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" This is the second year I&amp;#039;ve compiled a Songs of the Summer package, but let&amp;#039;s be clear: I&amp;#039;m not any closer to believing the entire &amp;quot;Song of the Summer&amp;quot; concept is anything more than a bullshit media construct. Like I said last year, Major League Baseball is seasonal. Music shouldn&amp;#039;t be. Yes, there are songs that are &amp;quot;summery.&amp;quot; And yeah, there are also songs that sound &amp;quot;wintery.&amp;quot; But what&amp;#039;s more important than the season a song is released in is that a song does the things great songs do \u2014 move you to dance (or cry), to sing along (or whip your hair), or fundamentally change your assessment of any given day (or year). Those kinds of songs are songs you want to tell friends about. If you need to attach #SOTS to your evangelical endorsement then so be it. The 20 songs on this list are songs that seem important right now. And now is summer, so they&amp;#039;re summer songs. Some are more obviously summery than others. Some are radio hits. A few will seem ubiquitous this summer in the way &amp;quot;summer songs&amp;quot; tend to. (Daft Punk? Not here. Too ubiquitous already.) There&amp;#039;s also, by design, no hyperbolic deceleration of a &amp;quot;Song of the Summer.&amp;quot; Publicists care about those hyperbolic declarations, not music fans. Instead, we present 20 tunes. Ripe for your debate, dismissal, or discovery. That&amp;#039;s the enduring value of &amp;quot;Songs of the Summer&amp;quot; packages \u2014 they come prepackaged with the hope they&amp;#039;ll get people listening and talking about music. That&amp;#039;s something I&amp;#039;ll never call bullshit on. Plus listen to the playlist on Spotify here or below... Tegan and Sara, &amp;quot;Closer&amp;quot;       Because while this is unabashedly their poppiest moment to date, if this is what &amp;quot;selling out&amp;quot; means, we&amp;#039;re buying. Bonus points for the easy-to-visualize come-on of the summer: &amp;quot;All I dream of lately is how to get you underneath me.&amp;quot; Phoenix, &amp;quot;Entertainment&amp;quot;       Because even if it&amp;#039;s peaked chart-wise, it still belongs here for a) its immediacy b) just how much catchier it is than anything else on the Phoenix record, ensuring it radio staying power and c) synths that might just be as recognizable thirty summers from now as Van Halen&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;Jump&amp;quot; are today. The Oh Hellos, &amp;quot;Hello My Old Heart&amp;quot;       Because this unsigned, self-produced, completely DIY brother/sister duo from Texas have landed the surprise adult alternative radio hit of the summer. A slow-burner, but ultimately, very, very memorable.  The Neighbourhood, &amp;quot;Sweater Weather&amp;quot;       Because it&amp;#039;s the first summer anthem we know of to declare &amp;quot;I hate the beach.&amp;quot; The contrarian anti-summer-song approach to crafting a summer song is clever and unprecedented. Unless it&amp;#039;s not a summer song at all. Sara Bareilles, &amp;quot;Brave&amp;quot;       Because if Oprah were Sara Bareilles&amp;#039;s Bernie Taupin, this is the song she&amp;#039;d write. Pull back the shiny pop drapes and there&amp;#039;s a pretty great gospel song in here. Even so, the unintentional comedy of the line &amp;quot;Show me how big your brave is&amp;quot; makes us laugh like Bevis. Or Butthead. Every damn time. Jake Bugg, &amp;quot;Two Fingers&amp;quot;       Because the first verse covers three summer fundamentals: drinking, smoking, and seeing old friends. Mavis Staples, &amp;quot;Can You Get to That&amp;quot;       Because you can immediately and perfectly synchronize a hammock&amp;#039;s sway to this Funkadelic classic. Zedd ft. Foxes, &amp;quot;Clarity&amp;quot;       Because as much as you&amp;#039;d like to write off EDM altogether, this more than passes the &amp;quot;Is there a strong enough song here you could strip away the synths and play it acoustic?&amp;quot; test.  Capital Cities, &amp;quot;Farrah Fawcett Hair&amp;quot;       Because hopefully their real summer hit, &amp;quot;Safe and Sound,&amp;quot; pushes folks to this bizarre list of &amp;quot;shit that&amp;#039;s cool.&amp;quot; And Andre 3000, who makes a quick cameo, certainly qualifies as unequivocally, perennially cool. Lissie, &amp;quot;Shameless&amp;quot;       Because this is her Liz Phair Moment (a surprisingly blatant pop flip), only it works. Without a doubt, the catchiest song on this list. Palma Violets, &amp;quot;Best of Friends&amp;quot;       Because you&amp;#039;ll hear the trickle-down influence of U2, the Clash, and the Ramones. And because part of making lists is wishful thinking \u2014 that other people will suddenly share your &amp;quot;Why isn&amp;#039;t this a hit?&amp;quot; puzzlement and thus make it so.  Matt Nathanson, &amp;quot;Mission Bells&amp;quot;       Because it&amp;#039;s winter thematically, summery musically. But any song that starts with &amp;quot;whoa oh, oh oh oh oh oh ohhhh&amp;quot; is a summer song. End of discussion. Fitz and the Tantrums, &amp;quot;The Walker&amp;quot;       Because any song that starts with whistling and features a 35-second horn breakdown is also, by definition, a summer song. Brad Paisley, &amp;quot;Beat This Summer&amp;quot;       Because of the title. Duh. But mostly because it&amp;#039;s not &amp;quot;Accidental Racist.&amp;quot; The 1975, &amp;quot;The City&amp;quot;       Because &amp;quot;Don&amp;#039;t call it a fight when you know it&amp;#039;s a war&amp;quot; is a great opening line. And because these young EP-spewing Brits prove that if you pile up synths and drum machines just right they can still sound muscular, not fey.  Jack Johnson, &amp;quot;I Got You&amp;quot;       Because you&amp;#039;d be a fool to discount the power of the campfire summer song. And Jack Johnson is summer&amp;#039;s king of the campfire sing-along. Jake Owen, &amp;quot;Anywhere with You&amp;quot;       Because ever since Johnny Cash&amp;#039;s read of &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;ve Been Everywhere,&amp;quot; there&amp;#039;s a solid country tradition of summer road-trip anthems. This one falls into the top 5 percent. Janelle Mon\u00E1e ft. Erykah Badu, &amp;quot;Queen&amp;quot;       Because the booty don&amp;#039;t lie. And because the last verse sounds like a Beastie Boys tribute. Ace Hood, &amp;quot;Bugatti&amp;quot;       Because this ode to overconsumption is simultaneously everything that&amp;#039;s wrong with hip-hop and great about radio sing-alongs. One listen and you&amp;#039;ll spend summer waking up singing &amp;quot;I woke up in a new Bugatti.&amp;quot; Big bonus points for working his CD&amp;#039;s summertime release date (July 16) into the single. Lorde, &amp;quot;Royals&amp;quot;       Because this is the flipside of &amp;quot;Bugatti,&amp;quot; a condemnation of &amp;quot;Cristal, Maybach, diamonds on your tongue piece, jet planes, islands, tigers on a gold leash.&amp;quot; But mostly because it&amp;#039;s plain ol&amp;#039; clever and catchy.      Listen to More of Andy Langer&amp;#039;s Songs of the Week &amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;gt; Follow The Culture Blog on RSS and on Twitter at @ESQCulture. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/music/a23094/2013-songs-of-the-summer/>