SCOrES likE SummEr pagE - 16

Call Me By Your Name (2017)

Sufjan Stevens’ ‘Mystery of Love’ for Call Me By Your Name (2017) freezes audiences in a humid time capsule of summer nostalgia. ‘Mystery Of Love’ begins playing on a creaking bus as lovers Elio and Oliver pull away from the watchful eye of family and friends on their travels; subtly transcending the two from a place of caution to a space of freedom and acceptance. Accompanying a tranquil yet invigorating montage of Elio and Oliver during their travels, Stevens’ score captures the softness of late summer through calm acoustics of whispering lyrics and mellow mandarin. The wonders and vulnerability of first love are translated through Stevens’ probing lyrics, expressing both euphoria and nostalgia, leaving audiences both mourning and yearning for a love they have not experienced. Stevens’ poetry is perfectly framed in the final line of the score; ‘Oh, will wonders ever cease? Blessed be the mystery of love’ – here, the notion that love is never something to regret, but is always something to celebrate, is expressed. The soft yet stinging acoustics, thoughtfully set alongside panning shots of the rolling Italian countryside, beautifully transcend the travel montage into a poetic and bittersweet depiction of lost summer love.

By Ella Dorman

Luca (2021)

Everything about Pixar’s Luca screams summer, and it’s only fitting that it’s featured here. The soundtrack immediately transports you to the Italian Riviera, more specifically Cinque Terre, which inspired much of the films’ production design. Just like the three characters in the film, Luca, Alberto, and their newfound friend Giulia, the soundtrack is full of childlike whimsy, wonder, and playful energy, likely partly due to the film being inspired by director Enrico Casarosa’s childhood. All it took was, as stated in Variety’s article on composer Dan Romer’s lush score, “a bit of accordion, a little mandolin, a lot of acoustic guitar and pizzicato strings”. “Walking Is Just Like Swimming”, which starts playing during the scene when Luca first steps ashore and learns to get used to his new human legs, encapsulates this perfectly. The hilarity that ensues in the scene makes this the perfect accompaniment and expresses Luca’s joy at this new world above the water. It also marks the point where he befriends Alberto – who later becomes almost a friend-for-life. If listening to this score doesn’t make you feel pure jubilation, I don’t know what will.

By Pui Kuan Cheah

(500) Days of Summer (2009)

Marc Webb’s (500) Days of Summer aesthetically whirls in the glory of summertime love. It is reminiscent of a time gone by and the music of the film encapsulates these sensations in unprecedented ways. It captures the laid-back mood of the film, augmenting the high and lows of Tom and Summer’s 500 days together. Midway through the film, in one of the most iconic scenes, Daryl Hall and John Oates’s ‘’You Make My Dreams Come True’’ punctuates Tom’s joyful attitude after his night with Summer. The choreography of the scene, his interaction with others in the park, and the miniature animated animals add the muchneeded uniqueness that it requires. It is as breezy as a warm summer day. The music in the film is so consistent that it is almost elevated to the status of another character in the film. Take Regina Spektor’s quirky “Us” for instance, which fills our screens with Spektor’s light and airy vocals. Like every summer, the song takes you on a ride, promising you an unconventional story of love and friendship. This thoughtfully put-together soundtrack makes me want to close my eyes and take in whatever summer wants to offer. We all know it won’t last forever.

By Zainab Javed

Design by: Annabelle Ingram

Songs That Scream ‘Summer’

Design by: Fatiha Nur Pratiwi

Words by: Alanya Smith

Let me set the scene; you’re walking out of your lecture to meet your mates in Bute Park, the sun is slowly setting and you can hear music buzzing from a nearby speaker. The glowing warmth of summer is teasing a season of festivals, BBQs and spontaneous pub trips in Cathays. The soundtrack for the occasion? Electric Light Orchestra’s ‘Mr Bluesky’. Not only does the song combine catchy lyrics behind a funky bassline, but it’s also all about celebrating the returning serotonin of the radiating sunshine. The song can be played with your mates, your family, and it’s probably on your Dad’s Spotify playlist; but is there any better type of music? No other song can simultaneously get both your flatmates and your Nan hyped for the summer, making it the perfect backdrop for any sunny day. I’ll never forget hearing the song played on BBC Radio One for the first time this year, watching the sunset fill the room of my small flat and hit my mirror to decorate the wall with rainbow spectrums. It was as If the sun was saying that everything was going to be okay, stretching across to envelope me in a warm hug. When I changed the radio station the song was being played again, only to be playing on my flatmate’s speakers in the kitchen as well. The power that song has in brightening the gloomiest of days and bringing a smile to anyone’s face is so unique that it can’t really be replicated by anyone else. Afterall, there really is no better image of summer than a perfect blue sky.

