Playlist: Summer Sojourn

The arrival of summer feels like the right time to pull an old playlist out of the archive

Jun 25, 2025

I recently signed up to the hi-res streaming platform Qobuz (Note: Kevin Alexander is currently promoting free, no strings attached, 2-month subscriptions to the platform. You’ll find all the details at the very bottom of any of his solo author posts) and in the process of doing so I was able to choose what to transfer over from Spotify, which led me to rediscover a couple of playlists I made in the first half of the 2010s. Coming from an era in which I wasn’t on any streaming platforms, these playlists originally would have been built out “on the fly” as I listened to music on my PC using the fantastic music player foobar2000. I clearly rebuilt two of these playlists in Spotify in 2019 but have sadly lost most of them as I never created or saved .cue files so they’ve now fallen into the digital cracks as replacement PCs have come and gone.

Given that we’ve just rolled over into summer, I thought I’d post one of the two playlists—the appropriately named “Summer Sojourn”—along with some track-by-track commentary. I’ve no idea where the title came from; I can only presume the playlist was constructed in or near the summer, possibly in 2012 as that’s the year in which the opening track was released. This is a longer playlist than I’d normally compile—I generally try to stick to 10-15 tracks with a runtime of about an hour—but having listened to it a couple times today, it doesn’t feel overly long, and I think it flows quite nicely.

The eagle-eyed among you will have noted the JITJ 004 moniker in the playlist title (i.e. the fourth playlist released on Joy in the Journey). If you’re interested, you can find the first three (and a bit) playlists on the following Substack posts from late 2023:

I’ve now decided that I’ll be resurrecting the playlist element of my publication this year. I’m not yet sure what that looks like, or what the frequency of posting will be, but I’m looking forward to expanding the breadth of offerings here. And I’m excited to see where this goes!!

Please feel free to share the “Joy” with anyone else you know that loves music! Because, after all, sharing is caring, right?

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Track by Track Commentary

I think it’s always useful to provide a little context around artists and tracks when presenting a playlist, so you’ll find a brief blurb—some in the form of personal anecdotes, some simply describing the artist/album/song—on each of the tracks below.

Chromatics - "Into The Black" from Kill For Love (2012)

Chromatics’ rendition of Neil Young’s “Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)”, from his 1979 album Rust Never Sleeps, is right up there on my list of favorite cover songs. The track appeared on the band’s fourth studio album, 2012’s Kill For Love, an album which was well received critically, ranking as a top 20 album on well over a dozen year end lists.

Joan As Police Woman - "Christobel" from Real Life (2007)

While my entrée into Joan Wasser’s music came through 2011’s The Deep Field (via the brilliant music video for “The Magic”), this playlist draws from her debut album Real Life, released in 2006 (UK) and 2007 (US). Caroline Sullivan, reviewing the album for The Guardian, described it as “pensive and gentle; sometimes stately of tempo, sometimes slightly breathless, but always erring on the side of lovely understatement.”

Blonde Redhead - "Elephant Woman" from Misery Is A Butterfly (2004)

“Elephant Woman”, which featured in the end credits of the disturbing and engrossing 2005 film Hard Candy, is from Blonde Redhead’s sixth studio album Misery Is a Butterfly from 2004.

Splashdown - “Ironspy" from Halfworld (1998)

Splashdown, the short-lived Massachusetts-based band, produced two EPs and three albums—two of which were officially unreleased—over their five-year career. After disbanding in 2001, the band and their fans made efforts to ensure that all of their musical output was available online. “Ironspy” appeared on their 1998 EP Halfworld and 2000’s full-length Blueshift.

Purity Ring - "crawlersout" from shrines (2012)

The electronic pop band Purity Ring formed in Alberta, Canada in 2010 and released their debut album shrines two years later. The album was generally well received critically, appearing on numerous end of year album roundups, and peaking at number 32 on the Billboard 200.

Garbage - "The Trick Is to Keep Breathing" from Version 2.0 (1998)

Garbage’s second album, the brilliant Version 2.0 takes me right back to when I was living in a tiny studio apartment with my then girlfriend, now wife, Tina. For much of that period, this CD (remember those?) was on extremely heavy rotation, and I’ll always associate the album with fond memories of falling in love in the summer of 1998.

Autour de Lucie - "Chanson Sans Issue (Ne Vois-Tu Pas)" from Immobile (1997)

I was introduced to the French pop band Autour de Lucie by CMJ New Music Monthly which featured “Chanson Sans Issue (Ne Vois-Tu Pas)” on their March 1998 CD sampler. Although I wasn’t tracking music back then, this certainly would’ve been a top five album for me that year.

Austra - "Woodstock" from Lose It (2011)

Austra, the Canadian electronic music band fronted by composer, singer-songwriter and producer Katie Stelmanis, exploded onto my musical radar in 2011 with their debut album Feel It Break, which was a top release for me that year. Their cover of Joni Mitchell’s “Woodstock”, which has since appeared on the deluxe edition of the album, was originally released as the B-side to the “Lose It” single.

