I’m really digging the single “Trying to Be Cool” off of Phoenix’s new album. I have no idea what the world the lyrics are about, but I really just like the music. It has the perfect rhythm and feel of a chill summer song. This video actually gets way more upbeat and crazy at the end than the actual radio of the edit of the song, which kind of ruins the chill summer vibe so pay no attention to that part of it.

And speaking of chill summer songs, this song reminded me of the chill summer playlist I made two summers ago. I decided to break it back out and add “Trying to Be Cool” to the mix. I seem to go through musical phases in the summer. At the beginning of the summer when it’s first starting to get warm and I want to go outside and do all the things I tend to gravitate towards upbeat music that makes me want to move. It means I want to listen to a lot of country and hip-hoppish type pop music. Basically the things I was getting at with my song of the summer posts. Once we get further into the summer and the oppressive heat and humidity take over and I become more languid my musical tastes shift towards music that is good just to sit around and chill with. It’s the perfect music to sit around a pool or sit outside on a porch swing drinking a sweet tea listening to. Don’t get me wrong I have neither a pool nor a porch swing and thus have never listened to this playlist while doing either of those things, but in my head that’s what I’m doing while listening to this music.

This is the poorly curated playlist I threw together. I say poorly curated because it’s in particular order. I just added songs as I thought of them and then hit shuffle. What songs do you like to chill out to in the summer?