Words by: Esther Juniper

Give A Little by Maggie Rogers

I first heard this song in July of 2018. I had come out of an intense two years of A Levels and was faced for the first time in my life of the reality that I was not going back to school come September. I was confronted with possibilities and uncertainties about my future plans like never before. I came across the music video for this song first during a YouTube deep dive. Maggie is there singing in a skate park with a freckled face, shorts and white cowboy boots. Her friends sing and dance alongside female skateboarders in the sunshine. I watched it feeling nostalgic for teenage summers past and a level of scared and excited about what the coming months meant for me. Maggie’s voice triumphantly swells as she sings about a relationship that she wishes they could escape to a place where no one knows them. This struck a chord in me with her singing of the unknown, especially the outro where she sings that there’s a whole new world waiting for them. I had spent the past final months of college craving this summer to come quick, and when it did, it left me feeling more confused than ever. Maggie singing this made me feel secure in these emotions of uncertainty and gave me a sense of faith that it was all going to be okay. I spent the whole summer listening to the song on repeat, the sense of hope flooding me each time. I relisten to this song at the start of the warm summer weather and the wave of nostalgia hits me. I reflect on the past summers gone and how different I am now than the 18 year old girl who first heard this. I ended up seeing Maggie with my best friend on a cold February night in Manchester, and yet when she began to sing this song, I felt like I was back in the sizzling heat of midJuly all over again.

Words by: Eve Davies

I’m sure you’ll know what I mean when I say that we all have a playlist purely for summer. Those tunes that we blast out on car rides, windows down and sunnies on, next to a campfire, or while sipping drinks in the garden with the barbecue fired up. For me, the song at the top of this playlist is Bryan Adams Summer of 69 – an absolute classic! Strangely, the lyrics make me feel nostalgic about the romanticised last summer of the sixties even though I never lived through it. However, Adams’ song takes me back to the summer of 2017 – the summer after completing my GCSEs. Days were spent in the sea; evenings were spent around a campfire. My friends and I would listen to Adams’ tune around a fire at the beach or in one of our gardens if we were so lucky to have a parent free house. We’d drink bottles of cheap Echo Falls wine and sing our hearts out. The song was sure to make an appearance towards the end of house parties when alcohol levels rose and levels of ‘coolness’ deteriorated. It was the first summer where we began to feel freedom and I think Adams’ lyrics reflect the sense of joy and liberty that is felt after finishing school. We had completed our first exam season and the choice was now ours what we would do with our Mondays to Friday, whether it be college, an apprenticeship, or full time work. We were young and restless and certainly needed to unwind. Although it seems like eons ago now, that summer did seem to last forever.

Words by: Monica Garcia

‘Finders Keepers’ by Mabel ft. Kojo Funds was originally released in 2017. It came from her debut EP ‘Bedroom’ and also featured from her debut mixtape ‘Ivy to Roses’. Whilst I completely admire this song in its original format, ‘Finders Keepers – Remix’, which also features Burna Boy and Don-E, will always be a part of my core memory. Essentially, Mabel is singing about relationship with no real strings attached, where Kojo Funds, Burna Boy and Don-E respond to her desires with their own personal offers. From the beat of the music to the lyrics itself, it is something that has always screamed ‘summer’ to me and a song I will always revisit, without ever getting bored of it (no matter how many times I put it on loop). Personally, I associate this song with the desired summer break that every freshly-finished secondary school kid was looking forward to after A-Levels. I heard and played ‘Finders Keepers’ many times during my Summer 2019: my 18th birthday, after passing my driving test, my