mesmo palco. Teremos espaço para compra de músicas e criação de álbuns, diferentes paradas na turnê e oportunidades para construir ou destruir a fama do seu personagem. Como um festival de veraneio, a tropicália e o bom-humor de um dia de sol segue o caminho das caravanas e aviões de país em país.

E nós queremos envolver VOCÊS, tag br, na criação do rp! Vamos dar um espaço para falarem todas as vontades de estilos de bandas, grupos, artistas e atrações que vocês sempre quiseram jogar e nunca tiveram oportunidade.

Para você que pensou em um conceito revolucionário, mas não tem a paciência de criar um roleplay do zero.

✶ ׅ ࣪Existe algum tipo de conceito que você gostaria de ver em uma banda? Seja em estilo musical, estilo instrumental, estilo de integrantes – conta tudo! ✶ ׅ ࣪Existe algum tipo de conceito que você gostaria de ver em um grupo de kpop? Do girl crush ao vroom vroom, o céu é o limite – fala pra gente qual o seu grupo dos sonhos. ✶ ׅ ࣪Tem alguma ideia de história para um grupo ou banda diferente, que você nunca viu ser feito, mas acha que iria casar com o Sundaze? Aqui é onde você deixa seus delírios febris correrem soltos, nenhuma ideia é doida demais. ✶ ׅ ࣪Existe alguma ideia de evento que você sempre quis jogar mas nunca fizeram? Luzes apagando, guerra de travesseiros, CEOs sendo acusados de corrupção, tudo vale! ✶ ׅ ࣪Como vocês imaginam a participação de staffs no rp? E se eles comandarem contas sociais de bandas, tendo seu próprio espaço para criar rumores?

Nossa ask estará aberta 24 horas para receber essas e outras sugestões!

Vamos reservar dois únicos espaços para uma banda ocidental e um grupo de kpop, para VOCÊ nos sugerir um ato musical completo. Tem algo em mente? Nós montamos um form pedindo todos os detalhes. 

Esse ato musical será ideia sua, mas ao fazer a sugestão você nos dá o direito de fazer as mudanças necessárias no futuro, ou presente, para transformá-la em um grupo/banda da COMUNIDADE. Caso sua ideia seja selecionada, uma vaga nele será automaticamente sua, e uma vaga extra está garantida para algum amigo seu. Entraremos em contato para conversar sobre as vagas dos ganhadores! Antes mesmo da abertura, essas quatro vagas serão marcadas como ocupadas, mas os FCs precisarão ser solicitados junto com a abertura geral de reservas.

Aguardamos todos vocês onde a grama é mais verde! Até dia 28.

[daggerzine]

Sandy Salisbury- Mellow As Sunshine (Sundazed)

Leave it to the folks at the Sundazed label to unearth these old Sandy Salisbury demos from a long time ago. As you probably know, Salisbury was in The Millennium and The Ballroom and really did some great stuff back in that long lost decade of the 60’s.  

Apparently these were recorded in his bedroom during his days in The Millenium and had been hidden away all these years. Just Sandy and his voice and guitar (harpsichord, too). He recorded these on his reel-to-reel between 1966 and ’68 and it seemed like Four Star Music was initially interested in releasing them, but then were led to Curt Boettcher and these got hidden away.

20 songs in all and really a bunch of lovely stuff on here. We could call it Sunshine Folk and get away with it, but most of the songs on here are fantastic and need to be heard.  Check out marvelous numbers like “Do I Miss You,” “Six O’Clock,” “A Lot of Love in Me,” “Holly in the Summertime,” and “Just One More Time” to name but a few. Suffice it to say, if you dig any of The Millennium stuff or anything by say The Association or Harpers Bizarre, then you’ll be more than ok with this stuff. Thank you to Sandy and Sundazed for unearthing this.

www.sandysalisbury.bandcamp.com

www.sundazed.com

[guerrilla-operator]

Nico // Waiting For The Man (The Velvet Underground cover)

