Summer in Review Part 3: Soundtrack of the Summer

Last night I said that the three top activities of my summer were working, sleeping, and reading, but I neglected one important detail: through almost all of those activities (even sometimes during sleeping), I was listening to some kind of music.  From the boombox at work to worship in the chapel to my own MP3 library on breaks, music was a constant part of my life, and I loved it.  The variety was huge, but there were a few songs in particular that formed the soundtrack of my summer.  Some were silly, some were sweet, some were just plain awesome, but they all played a big part in making this summer the great time that it was.

1.) “The Cave” by Mumford and Sons – Pretty much everyone on kitchen staff had the Mumford bug this summer, so their fabulous folk music played with fair regularity, but the song that people requested the most was “The Cave”.  There was almost always someone with the song stuck in their head, so even when the song wasn’t playing someone was usually humming or singing it.  Not that I’m complaining, of course.  A lot of the time, the perpetrator was me.

2.) “Forget and Not Slow Down” by Relient K – I knew of Relient K before this summer, but I didn’t fall in love with their quirky, witty songs until Adam Beckmeyer started playing them on his wonderful boombox.  Out of all of their songs, “Forget and Not Slow Down” really stood out to me and got stuck in my head with a ferocious frequency.  Something about its urgency and message of moving on really struck a chord with me, and I was always glad to hear it show up on Adam’s shuffle.

3.) “Lovers in Japan” by Coldplay – I finally bought my first Coldplay album this summer, and “Lovers in Japan” instantly became one of my favorite Coldplay songs ever.  As beautiful lyrically as it is musically, I took any and every excuse to play this song in the kitchen or on breaks in the conference room.  I still haven’t gotten sick of it.

4.) “Wonderful” by Gary Go – Adam Swensen introduced me to this song a little while ago, and I wasn’t sure if I liked it at first, but its simple beauty grew on me quickly and now I listen to it all the time.  We didn’t listen to it in the kitchen much, but at the end of the summer when everyone started leaving, it made its way into my regular cycle, and now I’ve come to associate it with good memories of my best friends.

5.) “Caramelldansen” by Caramell – I played the Internet’s favorite Swedish techno-pop tune in the kitchen one day on a whim, and Molly and Megan fell for it head over heels.  From then on, they asked for “that Caramell song” at least three times a day.  Pretty soon, every time it came on, everyone stopped for a moment to dance.  Most of us weren’t very good at it, but it was definitely fun.

6.) “With or Without You”  by U2 – This one is 100% Adam Beckmeyer’s fault.  For some reason, that man had this song stuck in his head 24/7, and he chose random moments throughout the day to start singing it.  It became a fun inside joke with the two of us, and will probably always be the first song I think of when I think “Summer 2011”.  As a bonus, click here for the 2CELLOS cover, because cellos make everything better.

Come back tomorrow for a post about Wal-Mart and why going there is so unceasingly awesome!