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Artist News CMU Playlists
On The CMU Stereo 2022 – Summer
By Andy Malt | Published on Tuesday 13 December 2022
As we all sit trying to resist turning the heating on, staring out at the snow, what could we need more than a summer playlist? Well, thankfully, we’ve made it to part three of our 2022 end-of-year playlist and the tracks that got us through the warmer months.
First on this collection of ten songs is ‘Break My Soul’ by Beyonce, which was everywhere this summer. As you would probably expect from the first single off a new Beyonce album. It also helped that Beyonce’s first foray into house was really great and something that stood up well to repeat listens.
It was also interesting from a nerdy industry perspective too, as the track contains elements of Robyn S song ‘Show Me Love’. That track’s original writers, Allen George and Fred Craig McFarlane, get co-writing credits on the Beyonce song.
However, what she lifted were synths added in Stonebridge’s 1993 remix of ‘Show Me Love’ – the better known version of the track – that were not present on the original version. Delve further into that whole thing on this edition of the Switched On Pop podcast.
Next up is ‘Je Te Vois Enfi’ by Christine And The Queens in his new “suave and sophisticated” alter-ego Redcar, which was the first single from his third album, ‘Redcar Les Adorables Étoiles (Prologue)’.
Then it’s Nnamdi, with ‘I Don’t Wanna Be Famous’, from his ‘Please Have A Seat’ album – his first for Secretly Canadian – which sees him grappling with what ‘success’ actually means. If it means putting out consistently great music year on year, then he’s definitely winning.
Nnamdi kicks off a run of tracks from rappers with very different styles. Relatively new artist Luci released her debut single, ‘Ash & Dust’, in June and it instantly blew us away. It’s still a very exciting three minutes of music all these months on, with no signs of that rush waning.
After that, it’s BTS’s J-Hope with ‘More’ – the first single from his ‘Jack In The Box’ solo album – which surprised us with its pretty hard-edged sound. Then it’s Loyle Carner with ‘Hate’, taken from his third album ‘Hugo’, which is similarly quite a departure for him (perhaps not quite as stark as J-Hope), finding him brimming over with anger and anxiety.
Next we get a short sharp burst of The Chats (all bursts of The Chats are short and sharp) with ‘I’ve Been Drunk In Every Pub In Brisbane – a bold claim that frontman Eamon Sandwith admitted upon the track’s release in July is not actually true.
“I reckon there would be 900 or so pubs that you would have to hit, and I have actually been to a good chunk of them, but if you were go to all of them, it would be hard to even remember which ones you’d been to”, he said.
Following that, probably the least summery track on this playlist, ‘Pamela’ by Chat Pile. Their debut album, ‘God’s Country’, won them a lot of fans this year – rightly so, as it’s a brilliant record – but it’s a pretty bleak affair, mixing real-world and fantasy horror stories over slow, sludgy metal. Glorious.
Once you’ve made it thought that, it’s back to rap with ‘Strangers’ from Danger Mouse and Black Thought’s excellent ‘Cheat Codes’ album – a retro-feeling record made by two absolute masters, and joined on this track by A$AP Rocky and Run The Jewels.
And finally, we end with another big hit – and our second K-pop track on this part of the playlist – ‘Pink Venom’ by Blackpink. The track has broken all sorts of streaming records since its release. And if you’ve somehow managed to avoid it thus far, get ready to think, ‘Huh, yeah, that seems entirely fair”. What a track.
Check out the playlist on Spotify and YouTube, and stay tuned for the final block of ten tracks – our autumn selection – on Thursday. And you can go back and check out our winter playlist here and our spring playlist here.
Here are the ten tracks on our summer playlist:
Beyonce – Break My Soul
Christine And The Queens – Je Te Vois Enfi
Nnamdi – I Don’t Wanna Be Famous
Luci – Ash & Dust
J-Hope – More
Loyle Carter – Hate
The Chats – I’ve Been Drunk In Every Pub In Brisbane
Chat Pile – Pamela
Danger Mouse & Black Thought – Strangers (feat A$AP Rocky and Run The Jewels)
Blackpink – Pink Venom