I'm waiting for my man Twenty-six dollars in my hand Up to Lexington, 125 Feel sick and dirty, more dead than alive I'm waiting for my man

[burlveneer-music]

Sun Ra - Prophet - previously-unreleased recordings of Sun Ra on the Prophet keyboard, 1986

Featuring what may be his only recordings on the Prophet keyboard, these once lost performances expand the omniverse of Ra across a stellar set of lengthy cuts! All recorded in a single day and finally making their terrestrial debut! What happens when a Prophet meets a Prophet? The answer lies within these grooves. Amongst the hundreds of recordings issued by Sun Ra and his Arkestra, under their various guises, the majority were recorded in concert or in makeshift studios such as their early 1960s set-up at NYC's Choreographer's Workshop. Beyond those, roughly 22 albums were recorded at Variety Recording Studio in New York's Times Square. However, on August 25, 1986, Sun Ra and cohorts entered Mission Control, a state-of-the-art 24-track studio north of Boston, which was teeming with electronic keyboards and otherworldly sound generators. Nestled within that arsenal was a brand-new digital ultra keyboard — the Prophet VS ("Vector Synthesizer"). Of all the keyboards Ra played throughout his half-century career, the Prophet was one of the most sophisticated. There's no evidence that he had played either of the instrument's earlier incarnations, the Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 and Prophet-10. Created using microprocessors, a then-new technological advance, under the auspices of engineer Dave Smith in 1978, the Prophet-5 revolutionized electronic music as the first polyphonic and, most importantly, programmable synthesizer. Ra was intrigued by the Prophet (surely by the instrument as well as by the name). Recorded during a single day, it's about time that these once lost performances have now been found. It was a joy and a thrill to be sitting at the console hearing this music for the first time, especially with my fingers on the faders and knobs of the mixing desk. We watched the oxide fly off the 2" tapes during playback, making this our one chance to digitize before they metamorphosed into dust. Welcome to the new Sun Ra album….35+ years after it was recorded. The Omniverse has expanded once again. — Brother Cleve (1955 - 2022)

[catman932]

I have had a music blog on Instagram for the last year. I am going to try and cross post occasionally. If people respond I will continue to do so.

Though very few people heard it upon release in late 1968, Chad and Jeremy's The Ark is considered by some to their finest work and it has aged like a fine wine over the past 50 years. 

Sunstroke was the second track on the album, and it's a celebration of Summer. Gary Usher's production is gorgeous, as is the melody and Chad's vocal. Again, this is a song that you really should listen to in headphones; it's the only way to appreciate all that's going on here.

So the question follows: Why didn't this get any airplay? Well, Jeremy had, over the previous two years, been doing a lot of stage acting in London and getting very good reviews. Upon completion of The Ark, Jeremy informed Chad he was leaving. Columbia decided, with the duo breaking up, not to put much energy into promotion. So, it was issued very quietly and deleted within a year. 

Many years later, with C &J reunited, Sundazed Records reissued The Ark in a very nice package with extensive sleeve notes, and the album began to receive some of the recognition it had long deserved. 

Original Columbia issue (which today is very hard to find) pictured.

Attachments area

Preview YouTube video Sunstroke

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[bandcampsnoop]

12/6/22.

When I saw this album cover, I kind of thought it would be another Southern California/Curation Records band. And I thought Dotti Holmberg was an up-and-coming artist.

Well, Dotti was an up-and-coming artist about 58 years ago as a member of the folk-pop group The Goldebriars (Curt Boettcher was in the band). I've been listening to some of it and its pretty standard 1960s folk-group stuff.

There's only one song currently available on Sundazed Music's "Sometimes Happy Times" album (due out in February 2023). "I Sing My Song" is great and somehow made me think of Vashti Bunyan combined with any number of bands in San Francisco. Or maybe this would be released by Krischan's Frischluft! Tonträger label.

If this song does anything for you, listen to Holmberg's solo version of The Goldebriar's hit "Sea of Tears". Beautiful pop that made me want to put on my Norma Tanega LPs.

