Music Playlist: Alternative Songs for the Summer

British summertime: The pouring rain, the thick hoodies, the huddling behind a windbreaker at the beach because we’re on holiday, dammit.

British summertime: The pouring rain, the thick hoodies, the huddling behind a windbreaker at the beach because we’re on holiday, dammit. It can be a little depressing.

 

Last weekend we felt a short sweet heat wave ripple across the UK, which saw us dragging out the barbecues and buying Cornettos in bulk. Then Tuesday arrived and the mercury dropped. While I braved the downpour and headed to the library for some overdue revision I made a list of my favourite summer tracks to make the walk a bit less gloomy.  

 

Now you’ve already cued up Sweet Home Alabama, Summer of 69, Hotel California and all the other old favourites, but here are a few alternative choices to brighten up your playlist.

 

So make a jug of Pimms, steal your little sister’s sandpit and set up your own indoor beach party with this on repeat. I’ll bring the Cornettos.

 

 

 

It might be a cover and it might have been released when you were still in school, but this is one song you can’t miss out of any summer playlist. It’s the sweet, teenage romance we all remember from summer holidays that seemed to last forever, pocket money ice-lollies that stained your lips and made it just so obvious when you’d had that “special” first kiss (though all your friends were watching and giggling from behind the nearest tree anyway)

 

 

 

I dare you not to get up and move to this song. You can fight it but eventually the bass line will catch you. Black Stone Cherry are the ultimate festival band; laid back, cheerful and this song is a sexy, smooth, summer love anthem with fantastic sing-along hooks that I guarantee will be stuck in your head for days. If you look very carefully you can see me and my friends dancing along in the video.

 

 

 

A little slice of country-fried rock and roll about the joys of beer and partying in the sunshine. With their Country twang and catchy choruses this Alabama five piece will bring a ray of southern warmth to even the windiest of Yorkshire moors. 

 

 

 

It’s summer and a little part of everyone would love to slack off work, revision, exams and the hassles of productivity to just chill out with a beer on the porch. Neighbours judging eyes be damned. So turn up the radio, lie back on the grass and pretend Monday morning is never coming round.

 

 

A festival stomper which never fails to get crowds dancing, The Keys’ new album is a psychedelic storm but this has a more chilled out sound, perfect for lazy afternoons in the sun (if it ever comes out from behind the clouds).