Remember June? My July was pretty hellish, so unfortunately the blog suffered. Don’t fear though, because I found a good truckload of tunes in the middle month of the year. Some of these records are looking like locks for my top 10, top 15 for the year as a whole. Not bad!
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:
The third installment of my summer’s synth pop playlists, Melting Portal Vision leans into squelchy, rubbery and especially 80s-indebted synth textures more than the others in the series. It aims to be a dizzying, blissful sink into warm waters. Near the end it cleans up a bit, the high wearing off and showing slivers of sunlight through the clouds, but then slides back into shifting, bleary sands right at the end.
As a refresher, this suite of playlists are built almost exclusively from songs released in the late 00s to early 10s, roosting in a realm of nostalgia that’s extra juicy to me right now. Throwbacks to summers with less responsibilities, and ones where the summery music felt sculpted for warm temps and sweaty nights. Melting Portal Vision also includes a few heavy-hitters of the era, like MGMT’s “Electric Feel” + Passion Pit’s “The Reeling” and Grimes’ “Genesis.” Can’t deny the classics! Not always trying to be the coolest guy in the room!
Either way, this playlist drifts between the bleary and the lucid, and is a love letter to the other blogs that are still hanging on, and those that have since passed. Gone but not forgotten (except I’ve definitely forgotten a few, and I’m sorry about that). The tunes definitely sustain. You’ll notice a few more remixes on this one – definitely going to be a major theme for the final playlist in the series coming up after this one.
This is the second installment in my summer 2025 synth pop playlist series, where I mine every single morsel of musical nostalgia I’ve accumulated for the summers of ~2008 to 2015. Plundering a rich field of fools gold chillwave, 80s-inspired pop wallpaper, and grooves galore.
In my playlisty brain, Electric Eel Boogie is the direct sequel, or what follows in-universe events that happen after my previous playlist Sun Glitters On Cool Water (which you can listen to HERE). It features tracks that are a bit more clubby / electronic, including Aeroplane’s remix of Friendly Fires’ “Paris,” Cut Copy’s stab into 90s electro “Let Me Show You Love” off their 2013 record Free Your Mind, along with touches of darkness within the otherwise buoyant synth pop lineup.
Looking at the playlist as a whole, this one seems to be more built off tracks I’ve hung onto and have become “canon-defining” of the era. Do I know if a lot of these songs have stuck with others like me? No, but I do know they’re both good and have stuck with me since their release. Examples include When Saints Go Machine’s “Kelly,” Still Corners’ “Berlin Lovers,” Tomas Barfod’s “November Skies” and Games (aka Ford & Lopatin) “Strawberry Skies” with Laurel Halo on vocals. Alongside the chillwave of it all, there’s also a foray into maximal synth pop ie CHVRCHES, Postiljonen and Class Actress. I think it’s a solid playlist that encapsulates the era and summer vibe well, and I hope it brings you some rose-colored, early Instagram filtered joy.
It’s been far too long since I’ve posted a new playlist on the blog (also just posted anything period), but I’m breaking that dry spell with four new chillwave / balearic revival / synth pop playlists all set to soundtrack your summer.
With the hellish events that have been occurring without abatement putting a damper on my summer, I’ve personally been yearning for my summers past, specifically those from 2008 to 2015, also known as my high school and college years. Not only is the music paired with a time where I was at my lightest, responsibility-wise and most surrounded by friends and family, but the music from the era itself feels more upbeat, cheery and rosy. I can’t be ashamed of indie nostalgia since it’s fully baked into my musical discovery journey.
Anyways – I’ve made four playlists to channel back to those times, full of songs that were from that sweet late 00s / early 10s spot. I’ve made a chillwave / balearic pop playlist before, Beach Ball Hell, which you can find HERE. It’s built upon the scene cornerstones Toro y Moi, Washed Out, Neon Indian, Small Black, Brothertiger, along with a few other personal favorites. It’s the boilerplate! Sun Glitters on Cool Water follows a similar formula, focusing on the big names and building out from there and features many of the same artists like the ones listed above along with Kisses, Beat Connection, Tanlines, Mr Twin Sister, Delorean, Lemonade, Korallreven, The Tough Alliance and more. I love the early 2010s! There was a surplus of fantastic bike riding, driving, summery grooves to choose from.