[lesdeuxmuses]

High Tide - Sea Shanties (Sundazed Music, 2009)

[odk-2]

The Shirelles - Baby It's You (1961) Burt Bacharach (Music) / Mack David / Luther Dixon from: "Baby It's You" / "The Things I Want to Hear (Pretty Words)" (Single) "Baby It's You" (LP)

Pop | Girl Group | Proto-Dream Pop

JukeHostUK: (left click = play) (320kbps)

Personnel: Shirley Owens: Lead Vocals Doris Coley: Backing Vocals Addie "Micki" Harris: Backing Vocals Beverly Lee: Backing vocals

Big John Patton: Hammond B3 Organ

Arranged by Burt Bacharach Produced by Luther Dixon

Recorded: @ The Bell Sound Studios in New York City, New York USA 1960

Single Released: on December 4, 1961

Album Released: 1962

Scepter Records Sundazed Records (CD Reissue)

+++ +++ +++ Burt Bacharach 1928 - 2023 +++ +++ +++

[jackalsinthekitchen]

pop report #5: endless summer edition (9/16/23)

a sundazed glance at Billboard’s top 20 from two weeks ago – bitch, I said what I said

Summer’s over, the heat from the proverbial kitchen and literal sun still burning the other cheek I feebly turned to both. Per tradition, we’re bidding the season goodbye with a smattering of typical plaints that it wasn’t long enough, or felt like it didn’t happen. But here in Texas, it’s in full swing by early May, with not much mystery over what we’re in for beyond what degree (Fahrenheit) of punishing. So yeah – we’re pretty sure it happened. Yet again, we thought we were ready for it, and yet again, it went a little harder on us than it needed to. Whatever else went down, that lucky old sun made it cruel enough to justify a now-ancient Taylor chorus shooting up the pop charts. Like anything else that shoots up the pop charts these days, reasons why were imperfectly clear. One more testament to the inimitable inhabitability of the One True Pop Star’s catchy canon, perhaps? My summer wasn’t my fave; I can still feel it from here.

I’ve barely touched this new blog o’ mine, which I dreamt of putting up for years – the present you ogle at through the shop window for ages only to take it home and unwrap it, and see all that built-up desire instantly brown with oxidization. While Jackals! still doesn’t have a hook, for the first four weeks of 2023, at a rate of productivity that was ultimately to no one’s benefit, I looked at the pop charts and decided to think out loud about what they meant. But the thing is, in a year when people are thinking about it more out loud than usual, nobody seems to know exactly what they mean. There are analyses trenchant and muddled, and scattered rebuttals to both, strewn throughout comments sections we’ll never read. I’m too bored to even try to recap what I think I know about how these numbers are measured. Even my late best friend’s agitated analyses resisted my comprehension. Why dull the aesthetic with the statistical?

Suffice it to say, there are so many theories about “gaming the system” floating around, it feels a bit like last election year. Most of the people on my radar are in some way convinced that one Oliver Anthony Music’s “Rich Men North of Richmond” won its surprise Billboard victory through nefarious right-wing interference – comparable, you hear, to that Jim Caviezel movie about (fighting) child trafficking, where people bought out whole theatres just to stick it to Brandon. It’s not about the music, they say, it’s about waving a righteous-anger rag, and the rallying cry might as well be coming from any red-faced red-haired Bible-belt boy with a banjo who caught the Qanon virus at très-unmasked family get-togethers. A more neutral friend points out that “Rich Men North of Richmond” hung in at a basically ungameable top 3 place on Spotify for a bit. It was all great industry all around: for MAGAfolk, thinkpiecers, Billy Bragg.

