Author: Adam Gorecki

As we bathe in the British Isle’s obscure luxury of diverse weather and we dive head first into what can hopefully be described as another blissful summer, some may say we’re also blessed with a fresh outlook within the new seasons. This may mean that you’re eager to get outside and unleash your concealed energy from the cold winter months, or see it as a perfectly good reason to lay out in the sun and do nothing whatsoever. But as the seasons change, so can our music tastes.

The first question I asked myself when looking to discuss the best ‘summer albums’ to listen to this year was the simple question – “what does it even mean to be a summer album?”. The simple answer is – probably nothing much. Essentially everything artistic lies in the hands of perception and I’m sure that you all have a particularly good criteria of what a good ‘summer album’ should look like. Don’t let me steer that path for you.

Today, however, I wanted to share some of my own. These may typically be projects that I’ll tend to revisit at the dawn of summertime, when the days start to feel a little bit longer and the temptation to cheesily seize the day will become that little bit more irresistible. It’s that time of year where you may feel inclined to be that little bit more spontaneous, and perhaps the right soundtrack may be required in bringing your ideas into fruition. With great pleasure, here are my 2025 summer albums.

Autobahn – Kraftwerk (1974)

Nothing describes excitement quite like driving your car with the windows down for the first sunny day of the year; with the wind in your hair, one arm leaning on the door and the other firmly on the wheel. Moreover, one of the first things that I’d learnt when first passing my driving test was the free will and blank canvas of an open road and a reliable motor.

German EDM pioneers, Kraftwerk, articulated this freedom within the format of a concept album – Autobahn. The band were famous for being one of the first to use a synthesiser in their work, popularising the electronic genre in the early 70s. The album sonically ushers you through a car journey on Germany’s Autobahn, a theme inspired by the bands pure love for driving on the roads. With minimal lyrics, the album prioritises its instrumentation, with the bands calming synths and funky drum machines guiding you throughout the German highways. Although it was considered the bands first big leap into the electric genre from formerly being heavily associated with Germany’s krautrock scene, this album features a variety of non electrical instruments such as the violin, the guitar and even the flute! What I personally love about this project is that it doesn’t ask too much of you as a listener, it merely offers a peaceful electronic instrumental that purely defines the spirit of driving on a warm summers day in Germany.

Flower Boy – Tyler, The Creator (2017)

There is a lot more that comes with summer than simply the sun and freshly cut grass. Summer is traditionally known as a season of opportunity. A time to get out of the house and meet people, go places, fall in love, make mistakes and maybe even learn something new about yourself. On a surface level, Tyler, The Creator’s first mangum-opus that would eventually be followed by a generational run of classic albums, Flower Boy, is an elegant embrace of summer adventure. However, it won’t take many listens to appreciate the depth that this project offers, in fact, it could take several to fully appreciate this masterpiece. Following the theme of car journeys, Tyler uses a car journey as a metaphor to depict the exploration of his own character throughout a particular summer. The opportunity for loneliness, materialism, desire, heartbreak, sexuality and nostalgia are all discovered and are equally at stake on this project.

On a performance level, it’s worth noting that all components of this project are written and produced by Tyler, himself, making it all the more impressive. Every detail is carefully considered, to the slightest synth distortion to the subliminal imagery depicted in the lyrics. I think a lot of ‘summer albums’ are defined as simply having that ‘summer vibe’. For an artist like Tyler, it would be quite 2-dimensional to conceptualise an album with a just a ‘vibe’ in mind. That’s not to say, however, that the summer vibe isn’t considered in the majority of the tracks. Many of the songs are graceful, tracks like Garden Shed and Bordeom particularly take you to that realm of blissfulness that comes with summer nostalgia.

As a whole, the album compliments itself with a fair distribution of hit singles, vibrant instrumentations and complex narratives to keep you engaged and electrified on a summers day.

Ram – Paul and Linda McCartney (1970)

The nonsensical silliness of McCartney was a creative maneuver so demanding that it essentially tore The Beatles apart in 1970. It left listeners bickering where the line of genius sat, and whether at this stage of his career, McCartney was still crossing it.

Post Beatles Paul is a revived rendition of passionate songwriting. Taking his deep heartbreak from his former bandmates in order to replace and remix it with the love of his wife, his family and his farm; his simpler life. Ram offers us the musical freedom to unapologetically rediscover who we are, post turmoil. Each song feels like a creatively spontaneous summer, as if you’re painting a canvas in a barley field and splattering whatever colour paint you feel like on it without a care – and everything looks gorgeous. It certainly carries that feeling of being fresh out the gates from a concealing and depressing winter, with an unapologetic ambition to reclaim who you are and to be happy.

‘I have some really great memories of just sitting around in the summer, in the garden and the kids would be playing around. The sun would be shining, I’d have my guitar and it was a great time for me. it’s kind of a golden memory looking back on it’ – McCartney on recording Ram

Despite critical backlash upon release, tracks such as Ram On, Dear Boy, Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey, Heart Of The Country and Smile Away have all stood the test of time in todays day and age. It proves that your whimsical intuitions may have a point, and summertime is a great time to express them.

