Chris' Summer Mix 2009

At the end of every summer, either as a birthday present or a going-back-to-school present or whatever, I make a mix. I used to make tons of mixes. I'd make 'em for any purpose or any person or any occasion. Over time, what with the advent of the playlist and me actually finding better things to do with my time, the golden Summer Mix has more or less become the only one I make every year (barring road trips or something that might call for it).

The criterion for song selection is very simple: it can be any song from any year, just so long as I like it and it reminds me in some way of the summer now gone. This usually results in an array of some of my most-played tracks from May to August, select songs by bands I have seen live, or songs that have just plain dropped into my life at particularly opportune times. In short, these are all songs that mean something to me and that, given enough time, I expect to be especially evocative of summer '09.

Are there any songs that got left out due to CD time constraints? Well, yeah. In a perfect world, CDs would be ~90 minutes long so that I could include Archive's "Controlling Crowds" and The Mae Shi's "R U Professional?" But so it goes. The 19 songs that made the cut are, I think, the "right" 19, so that's good enough for me.

It's also become frighteningly apparent to me just by glancing at last year's mix how much further down the synth slope I've fallen. With a few synthy exceptions (M83, Kleerup, Cut Copy), 2008's was a rock mix. But now, with a few rock exceptions (Sunset Rubdown, Brand New, dredg, and a couple others), 2009's is predominately a synth mix. The tastes, they are a-changin'.

Chris' Summer Mix 2009:
01. Junior Boys, "Double Shadow" [4:22]
02. Sunset Rubdown, "Silver Moons" [4:45]
03. Empire of the Sun, "Standing on the Shore" [4:24]
04. Bat for Lashes, "Daniel" [4:11]
05. The Presets, "This Boy's in Love" [4:12]
06. Brand New, "The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows" [4:01]
07. Fischerspooner, "Never Win" [3:59]
08. Pure Reason Revolution, "Bullitts Dominae" [5:22]
09. dredg, "I Don't Know" [3:45]
10. Chromeo, "Fancy Footwork" [3:18]
11. Das Racist & Wallpaper, "Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell" [3:40]
12. Innerpartysystem, "The Way We Move" [3:27]
13. Rinôçérôse, "Panic Attack" [4:02]
14. Pnau, "With You Forever" [3:34]
15. The Kingsbury Manx, "Well, Whatever" [3:11]
16. Immaculate Machine, "Broken Ship" [3:33]
17. War Tapes, "She Lied" [3:22]
18. 23RAINYDAYS, "Monster" [4:42]
19. VNV Nation, "Where There Is Light" [6:20]
Total Time: 78:17

And of course it's horribly presumptuous of me to assume anyone might be interested in hearing this crap, but just in case, I've prepared a handy little .rar file that can be downloaded here. Trust me, it's worth it just for track #11 (and the way that, when listened to in sequence, it kind of awesomely transitions into #12).

It all just makes me wonder what 2010's mix will look like. For all I know, it could be nothing but Bavarian folk music. I'm known to frighten myself like that sometimes. Anyway. There we have it.

For what it's worth, a new Movie Roundup will arrive very shortly. Like, within a couple days. So stay tuned for that!