Times change fast, though, so even if a few people are still reeling from them, the Billboard chart – much less Spotify’s Today’s Top Hits, where Anthony has vanished – has moved on to its latest single-star infiltration. That star is Queen Zillennial Olivia Rodrigo, whose guts are is filled with readymade hits, and who may portend a long-awaited pendulum swing back to a more rockist zeitgeist. But because it still literally does not matter what I do here, I wanna warm up these lazy fingers some by casting an eye back to two weeks ago, a whole world away, when the charts looked a bit more like they did in the middle of swelter season. At the ground floor of that top 20 was the indefatigable fatigue-pop of “Anti-Hero”, my most favorite song, which does not seem to have engendered a self-reflection revolution here on earth. But hey, maybe people are just keeping quiet about it. Even Taylor is going through some shit.

#19 is “Thinkin’ Bout Me”, by Morgan Wallen, the, uh, hot-button country artist about whom many folks certainly have thoughts. I haven’t heard this song as of this point in this paragraph, and I suspect it’s not as good as Frank Ocean’s pillow-pop classic “Thinkin’ Bout You”, which is the next song you get when you type “thinkin bout” in the search bar. Mr. Wallen, a reformed butt-rocker, has a harder edge than many of his southern-pop peers, and an excellent article I linked to earlier in this piece, written by a (non-right-wing) writer who’s spent just a little more time with young Wallen’s proudly endless albums than I have, suggests his lyrics even bespeak hip-hop (gasp!) influences. Perhaps this explains some words he enjoys using. The beat of this one is ripped unaltered from hip-hop; the lyrics might pass too, if rapped, though not in what I perhaps unfairly call “truck nuts voice”. Wallen is feeling upset, and entitled, about a recent breakup in this enduring hit, not helping his case by singing the song like an asshole. (More on this later.)

Country really is in its butt-rock era, in a sense – the guitars are amped-up and grinding, the (male) vox are growly and real-ass proud about it. “Need a Favor”, by something called Jelly Roll that’s miles away from Morton, was cited recently in an AA meeting I attended by someone it caught unsuspecting on the radio. We’re a very talk-to-God crowd in AA, and contra Wallen, there’s a humility in this song that’s not matched at all by its sound, but which pushes its stridence into something resembling passion. I’ve just found out via Google/Wikipedia that Jelly Roll is apparently an “American rapper”. He looks like a heavier Post Malone – also an “American rapper” even though everything he puts out sounds just like a pop song – and has a narrative about being incarcerated many times, which also lends some poignant complexity to his hit’s hook. Verdict: annoying if you’re in the wrong mood, but not necessarily bad for your health.

Next in my discovery journey is finding out who the War & Treaty are – they’re a Black husband and wife who weave country and rock into more traditionally Black styles like soul and blues. It makes sense that they’d team up with Zach Bryan, one of the better and, dare I say it, more soulful heavy country hitters hanging out in the high end of these charts. “Hey Driver”, which doesn’t trouble you with electric guitars or even drums at the top, is really stirring. The juxtaposition of tW&T’s full-bodied harmonies against Bryan’s voice, which crumbles once it hits the air, is gorgeous, and the lyrics boast a complexity rarely troubled with on most of these hits. It’s all sincerity, but for the most part, I feel like it earns it. Though the Billboard charts continue to exhibit a kind of separate-but-equal mélange of genres, this sort of crossover still feels rare – even if so much pop, R&B and country takes production cues from hip-hop.

At #16 (we’re at #16 btw) is the ever-restless, currently-somewhat-exhausted Miley Cyrus, whose tired but empowered “Flowers” is already one of pop’s great breakup anthems and stands as one of the songs of last summer. I spent some time in Ms. Cyrus’ canon last spring for a piece I’m proud of, but it didn’t dispel the impression I’ve always had that behind that fabulous voice and insouciant demeanor is not a very clear artistic vision. Cyrus swings from new tack to new tack, and unless she’s put a truly fantastic single together – she does this every so often – there’s always a trace of “unconvincing” there for me. “Used to Be Young” is scarcely different. A piano ballad, something she seems to personally favor, it has an air of reflective weariness (cf. “Malibu”) and light penitence (perhaps for She is Coming?). The media was rarely kind to her, but the hurt only comes out in her songs. The hook is solid, if a little programmatic (“you say I used to be wild, I say I used to be young”), and the music narrowly avoids sappiness with an atmospheric, beaty arrangement. And the fact is, when she starts to belt, she thins out her competition.

