Soft Cavalry: Dive (Track of the Week from the Album of the Week)

Fareham's own Rachel Goswell is a United Kingdom treasure. She's been making fantastic music since the early '90s with her dream pop, shoegazing outfit Slowdive. Her latest project, The Soft Calvary, is with her husband Steve Clarke. Their self-titled debut is an extraordinary piece of work. It is immediately in contention for album of the year and is the perfect record to enjoy on a hot summer day or a cool summer night (especially with a loved one!)

From the opening track all the way through the eleven other songs, I was transported to a breezy and chill world of mental and emotional watercolors. The best music has always been the kind that sends the mind and heart on a journey. Goswell and Clarke deliver that massively on this record.

Here is the opening track. Dive in with "Dive."

Saint Etienne: Sumerisle (Summer Playlist Track #4)

It's raining today in the North Woods so I need some summer sunshine in the form of music. London's Saint Etienne has a great summer track off of their 2002 masterpiece, Finisterre. Sit back, listen, and dream of those beautiful rays, babies!

Fruit Bats: Gold Past Life (Album of the Week)

Chicago's own Fruit Bats have been making music for all of the years so far in this new millennium and we should all be very grateful for it. Rooted in old school pop music, core member Eric D. Johnson has continued to turn out spirited and just plain fun albums. Fruit Bats are indeed a midwest treasure that you must discover if you have not done so already.

Their latest is called Gold Past Life. Here is the title track.

The Hives: Good Samaritan (Track of the Week)

The madcap lads from Fagersta, Sweden are back with another great single this year called "Good Samaritan." This comes on the heels of last springs offering, "So Alive." It's great to see them making music again and touring. A full length album is in the works!

Howard Jones: No One Is To Blame

MTV really shaped my teenage years. Every time I hear a track that was in heavy video rotation, my inner nostalgia explodes for those endless hours watching that music channel.

Howard Jones was all over MTV in the 80's. The Southhampton native churned out mighty fine bubblegum pop that stuck with you forever. From 1986, here is one of my faves for Throwback Thursday.

The Style Council: Long Hot Summer (Summer Playlist Track #3)

No summer playlist would be complete without this absolute gem from the summer of 1983 by Paul Weller's second band, The Style Council. Released as part of a four track EP called A Paris, "Long Hot Summer" instantly vaulted to seasonal anthem status. By coincidence the British summer heat wave of 1983, most notably July, turned out to be one of the hottest on record – something that would not have been known at the time the song was written and recorded. Serendipity!

The liner notes declared it would be played "everywhere on portable trannies for those of you who fall in love for the first time and out of love for the last..."

 

The Lovin' Spoonful: Summer In the City (Summer Playlist Track #2)

Even though it is mildly contrived, The Lovin' Spoonful's "Summer in the City" is essential to any summer playlist. It paints a stark portrait of their hometown of New York City on those scorching summer days.

 

Hot Chip: A Bath Full of Ecstasy (Album of the Week)

London's own Hot Chip have just released their lucky seventh album and it's a corker! Even though I'm not much of a synthpop guy, I have truly enjoyed this band their beginnings back in the noughties. A Bath Full of Ecstasy sees the band fully realizing their sound and their dream.

Enjoy it with them!