Summer Soundtrack

Summers are fun. It's also fun to relive them through music. So when I was a preteen and teenager, every August I'd make myself a cassette tape of the popular songs from that summer. I don't know where those tapes are now. I suspect my parents threw them out, but I wish I could listen to them today to see what's on them. I bet memories of the Summers of '88 to '94 would come flooding back. Or not. Who knows? But I'm sure I'd do plenty of smiling and even laughing if I listened to them now.

The other day I was reading an article about the top ten songs of this summer, and I didn't recognize many of the song titles. Am I officially an old fogey? I listen to the radio--maybe not the coolest stations but it's still popular music. Occasionally I go to classic rock, but we're mostly tuned to the pop stations. Unless a rap song comes on. Yuck. And even though these two sort of ruled the summer, Iggy Azalea's and Ariana Grande's music just isn't my cup of tea.

For the kids and me, it was pretty much a OneRepublic summer. If we weren't listening to them, we were listening to ten other songs that prompted me to ask, "Do you know who wrote this?" Elizabeth caught on soon enough and would automatically sigh, "That guy from OneRepublic?" "Right!" She is now well-versed in Ryan Tedder's songwriting and can find the similarities in the openings of "Love Runs Out" and Adele's "Rumour Has It." Yeah, he did write that. He also co-wrote that new Maroon 5 song so we may be setting ourselves up for a Ryan Tedder fall, too. I don't know, though. Jason Mraz is gaining strength with his new album and I'm liking it. A lot. But it's hardly fall yet, even though I think it is because I'm all alone while the kids are at school and have time to ponder stuff like this. It's definitely not summer anymore.

So although I'm not going to make a cassette tape to celebrate Summer 2014, I came up with a few songs that will forever remind me of these past few months. These aren't necessarily my favorite songs. In fact, I dislike John Legend's song of cliches so much that it doesn't stay on for longer than a few notes, and when I really listened to what Sam Smith was saying I no longer cared for that one. If you have a pretty song then write nice lyrics for it, people! But Paramore really is fun and that's what summer should be.

Sara's Summer of 2014 Soundtrack

"Love Runs Out" by OneRepublic

"Am I Wrong" by Nico & Vinz

"Rude" by Magic!

"Sing" by Ed Sheeran
"Believer" by American Authors

"Stay with Me" by Sam Smith
"A Sky Full of Stars" by Coldplay

"Me and My Broken Heart" by Rixton (easily Matthew's favorite tune right now)

"All of Me" by John Legend
"Raging Fire" by Phillip Phillips

"Cool Kids" by Echosmith

"Ain't It Fun" by Paramore

"Maps" by Maroon 5

"Love Someone" by Jason Mraz