July 2023 Mixtape: Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me
the dreams I've seen lately keep on turning out and burning out and turning out the same
A July mix in September? Egads!
In my defense (not that I need to defend my lateness to you, dear subscribers, but I will): I moved. And then, right after moving, while I was traveling, my phone decided to reset and delete my entire music library, playlists and all… before I could make the Spotify playlist and write this long-awaited post.
So I lost the playlist. And though I think I was able to re-imagine how it was, I still believe I forgot one song, and this order isn’t what it was originally. Sigh. Luckily that’s my one and only complaint in life, losing playlists; there ain’t nothin’ else wrong in this wonderful world1.
Anyways, here’s what I was listening to a few months ago over the latest and greatest cruel summer:
“This Moment,” Mimi Webb - This and track six are both from Dreamwork’s summer animated feature RUBY GILLMAN, TEENAGE KRAKEN, a delightfully charming anti little mermaid.2
“End Of Night,” Tears For Fears - My favorite song off their new album, a song so great they didn’t even bother to play it at the Hollywood Bowl when I saw them at their show in July.
“Back To Life,” Poolside feat. Panama - The same night Tears For Fears was melting my face off at the Bowl, across town Poolside was playing, and I will forever miss missing that show. This is another great song off their forthcoming album, and one that remains in heavy rotation in my brain.
“Dance The Night,” Dua Lipa - From the Barbie soundtrack, obvs. Only a Ken wouldn’t know that.3
“My All,” Kraak and Smaak feat. Turbino - Kraak and Smaak keepin’ us movin’.
“Rise,” Friya Reddings - Aforementioned second great track from Ruby Gillman.
“Run feat. Andreya Triana,” Quantic - One of those songs I like more and more every time I listen to it, and mean to listen to it more than I do.
“Looking for Moses,” Mamas Gun - A bop.
“Change,” CATT - “Oh, I’m still dreaming that you’re gonna change.”
“THE SHADE,” Rex Orange County -
I was openin' the door just to see if you would walk through
I started paintin' all the walls just to see if you liked the shadeI would love just to be stuck to your side
Not with anybody else“The Old Apartment,” Barenaked Ladies - This summer, I moved for the first time in 17 years. It was… a lot. I also listened to this song… a lot. “This is where we used to live.”
“Real Tight,” Methel Ethyl - Another bop.
“Friday On My Mind,” David Bowie - You can have a little Bowie cover. As a treat.
“I Can See You4 (Taylors Version) (From The Vault,)” Taylor Swift - I’ve always really loved Speak Now, and how could you not, between “Enchanted” and “Long Live,” two of her best songs? This is one of her unreleased songs (which she also didn’t play when I saw her in August, more on that in the forthcoming August mix post.)
“White Horse,” Chris Stapleton - New (and good) Chris Stapleton is always cause for celebration, and this one is a banger.
If you want a cowboy on a white horse
Riding off into the sunset
If that's the kind of love you wanna wait for
Hold on tight, girl, I ain't there yet“The Returner,” Allison Russell - “Goodbye, so long, farewell, all I've been…”
“Cowboy Gangster Politician,” Goldie Boutillier - “You can't get away from a woman who loves you, no you can't run away from feelings that haunt you.”
“All The Gold In California,” Brother Marshall and the Choir of Fire - Sturgill Simpson covering Larry Gatlin, nuff said. “So if you’re dreaming about California…”
“Closer To Fine,” Brandi & Catherine Carilile - Another song from the Barbie soundtrack, albeit not from the movie. Brandi and her wife cover the Indigo Girls classic for the ‘Best Weekend Ever’ version of the soundtrack.
“Take It To The Limit,” The Eagles - Eagles founding member, co-writer and lead singer of this song, Randy Meisner, died at the end of July. I’d already been listening to this song a lot over the last few… months… but I’ve been listening to it pretty much non-stop this summer.5 “So put me on a highway, show me a sign…”
“Nothing Compares 2 U,” Sinéad O’Connor - We also lost Sinéad in July. For a lot of people, this is their favorite Prince cover and favorite version of this song, and understandably so.
“Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me (Live),” George Michael & Elton John - More than almost any other song, I was listening to this over and over when I was moving, a sort of therapeutic mantra to help me get through the physical, emotional, financial and mental strain of moving out of the home I’ve lived in for the actual longest time of my life. It was hard. And then it was over.
I can't light no more of your darkness
All my pictures seem to fade to black and white
I'm growing tired, and time stands still before me
Frozen here on the ladder of my life
Too late to save myself from falling
I took a chance and changed your way of life
But you misread my meaning when I met you
Closed the door and left me blinded by the light
Dearest subscriber, everything in this godforsaken timeline is wrong and worth complaining about.
It’s essentially Luca meets Turning Red, filtered through the Dreamworks lens. Give it a chance.
Greta, Margo, Noah and Gosling all deserves Oscars, but Gosling deserves a lifetime achievement award for his rendition of Matchbox Twenty’s “Push" complete with fantastic initiation of Rob Thomas singing voice.
It was only thanks to the release of this song and music video that I learned that Taylor Lautner married a (different) Taylor and now they’re both Taylor Lautner. This nugget will be in my head long after I’ve forgotten the names of those I loved.
How much? Well, spoiler alert, but a fucking killer cover of this track appears on August’s playlist too. “Still you're coming back, you're running back, you're coming back for more...”