The voices of summer

COMMENTARY

Spotify has just released its list of Songs Of The Summer for 2015, but of course there are a couple of caveats.

If you're Australian or Argentinian or South African, these are the Songs Of The Winter, which is kinda sad.

If you're Singaporean, which you probably are, you would barely understand the concept of summer because it's always summer here.

Anyway, here are the most listened-to songs for the past few months, according to the music streaming service.

Hope you will remember them with fondness when you're super old.

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#1 LEAN ON - MAJOR LAZER & DJ SNAKE (FEAT. MO)

This EDM track makes me think about walking through a friendly jungle, like in a cartoon. Tribal but adorable.

For those keeping score, Major Lazer is a US electro group, DJ Snake is a producer and Mo is a singer.

I miss the days when there were just bands. It apparently took well over a year to write the song. The dancey, multiculti video has more than a half a billion views. 

Fun Fact: Major Lazer's first album in 2009 was called Guns Don't Kill People... Lazers Do. Best. Album title. Ever.

 

 

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#2 CHEERLEADER (FELIX JAEHN REMIX) - OMI

This started off as a reggae song way back in 2008, and became a hit in OMI's native Jamaica.

It went through many iterations before it finally found global success in the hands of German producer Felix Jaehn.

Cheerleader hit the top of the charts in almost every country where they have charts. It's easy to see why the tune went so big - breezy execution and sweet sentiment, we all want a cheerleader, yo!

 

 

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#3 SEE YOU AGAIN - WIZ KHALIFA (FEAT. CHARLIE PUTH)

While the other two songs are feel-good tunes, this one is all sad and poignant. Written for the Fast & Furious 7 soundtrack, it's a tribute to the late actor Paul Walker.

It topped the Billboard charts for 12 non-consecutive weeks, tying for the longest-running No. 1 rap hit in the US.

Puth really related to the subject of the song as one of his own pals died in a car crash. The emotion certainly comes through.

 

 

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BONUS: MY PICK FOR SONG OF THE SUMMER

#4 HIGH BY THE BEACH - LANA DEL REY

Like her earlier effort Summertime Sadness, the US singer's first single off her upcoming fourth studio album Honeymoon perfectly captures the dark side of summer life.

Love gone wrong. Ennui. Revenge.

In the video, she wanders around her beach house in a silky nightgown before finally shooting a helicopter out of the sky with a giant gun. What says "summer fun" more than that?