“Religiously” by Bailey Zimmerman – I would’ve typed “Blake” based on his face and sound if I hadn’t looked twice – is another revved-up, growly country song about having been deserted, and unlike Mr. Wallen, Zimmy doesn’t wink at you that she was super wrong to leave. The chorus – “I ain’t got the only woman who was there for me/religiously” – skirts patriarchal discomfort, but the lucky among us have had a deeply patient, unwaveringly supportive partner, so the regret is broadly relatable. The religious content is also rather muted – not like this is worship music or anything, though I guess it could pass if it were cornier – weaving the spiritual and secular in a seemingly seamless way. But it’s not not corny. It’s not clear if BZ has a sense of humor, and while his voice has some nice gristle to it (a la ZB), like most of country’s current heavy hitters, the music sounds straight from the factory (a factory with mandolins).

Lil Durk (feat. J. Cole)’s “All My Life”, #14, is also corny, but not enough to drag it down. The slow unfurl of its polysyllabic ruminations (there’s an element of hip-hop the rest of pop would do well to absorb), the classic-Kanye style kids’-choir hook, the simple, gorgeous chord progression: this is a song that aims to make you cry, and more or less earns it. Cole’s climactic middle section about slain young rappers is the highlight, of course; never were more brilliant pop stars cut down too soon than in the modern rap era. But the whole thing has a humility and sense of dynamics that arrests you the whole way through, even the verses you’re not following perfectly between choruses. There is a problem here, though – the single’s sweet sugar was harvested and glazed over by none other than Dr. Luke, one of music’s accused whose charges seemed credible enough to strip him of his license to practice. Can’t Ke$ha count on us?

#13 is “Flowers”, and #12 one of three fantastic hits from the indisputable movie of the summer. Barbie was fainter for me than I wanted, though I’m not sure how much more subversive – it’s quite subversive! – it could’ve been while still nailing the something-for-everyone thing. And anyway, what do I know? I’m just a Ken (or perhaps an Allan). “Barbie World”, the #12 in question two weeks ago – remember, this is all two weeks ago, I make the rules here – is the weakest of the trio. It’s a trap-haze interpolation of the old Aqua hit, a great song which nevertheless felt so aggressively hyper back in the ‘90s, it could hit like a form of torture in the wrong mood. Nicki Minaj, my original 2010s hero, hasn’t helped herself personally for a bit, but her effortless, earth-scorching command, even at a low temperature, is a perfect vessel for the universal empowerment this theme and its film intend – “all of the Barbies is pretty” indeed. #6 on this chart is Dua Lipa’s mint-condition, made-to-order disco anthem “Dance the Night”, the sort of banger that feels like it’s been around forever. The last Barbie hit, Billie Eilish’s startlingly canny “What Was I Made For”, a ballad that astounds a little harder every time it languidly unfolds, hung in at #22.

Oliver Anthony Music had dropped just outside the top 10 at this time. Part of my picking an earlier chart is that I wanted to write about him; that said, I don’t know that a single song has had more written about it in the recent past, and all in one week. Much was made of Anthony(whose beard conceals his build)’s irritation with people who use taxpayer-funded welfare to buy cheap treats. In fact, his fatphobia is the clearest toxicity in the lyrics, though the reference to “minors on an island somewhere” – as if the U.S. government did a thing to keep Jeffrey Epstein from hurting people – codes conspiracy theorist. But all the carping about his fishy success belies the fact that the song sounds great. Mr. Music’s voice is searing and powerful, the stark banjo and the outdoor ambience a production coup, and if it wasn’t so clear he was coming at this from the wrong place (though to be fair, he’s abjured any party affiliation), it would speak to the great open secret of U.S. politics, which is that bullshit pay is everybody’s problem, and these wedge issues, however serious, are there to distract us from uniting against our oppressors. As Billy Bragg put it in his pitch-perfect rebuttal, “join a union”. We’ve just been reminded strikes still work.

