Congratulations: if you’re reading these few lines, your efforts are finally about to pay off. After battling all year through wind and swamp, a glimmer of hope has been gathering strength these past few days, brushing your cheek with a comforting warmth. Friends, summer took its time, but summer is finally here — and our team has cooked up a playlist that’ll knock any thought of packing up come September clean out of its head.
What we’ve got for you is a digest of the releases of the moment: a pick of 20 tracks that will, we hope, make you shiver through the summer stretch. The return of the heat has catalysed the inspiration of influential artists who do us the honour of dropping their latest work to open this very special season: the long-awaited return of stoner king Josh Homme with Queens of the Stone Age, a surprise reclaiming of the garage punk throne by Sweden’s The Hives, and a posthumous Foo Fighters record in tribute to Taylor Hawkins.
The D’Addario brothers take this season’s spotlight with power pop duo The Lemon Twigs. After careers as child performers on Broadway and three albums steeped in their New York roots, the band keeps refining its style on Everything Harmony, a fourth effort that confirms these brothers’ gift for bringing the finest hours of the sixties back to life.
On our end, we hope you make the most of this restorative stretch, and come back fresh and ready for new discoveries come September!
