The final installment of my summer 2025 synth pop / chillwave / balearic revival playlist series is the one I most clearly pair with a summery vision. The others could be a bit more modular, fitting in different scenarios. Not so on Sunset High Dive.
For one, I wanted to make the tracklist look like a lost Hype Machine playlist, chock full of remixes (there are eight featured!) as a callback to the lost culture of free mp3 downloads and hit-or-miss remixes that would clog my iTunes after a downloading binge. Not only are free mp3 download blogs securely a thing of the past, but it feels like remix records are as well. Purely no one is talking about them, and I can’t remember the last time I heard a compelling remix of an indie pop or rock song. In this case, it lets me feature one of my favorite remixes of the era, Toro y Moi’s reworking of Cut Copy’s “Blink And You’ll Miss A Revolution,” along with other jammers like Lindstrøm & Prins Thomas groovy version of Mr Twin Sister’s “Bad Street,” the electrifying dance remix of Glasser’s “Treasury of We” by Delorean, and the incredibly euphoric and blissful takes on Teen Daze’s Tycho “Hours” remix and Air France’s edit of Friendly Fires’ “Skeleton Boy.” I’ve loved the original versions of the latter two songs for nearly 15 years each, and I only discovered these remixes while building this playlist. The remixes both sounded better and worked better for the concept for this playlist, which I thought was pretty neat.
Secondly, I envision this playlist would sound best on a bike ride during sunset. I wanted to call it Sunset Bike Ride but that felt a bit too on the nose / not creative enough. Is High Dive any better? Either way, cruising the streets on a Friday evening with the summer shadows arcing long in your path, this bumping on either your speaker or in headphones, I gotta imagine that’s a good feeling. Plenty of great grooves to keep you pedaling. Initially this playlist skewed more “rock,” but I reordered the whole thing aside from the first two tracks after a few unsatisfactory full-listens of the prototype.
Summer is technically nearly over as we’ve just crossed over into August, but I hope you’re able to pull some joy out of these collections, or at the very least enjoy a few little time capsules of songs you probably haven’t thought about for 10-15 years.
Find the other playlists in the my chillwave nostalgia series here:
- Beach Ball Hell (2018) – HERE
- Sun Glitters on Cool Water – HERE
- Electric Eel Boogie – HERE
- Melting Portal Vision – HERE
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Only somewhat late and to give myself at least a little credit, September 2025 moderately exploded with high quality albums. This summer had some good stuff, but my personal life left me feeling dazed and zoomed out. By September I was locked in, resulting in this delivery of 15 albums as opposed to the usual 10.
Warm Visions 