Stereolab - "Miss Modular" from Dots And Loops (1997)

Stereolab is yet another of the many bands I first heard on the monthly CD samplers included with the CMJ New Music Monthly magazine, my music discovery bible from the late 90s through the mid-2000s. “Miss Modular” was the lead single from Dots and Loops, which, along with Autour de Lucie’s Immobile, also ranks as one of my top albums of 1997.

Cocteau Twins - "Pearly-dewdrops' Drops" from Stars And Topsoil - A Collection 1982-1990 (2000)

While I’ve come to enjoy and appreciate their music, I was never a huge fan of Cocteau Twins when they were active; indeed, despite having heard plenty of their tracks over the years, I really only came to appreciate vocalist Elizabeth Fraser through her work with Massive Attack on the 1998 single “Teardrop”. This track, “Pearly-Dewdrops’ Drops”, taken from the 2000 compilation Stars And Topsoil - A Collection 1982-1990, originally appeared on the 1984 EP The Spangle Maker and was their highest charting UK single, peaking at number 29 on the UK chart.

Laika - "Prairie Dog" from Sounds of the Satellites (1997)

The band Laika, who took their name from the Russian dog that was the first ever animal to orbit the Earth, released three wonderful albums between 1994 and 2000. “Prairie Dog” is drawn from their second full length, 1997’s Sounds of the Satellites, which mixes dream pop with trip hop and experimental electronic soundscapes; it was my favorite of theirs and another top album of 1997 for me.

Esthero - "Heaven Sent" from Breath From Another (1998)

The Canadian artist Esthero, one of many short-lived trip hop-adjacent artists from the late 90s, released Breath from Another to critical acclaim in 1998. “Heaven Sent”, the first official single released from the album, peaked at number 4 on the Billboard Hot Dance Breakout Singles chart and its video saw significant airplay on both MTV and Canada’s MuchMusic.

The Luyas - "Face" from Animator (2012)

I’m not sure where or when I heard of the Canadian indie rock band The Luyas, but somehow their 2012 album Animator ended up in my digital collection; not surprising given that it was released during a period in which I was hoovering up content from music torrent sites (guilty, your honour). The album, the band’s third full length, was longlisted for the 2013 Polaris Music Awards, the award ultimately won that year by Godspeed You! Black Emperor for their album Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!.

Smoke City - "Underwater Love" from Flying Away (1997)

My first introduction to this song came through sixth installment of the wonderful compilation The Rebirth of Cool; within short order I’d purchased Smoke City’s debut 1997 album Flying Away and while that album’s worth a listen, this track remains the highlight.

Ikon, Alison David - "Last Night" from Ikon (2003)

Ikon is not an artist I’m overly familiar with; indeed, I believe this may be the only track of his I’ve ever heard. When originally constructing this playlist from my digital library, the track was drawn from the fourth installment of the wonderful compilation series released by the Polish café Między Nami.

Lamb - "Gorecki" from Lamb (1996)

“Gorecki”, which we’ll get to at some point in my All-Time Favorite Songs series (first installment here), appeared on Lamb’s self-titled 1997 debut album. The downtempo duo, consisting of producer Andy Barlow and singer-songwriter Lou Rhodes, released four marvelous albums in the eight years between 1996 and 2004, before going on hiatus, at which point I lost track with their music. After reuniting in 2009, they have since released a further three albums.

Sia - "Breathe Me" from Colour The Small One (2004)

Not to sound snarky, but for my tastes, Sia’s best work is far behind her (a noted tastemaker I am not, given the stratospheric success of much of her output over the last decade). After a stint as a background vocalist for Jamiroquai, Sia achieved acclaim as guest vocalist on Zero 7’s first three albums while also releasing a trio of brilliant albums. “Breathe Me” is taken from the second of those three albums, 2004’s Colour the Small One.

Emika - "After the Fall" from Dva (2013)

“After the Fall” is drawn from Dva, the second album released by Ema Jolly who performs as Emika. After releasing her first two albums on the Ninja Tune label, Emika began her own label in 2014 and has since released a further nine albums.

Cat Power - "Troubled Waters" from The Covers Record (2000)

The third and final cover on the playlist, Chan Marshall’s rendition of the song “Troubled Waters”, originally performed by Mae West and Duke Ellington in the 1934 film Belle of the Nineties, comes from her 2000 album The Covers Record. Marshall is no stranger to cover songs (she has three albums of covers—this one, 2008’s Jukebox and 2022’s Covers—and in 2023 released the live album Cat Power Sings Dylan: The 1966 Royal Albert Hall Concert) and her ability to completely reimagine songs is almost unparalleled in my opinion.

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Over To You

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Please hop into the comments and let me know whether you liked the playlist.

Were there any particular songs you loved? Or hated?
Any new-to-you artists that piqued your interest?
Or any old favorites you were happy to hear from again?

Joy in the Journey