Picture yourself sitting by a pool, or better yet, retreat to your most treasured summertime memories while listening to this playlist. The taste and sensation of cool, frozen grapes from the cooler. The feeling of jumping into still water. The plush feeling of cushions on a deck chair. It’s a playlist that I picture working better in the daytime, and absolutely slaps on a long car ride. It’s here to make you feel good, to be a sort of salve. I hope it helps.
It’s already that time again: below you’ll find my favorite 100 songs of the 2020s so far, ranked in order. It feels bizarre that I’m already dissecting songs from the last five years under the lens of them being the encapsulation of the decade so far. That might sound uselessly cyclical or redundant, but the last five years have felt and acted like no other half decade span I’ve lived through. The elasticity of time has never been more dynamic, and with it our perception of art and trends. Compounded with that, the last few years have been taxing beyond belief, molding our brains into contorted forms of what they once were. How much of my changing perception is due to these traumatic times versus just being a general byproduct of aging, times changing, and life events naturally accumulating brain wrinkles?
In making this list, I’ve been constantly looking back at the other decade-recapping lists I’ve done, taking note at what kind of songs rank high and why. These last five years already feel, music-wise, so distinct from the five years preceding the 2020s. Again, this might just be wholly due to the pandemic, and without it would have felt like 2019 part two in 2020 (it honestly started to in the beginning there).
What you’ll find below is a collection of 100 songs, ranked, with little blurbs (not Warm Visions descriptions) and stream links. It’s predominantly “indie rock, pop and electronic,” with a few crowd-pleaser mainstream pop tracks in the mix too. There are artists that repeat, but I only pull one song per project. I make a better note of it at the end of the list, but my Top 10 picks really adequately reflect my desired mental state as we hit the halfway point of the 2020s. I hope you enjoy looking back at these songs, or finding new ones you may have missed.
Somehow, someway, we’ve reached the midpoint of the 2020s. We’ve all lived through it, so I don’t need to break down what it’s been like. I’ll just say that if this hasn’t been the most turbulent, spiritually damaging stretch of five years in your life, then buddy, I do not envy the way your life was prior to 2020.
Albums-wise, this half decade has provided us music freaks with some fantastic tunes. I’ll say that based off this list alone that 2022 is one of the best years of music I’ve ever live through. You’ll find a wide array of genres and voices present below. If you’re familiar with Warm Visions, hopefully a lot of these records are familiar to you as well. I have my favorites and I hold them tight!
(If you’re curious, I made one of these in the midpoint of the 2010s as well. Wild to think that I wrote this 10 years ago at this point now. You can read that HERE.)
I’m about to post my Best Albums + Songs of the 2020s so far, so I’m going to keep this brief. May was long as hell, but also feels like it flew by SUPER FAST. Some solid albums! Really damn good! Let’s get it!
It sure does feel good to get back into a rhythm. It also makes it feel even better when the music is actually good. April 2025 was a wellspring of fantastic tunes, mostly leaning electronic, but encompassing a wide array of genres and styles, along with utilities. Barker, DJ Koze and Lawrence Hart is music for romping around the city sweaty-like. Cloth and Maria Usbeck is for enjoying in the house. Walt McClements and William Tyler are for questioning the universe in the wee hours of the morning. It’s all good, folks. Dig into some good stuff.
Another late but better than never installment of Recommended Albums. Thankfully for me, my wedding month was a plump bouquet of fantastic records, ones I anticipate landing high within my year-end favorites in December.
Out of everything, the YHWH Nailgun and Chuquimamani-Condori + Joshua Chuquimia Crampton records were the most-played for the month, with Cross Record not too far behind. What can I say, this year needs records that bend the fabric of time and reality, challenging our ersatz world with both visions of it at its worse and its prospective best.
And PS – this is the first Recommended Albums of 2025 with little descriptions! I’m back, baby! Just took four months!
Warm Visions 