Songs for a Social Summer

[peekaboo]

Whether you’re blasting them in the car or dancing to them at the club, these tunes—some finally getting their due and some brand new—will help you bridge the distance to pleasure as usual

Doja Cat performing in May

Photo: Chris Pizzello/Associated Press

 

It’s hard to think of summer 2021 without thinking about where things stood a year ago: The horror and uncertainty of the first few months of Covid-19 was lifting slightly, but the U.S. was in the midst of a reckoning on race and policing following the murder of George Floyd, all while a contentious presidential contest hummed along in the background. Billboard was tracking the Songs of the Summer, as it has since 2010, but the season never felt like one for celebrating. Survival was all one could hope for. 

Twelve months later the number of those vaccinated continues to climb and, depending on where you live, it might be easy to forget a time when you went everywhere with a mask in your pocket. And the entire idea of summer musichas regained its purpose. Perhaps because 2020 was so fraught, there are several currently surging hits that date from albums released in the pandemic’s earliest days and couldn’t realize their true potential while the world was still in lockdown. 

Tyler, the Creator

Photo: gabriella angotti-jones/Reuters

Foremost among these is the version of Dua Lipa’s “Levitating” that features rapper DaBaby. The original was released on her fantastic album “Future Nostalgia,” which came out in late March 2020, right as the first wave of Covid-19 was building. “It’s an album filled with anthems that will, for now, have to settle for soundtracking live-streamed videos . . . rather than the roaring public celebrations for which they were designed,” read my review. “But that time will come.” That time, it would seem, is now. “Levitating” is a slice of danceable pop perfection, and the song is currently hovering near the top of the Songs of the Summer chart. 

Also riding high is a pair of tracks from the Weeknd’s excellent album “After Hours,” also from March 2020. The ’80s throwback “Blinding Lights,” first released as a single all the way back in November 2019 and a chart-topper a year ago February, has been a ubiquitous hit ever since and is rising again. The more melancholy “Save Your Tears,” first issued as a single last August, is currently in the Songs of the Summer top 10. These are tunes that sound different in this season, so it’s no surprise that listeners are cueing them up again. 

But summer music should ultimately be a snapshot of the present, and there is a slate of strong singles that show us where the pop energy is coming from right now. Topping Billboard’s Songs of the Summer tabulation for 2020 was DaBaby & Roddy Ricch’s “Rockstar,” and another rap hit pivoting off that concept is making waves. Chicago-raised rapper Polo G’s “Rapstar” hit No. 1 in April and is hovering in the middle of the 20-track Songs of the Summer chart. It can’t touch the celebratory tone of its predecessor, but it’s an excellent showcase of Polo G’s melodic style and is thick with earworms. 

Lil Nas X

Photo: Chris Pizzello/Associated Press

Other chart smashes we’ll be hearing all season include the impossibly sunny and ebullient “Butter” from the ridiculously popular Korean boy-band BTS—if you’ve not kept up with the group’s global rise in the past five years, this simple and punchy number isn’t a bad place to start—and “Montero (Call Me by Your Name)” by Atlanta rapper/singer Lil Nas X. His momentous single “Old Town Road,” Billboard’s Song of the Summer in 2019, is probably the most influential pop number of the past 10 years, reshuffling how listeners and the music industry think about the ways genres are informed by race. Lil Nas X’s EP and singles following “Old Town Road” were less impressive, but with “Montero” he seems to have found his groove as a playful trickster. Tyler, the Creator, another media-savvy rapper with a penchant for blurring genres, is at his best on “Lumberjack,” a single from his excellent new LP “Call Me If You Get Lost.” It’s a dense and driving cut that seems designed to bounce around city streets. 

BTS

Photo: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images

When 2021 comes to a close it’s extremely unlikely that any album will have amassed more streams than “Sour” from recent high-school graduate Olivia Rodrigo. “Good 4 U,” the album’s third single, is currently marching up the chart, and it shows the influence of spiky-pop punk on her music. Billie Eilish, another teen phenom, has her second album, “Happier Than Ever,” due in late July. The production on advance track “Lost Cause” is minimal in the extreme, little more than a rubbery bass and the thwack of a snare, and her slinking vocal has a hint of a torch singer, crooning for late nights. 

Billie Eilish

Photo: mario anzuoni/Reuters

In the past couple of years Los Angeles rapper/singer Doja Cat has come into her own as a musical force, and her latest LP, “Planet Her,” arrived June 25. She’s a skilled technical rapper with a strong melodic sense and a bold visual presence, and her work is wildly popular on social-media platforms. Single “Kiss Me More,” featuring singer SZA, anchored by a gentle guitar part, has an infectious bounce and an alluring mix of sweetness and attitude. And Doja Cat guests on the thumping “Best Friend” from rapper Saweetie. If Doja Cat’s style seems otherworldly, her counterpart’s is earthy and raw, perfect for the raunchy asides she favors. 

Leon Bridges

Photo: Erika Goldring/Getty Images

Texas singer Leon Bridges’s voice is rich and supple enough to bring to mind soul greats, so he sometimes finds himself in traditional settings. But his evocative song “Motorbike”—from the LP “Gold-Diggers Sound” due later this month—infused with stuttering drums and synths that twinkle like the night stars, brings his sound up to date. English singer-songwriter Tirzah’s 2018 album “Devotion” was a critical hit, and she returns in October with follow-up “Colourgrade.” On her new single “Sink In” she has something in common with FKA twigs with her adventurous phrasing and artful twist on sleek R&B greats like Sade. Also due this fall is the new album from Helado Negro, the electro-pop project helmed by singer/producer Roberto Carlos Lange. “Gemini and Leo,” from his forthcoming album “Far In,” is a naked appeal to the dance floor that could have bubbled out of the late 2000s underground—think Hot Chip or Cut Copy. 

Each of these songs is in its own way an invitation to communal pleasure, something to be experienced when you’re having fun in a crowd. And we’d be wise to never take that for granted.