"... was in the spring, and spring became the summer." Happy Memorial Day! I've been making "Sprummer" playlists for about 5 years now, inspired by Neil Diamond's song "Sweet Caroline" and the spring-summer feelings that song gives me.

Usually the songs I put in my Sprummer playlists are fairly upbeat and optimistic, certainly songs in major keys, but for some reason, this year I keep coming back to slightly slower, mellow songs that straddle the line between "rainy day music" and "late night summer" ... the kind of music that reminds me of the last weeks of my last semester of college. I guess that was a bittersweet time for me as well. And maybe this year's playlist has to do with the fickle weather New York City's been getting -- mid-80s on a Tuesday and upper 40s by the end of the week, and rainy. But this is precisely the reason I make a playlist each year. This year's playlist could probably just as well be played when summer becomes autumn, and it would conjure up visions of brittle ochre leaves like it conjures up cool early summer breezes for me right now.

Without further ado ...

1. "First Kiss," A Rocket To The Moon
2. "Space Walk," Lemon Jelly
3. "Orange Sky," Alexi Murdoch
4. "A Sorta Fairytale," Tori Amos
5. "Sparks," Coldplay
6. "Go Outside," Cults
7. "Free Fallin'," John Mayer
8. "Dirty Old Town," Craig Cardiff
9. "Trigger Hippie," Morcheeba
10. "Higher Ground," Weekend Players
11. "The Mrs. & Me," The Rees Shad Band
12. "[Kissed You] Good Night," Gloriana
13. "Jealous (Blue)," New Kids On The Block
14. "Kill For Love," Chromatics


YouTube versions after the jump ...