I just finished my 9th annual Summer Mix 2k11. I'm a little obsessive about this mix and spend an amount of time more appropriate to studying for a the GREs or searching for a job. This year I happened to create a separate playlist for each draft which gave a nice overview of how it evolved to its final form. You don't' need to read this to enjoy it, you can simply listen to it here. One word of warning-this post is super nerdy.
My goal for every summer mix is a sound that is contemporary since last year's summer but also having a somewhat classic sound, a mix that I can return to again and again, year after year. I spend a lot of time tinkering with it to get this perfect balance.
In the months leading up to summer I'm beginning to identify specific songs that I feel would work especially well for a summer mix. There's no conscious searching here, but always listening with an ear towards that. Usually these songs help me determine a theme I'll be going with. This year, I started with:
HEALTH - Before Tigers (CFCF Rmx)
Das Racist - Amazing
Alphabeat - Heatwave
Cut Copy - Need You Now
After identifying these songs I begin to think of a theme, usually inspired by something I suspect I'll be doing a lot of this summer which this mix will soundtrack well. For this summer I kept coming back to an image of looking out the bus window on cross-country rides watching the landscape roll by hour after hour.
So now I have theme and an indication of song direction. I also usually have an idea of specific artists or albums I want to drawn from. I take all this information together and, after many hours in very few days, I have my first draft.
Draft 1:
1) Big Boi - Daddy Fat Sax
2) Alphabeat - Heatwave
3) Japandroids - Younger Us
4) My Chemical Romance - Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)
5) Ariel Pink's Huanted Grafiti - Bright Lit Blue Skies
6) Holy Ghost! - Jam for Jerry
7) HEALTH - Before Tigers (CFCF Rmx)
8) Das Racist ft/Lakutis- Amazing
9) Britney Spears - Till the World Ends
10) Kanye West - All of the Lights
11) Robyn - Call Your Girlfriend
12) Cut Copy - Need You Now
13) Yeasayer - Ambling Alp
14) Van Morrison - Wild Night
15) Mayer Hawthorne - The Ills
16) Big K.R.I.T. - R4 Theme Song
17) Simon & Garfunkel - Somewhere They Can't Find Me
18) Crystal Castles ft/Robert Smith - Not In Love
Because I always do this draft really quickly I'll fall back on some old standbys (examples here Kanye, 'Not In Love') or some past summer mix successes (Japandroids, Robyn). Invariable my first draft draws too heavily on songs that I really like and thus might burnout on more quickly.
Then I'll sit on it for a week. There are some parts of the first draft that work really well. For example, this draft had a nice R&B element that I thought fit well with my initial songs and theme. But, pretty quickly I'll know its not working as a mix and the rest of the time is spent figuring out why.
In this case it was because I didn't really hear this mix fitting with my theme. It felt too obvious and 'party-time'-good for a summer mix, but not this summer mix. It didn't have a cohesive element to it, just a lot of good tracks. So, I decided for Draft 2 I was going to really work on showcasing my desired theme.
Draft 2:
1) Cut Copy - Need You Now
2) LCD Soundsystem - Home
3) Holy Ghost! - Wait and See
4) HEALTH - Before Tigers (CFCF Rmx)
5) Das Racist ft/Lakutis - Amazing
6) Big Boi - Daddy Fat Sax
7) Alphabeat - Heatwave
8) Nicki Minaj ft/Ester Dean - Super Bass
9) Britney Spears - Till The World Ends
10) The Weeknd - What You Need
11) Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
12) Simon & Garfunkel - Somewhere They Can't Find Me
13) Van Morrison - Wild Night
14) Peter Bjorn and John - Young Folks
15) Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings - Natural Born Lover
16) Mayer Hawthorne - The Ills
17) David Bowie - Look Back in Anger
Draft 2 is always way closer to the final mix than Draft 1. Here it's because I now have the structure of the mix. In the first section (tracks 1-5) the theme is strongly established, then I let some drastically flow changing hip-hop give me a bit of fun (it is summer after all). After, in the third part (tracks 10-17) I'm playing with a very expanded interpretation of R&B.
At this point most of the selected songs are becoming necessary in their inclusion. Nicki Minaj's awesome single 'Super Bass,' 'Wild Night,' and 'The Ills' are three examples. Other songs are already becoming tiring such as 'Wait and See,' 'Amazing,' and 'Young Folks' (like immediately).
Now that most of the songs have been identified, putting them in the correct order the main problem. For Draft 2 I ended up ditching Big K.R.I.T. because I couldn't find a place for it and Big Boi's 'Daddy Fat Sax' and Cut Copy's 'Need You Now' never sounded right no matter where they were placed. Plus, the beginning, though it sticks with the theme, sort of drags; I want the theme to be evocative, not boring. And the theme isn't really carried beyond track 5. So, after a few days of thinking, I work on Draft 3, which ended up being this year's final mix.
Final Mix/Summer Mix 2K11
1) Radio Dept. - Heaven's On Fire
2) Cut Copy - Alisa
3) Arcade Fire - Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)
4) HEALTH - Before Tigers (CFCF Rmx)
5) Das Racist - All Tan Everything
6) Big K.R.I.T. ft/David Banner - Sookie Now
7) Alphabeat - Heatwave
8) Nicki Minaj ft/Ester Dean - Super Bass
9) Britney Spears - Till The World Ends
10) The Weeknd - What You Need
11) Simon & Garfunkel - Somewhere They Can't Find Me
12) Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
13) Van Morrison - Wild Night
14) Eagles - Already Gone
15) Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings - Natural Born Lover
16) Mayer Hawthorne - The Ills
17) David Bowie - Look Back in Anger
18) LCD Soundsystem - Home
The most significant improvement here was reinterpreting the theme. I looked at 'Before Tigers' which I felt was the best representation so far. I decided that instead of looking for songs with a hypnotic element to it, I would try and match the rolling sound that is heard in that song. 'Heaven's On Fire,' 'Sprawl II,' and 'Home' (from previous draft) matched this well. The new Das Racist track segues better into the middle section and a different Big K.R.I.T. track suddenly fits perfectly within the mix. Similarly, by ditching 'Need You Now' and going with 'Alisa' Cut Copy remains on the mix but the sound is more integrated and appropriate to the theme.
Moving the 8 minute 'Home' to the end was the final important choice. It helps keep the mix smooth and flowing, rather than feeling interrupted. Plus the sequencing of the the R&B's section 'The Ills' to Bowie's 'Look Back in Anger' to LCD is as a great three song transition back to theme.
So there you have it, my incredibly nerdy and involved discussion on how I put together a Summer Mix. Disagree? Suggestions? Make a comment. And again, you can listen to it here.
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