Having already touched on #6, I’ll breeze through 10 to 7. 10 is Rema & Selena Gomez’s “Calm Down”, an Afrobeat-graced pop hit with a vibe much resemblant of Bad Bunny and other recent Latin pop. Gomez’s post-Waverly Place penchant for coming on like she’s absolutely done with everything and is too tired to be bothered anymore suits the single’s quiet storm perfectly. “Vampire” is Olivia’s current piano-kissoff coup, and you already know how much it doesn’t suck. Gunna’s “Fukumean” gets stuck in my head here and there – well, just the “Fukumean” part – and I always subsequently wonder what it sounds like on the radio, where you still can’t quite say exactly what the fukumean. The music feels generic if peppy; the lyrics are conventional hip-hop aggro-bravado. SZA’s “Snooze” is no snooze, but also no “Kill Bill”.

I went through a breakup this summer, right around the time Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night” blew up. His music is insistently catchy and melodically brawny, so for a short time “no way it was our last night” was sort of a pet chorus in my head. But this deteriorated quickly, paying attention to the rest of the lyrics – said night was booze-fueled, not the most relatable or charming thing for a grateful recovering alcoholic, and once again, Wallen’s greasy cockiness is an automatic turn-off. There’s very little indication that his ex wants to stick around, much less that Wallen, whose cultural function is primarily as a “cancelled” superstar half of the country is propping up in retaliation, has done a lot of self-interrogation about it. The song really does sound great, and its hook is invincible, but once again, it isn’t exactly good for you.

The late-breaking triumph of Taylor’s “Cruel Summer” would also leave a bad taste if the song weren’t one of her best. I say this because of the recent scenario in which our new pop hero Olivia Rodrigo had to pay Swift, whose business acumen seems genuinely frightening, for a touch of inspiration from this song (a chanted section…?) that could be ungenerously interpreted as some sort of theft for which some sort of repayment is in order. Their lawyers worked it out, but bad blood feels inevitable; Swift famously supported Rodrigo in a deliberately maternal way when “Drivers License” (sorry, “drivers license”) hit, but it’s not impossible to imagine that zillionaire cipher feeling a twinge of jealousy from which a few petty things might result. Rodrigo’s evasive responses in interviews seem to give credit to this suspicion.

Into the top #3, and here sits one of my favorite curios, Luke Combs’ musically beefed-up but lyrically unaltered cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car”. Combs absolutely has truck nuts voice, and I’m still not clear what people who prefer that voice above all others do when he drops the line about his time as a checkout girl. It’s hard to pinpoint anything nefarious here; Combs has just sent an influx of money into the bank account of a more-or-less forgotten Black female singer-songwriter – though that song endures, and is now living in the high reaches of the charts, because it’s fucking fantastic. But then, I haven’t read any thinkpieces about it, and I’m getting about as tired of writing as you are of reading, so we’ll move on.

My boy Zach Bryan and our girl Kacey Musgraves are (well, were) at #2 with their gently broken collab “I Remember Everything”. With its soft bass-drum pound, quiet strumming, slowly sawn violins and swaths of echo, it sounds a bit like mists floating grimly over fields (antebellum, perhaps? Nah, not for Kacey). Here are two of our deftest, most openhearted country stars, and, finally, a country breakup hit with not a kernel of corn, setting its scene through pure suggestion instead of beating you over the head with a big new cliché in a sack full of old ones. Its magic dispels a little the closer you look, but it really works. So does the unflappable Doja Cat’s “Paint the Town Red”, noted by chartwatchers as the first rap hit atop the hot 100 in a hot minute. As with “Dance the Night”, once DC rolls in over the music, the song feels classic and eternal. Not unlike Dionne Warwick’s “Walk on By”, the source of its sample – a 60-year-old hit of such intense and incongruous fragility, it’s astonishing how well they worked it in. In the Spotify age, all pop is eternal. To that end, any summer whose soundtrack is woven into your soul is endless.