Daisies Of The Galaxy – Eels (2000)

Eels are incredibly masterful at producing bold concoctions of 2000s rock, bold brass orchestras, grotesquely delicate vocals and insightful lyrics – followed by a lighthearted ukulele.

Much like the cover suggests, Daisies Of The Galaxy is Mr E’s ode towards child-like curiosity. The whole project aims to encapsulate the first sight of sun after a traumatic storm, when the opportunities of the big wide world are beginning to present themselves to you once more. It carries with it a more drowsy and melancholic tone than the previously mentioned projects, often found within the whispery vocals, nostalgic lyrics or the lo-fi acoustic textures. It doesn’t promise anything too sunny or cheery, rather than it encouraging you to enjoy the smell of dampened rain on hot ground once the storm clears.

Songs such as ‘I Like Birds’, ‘Packing Blankets’ ‘Mr E’s Beautiful Blues’ are the standout tracks that typically surround appreciating the worlds simplicities. The listening experiences helps you find peace in a wide variation of confessional lyrics, experimental instrumentation and a bold sense of playfulness. Not everyday of summer is going to be perfect, but it doesn’t mean that you’re denied the opportunity to make the most of it nonetheless.

Sound & Color – Alabama Shakes (2015)

This project is an encapsulation of the soulful wilderness of the South. ‘Soul’ is the keyword here. Soul implies a deep and complex pallet of colors, where each mix is inexplainable, incomparable and untouchable. In this obscurity, Alabama Shakes produce and outstandingly daring and untamed representation of freedom. It takes their influence of Southern Rock and Soul, and utilises the demanding voice of Brittany Howard to reinvent and remerge the two genres into something courageously elegant. What that fabricates is an intrinsically exciting and rather charming listening experience.

Like a mad scientist frolicking in their elements, we witness first hand a chaotic frenzy of unhinged creative control over vintage 60s genres. The crucial aspect is through being able to hear and feel the fun that the band had through the music that they, themselves produced. There’s a shear and unpredictable power behind the songwriting and the instrumentals; one that can either thump its way down the sound systems or sway your soulful blues away. The project answers to no one and it’s incredibly sure of itself. Sound & Colour brings colour to sound, you can interpret that how you like, the work won’t give a damn either way.

It’s a summer album because it’s too colourful not to be.

Sunny Side Up – Paolo Nutini (2009)

I leave this one till last as it is an album that I would never forgive myself if I left it off this list. Paolo’s Sunny Side Up lives and breaths the essence of Summer. Not only by the homely aura that it carries, the wholesome and heartfelt lyrics, groovy and folky instrumentation or the ancient crackle in a young mans voice.

The album is the fabrication of a fanatical realm where all things good may roam. Feel free to write it all off as cheesy or old fashioned, but these very factors in themselves belong in the summertime. Whether its the jovial and joyous nature of 10/10 or the concealed romantic in candy, you listen to this album routing for Paolo. In fact, you get the feeling that this album is routing for you too. It doesn’t matter who he is, the project is nothing far from a complete, pure, funky oddball quest to make other people smile, dance, sway and love. There’s nothing more to dissect, the project’s intentions are plain as day.

The project blends itself in a multitude of genres such as folk, soul, reggae, and jazz, with all elements spewing with giddiness and unpredictable, frantic fun. Furthermore, the narrative sits on the shoulders of the nostalgia of loved ones, with the majority of the songs consisting of past flames and whacky nights with friends.

I often like to use the word ‘honest’ as a keyword criteria when discussing the quality of a project. What I mean by that usually is how you can tell if a project is authentically bringing itself into fruition or when it is forcing or over-engineering some kind of ‘act’ that doesn’t quite fit or articulate itself as efficiently as it could. What I love about Sunny Side Up is that the project knows what it is, it loves itself for it and it does the deed well.

Summ(er)y

These previous projects seem to have a distinct connection with me at this time of year, there are plenty more, but these six certainly stand out. I’ll never really know why that is, despite me attempting to explore why through numerous paragraphs. I can make parallels, write about why I may think that these are summer albums, but I’ll always stray far from a legitimate, meaningful conclusion. This is because the things we love typically lie on a subconscious level, where they belong. It doesn’t need reason, it just works.

What’s important to know, however, is that no form of music is capable of making your summer any more awesome. These albums may narrate and illustrate the possibilities that are carried in such a season, however, sometimes I worry that the world we live in is far more focused in using music to capture a sense of nostalgia that hasn’t even happened yet. It can be important to learn that life can be lived via our own soundtrack if we wish it to be.

Furthermore, we can’t let summer be just a ‘concept’ – the internet will constantly glamourise the fact that it is. I want you to forget the stereotypes that I associated with summer and understand that the seasons magic is possible all year round. Much like how the music we listen to has the power to be heard and enjoyed all of the time, so can the feeling of summer. So why not enjoy them both?

Adam is a London-based writer, maker, and photographer with a broad love for anything that catches his curiosity, particularly music. Graduating with a Level 4 Diploma in Copywriting from The College of Media and Publishing, he sees music as a complex social study and is fascinated by how brilliant ideas can be brought to life. He has a critical eye for great storytelling and thrives in exploring the philosophical side behind an artist’s intentions and what can ignite a spark that lasts for generations.