Staff Pix 9/27: Back to School... Summer's Fleeting...

As us Emersonians shuffle back on campus, it’s important to catch the last few rays of sun before the cold Boston winter swirls in. Catch Staff Pix live on Fridays from 3-4pm.

Sofia Giarrusso

Never Be Alone by Simian

“We truly believe you're lovely when you're here”...how tender. Though the “We Are Your Friends” Justice remix is what Simian is most widely remembered for, the original version practically wove itself into my personality this summer. It’s so oddly technologic, yet also sentimental, really hitting home the sincerity with the iconic line, “Because we are your friends / You'll never be alone again.” Now, with the school year upon us, I reflect upon this summer’s obsession in a new light. A song about having awesome friends as I return to the place littered with my awesome friends? So perfect. So topical. 

Bennett Himmel

Police Scanner by Chanel Beads

This summer, when it came to pop music, I definitely gravitated towards the extremes. I was either listening to the fizziest, brightest electropop, or I was listening to something like “Police Scanner” by New York band Chanel Beads. The song is a hypnagogic, dreamy, druggy pop song with an unforgettable hook. The song feels beamed into another universe, with free-associative lyrics that remind you of your place in the world. When vocalist Shane Lavers howls “You owe it to yourself,” you feel like he’s the first person to ever tell you.

Ari Mei-Dan

Anyone’s Game by Iron & Wine

This summer was a big Iron & Wine summer for me! I went to see them in Montreal with some friends and it was by far one of the coolest concerts I’ve been to. “To go as though they’re coming back / and take their time like it’s all they’re gonna get” – SUCH a to-the-heart line for me. This summer was a weird and bittersweet one because I was dealing with the move from Vermont to Boston (yay transferring!) and saying goodbye to all my friends and favorite places, and soaking up the time I had left in Vermont. This was especially exacerbated by the line, “If they crawl into another's heart while someone counts to ten / Let's just say that's the hardest place to hide.” Now as I settle down in Boston, I’m reflecting on all that I’m grateful for and the good memories I have in Vermont!

Sophie Parrish

Heartbeats by The Knife

This summer was everything. It was tender, bittersweet, sentimental and simultaneously enchanting, passionate, and ultimately celebratory. When I reminisce on the events of the season–and in turn the transition back into the disposition of the every-day–one song comes to mind. The Knife’s “Heartbeat” encapsulates the soundtrack of what I consider to be the greatest summer of my life thus far. Concealed beneath the guise of an upbeat and extremely danceable synth, the heart-aching accuracy of their lyrics is so on the nose it’s almost comedic. “One night of magic rush/ The start, a simple touch/ One night to push and scream/ And then relief.” In “Heartbeats”, The Knife juxtaposes the beautiful devastation of an ending with the relief of new beginnings. Now, here I am (in Boston!) beginning the next chapter of my life with the comfort and familiarity of friendship supporting me.

Adelaide Russell

Taste by Frog

New York duo Frog’s Count Bateman is an album I have come across several times in the past couple of years - through playlist suggestions, friend recommendations, and my own Spotify music rabbit holes. However, I have always skimmed past it….until this summer. The entire album jingles and chimes with nostalgia, depicting sweet moments through very matter-of-fact lyrics. “Taste” is a personal favorite of mine because I was so drawn into the structure and melody of the song that it took me a few weeks to actually catch on to the lyrics–which, well, are pretty erotic. I love the way the song approaches its subject matter so unapologetically and playfully–it depicts intimacy in a way I have not seen before, leaving it in my playlists the entire summer. 

Monika Krueger

She’s Leaving You by MJ Lenderman

Crate Nation, put your clothes back on. If she’s leaving you this season, then happy MJ Lenderman Lesbian Breakup Fall to you, me, and everyone else unfortunately involved. The release of the full album, Manning Fireworks, earlier this month has been…poignant. The catchy guitar riffs capture a devastating sort of post-breakup acceptance: “It falls apart, we all got work to do”. To me, the song is desperately grasping to find good in the end of a relationship; even if that good isn’t…great. “And though you know what is implied when your room is free” —you’re gonna have to sleep with somebody to be there for no financial cost— “You’re feeling lucky”. A free room is a free room, you guess. When you’re got “no time to apologize for the things you do”, you’ll take whatever win you can get. And, hopefully, we’ll all compile our small pseudo-wins to fix ourselves up again. “We all got work to do”.

Christian Jones

#19 by Aphex Twin

Recently released on streaming platforms as “#19”, but previously known as “Stone in Focus” to Aphex Twin fans familiar with scouring YouTube for demos or unreleased tracks, this song might rank among James’ most tranquil. The YouTube video features a looped clip of a Snow Monkey (Japanese Macaque) sitting in a hot spring drifting in and out of sleep. The clip, which is from the non-narrative film Baraka (1992), does a better job of explaining how the song feels than I ever could (something like, “solitude personified”)—so go watch it before bed. This might seem like an odd pick for the time between Summer and the excitingly tumultuous beginning of another school year, but for me it is a necessary grounding technique. I like to shower with this song on loop (for hours) whenever I want to escape stress or overstimulation. Considering the recent turn of early-fall weather, or that sickness has befallen everyone around me, including myself, this song is a meditative remedy. I urge you to dissolve into its metronome like a snow monkey in a hot spring.

Anna Chalupa

Medicine by Mali Velazquez

There’s a chill in the air… and all of a sudden I’ve pulled out Mali Velasquez’ entire discography. Her fluctuating tone and slowburn song builds never fail to have me staring out at the Charles River debating my entire life. With her first EP, I’m Green (2023) arriving a little less than a year ago, my first semester at Emerson was littered with Velasquez’ influence. While maybe not the best for my mental health, it’s the perfect soundtrack for the yearning and pining season that fall is. Plus, at least the seventh track would always remind me to take my meds! To be back feels great, but I would be lying if I said I haven’t fallen back into this somewhat-agonizing EP. Happy sweater weather and remember to take your medicine!

Lily Suckow Ziemer

Ice Cream and Sunscreen by Martha

Rock band Martha’s “Ice Cream and Sunscreen” is true to its name. The song’s most notable for its beautiful and distinctly “summer” lyrics. The group sings, “I was watching the skin peeling off your sunburnt shoulders / I know, I know you only melt in the middle like ice cream and sunscreen / Blisters in the pit of my heart, blisters in the pit of my heart.”  It’s irresistible to sing along. The verses go on to compare months in tandem, August and November, September and December. Summer ends, sunburns peels and ice cream melts. A song like this perfectly describes the melancholy of a fleeting summer.

Nathan Hilyard

Tudo O Que Você Podia Ser by Milton Nascimiento

Late this summer emotional distress and fool-service malaise got me thinking up ways to shock my system and break the routine I was getting so bored in. Thus, my month of jazz was born. I don’t really know if Lô Borges and Milton Nascimiento’s monumental Cluba da Esquina counts as jazz, but it’s a close enough neighbor that I let it slide. The opening track begins with tense, pushing guitars, and just as soon the chorus whips in with whip smart melodies and careening riffs. It’s bright, is summery, anything you say can be. La-la-las float around until the final chorus fades away. I hope they’re still dancing somewhere far from here. 

Farah Rincon

On the Level by Mac DeMarco

While I haven't been as fond of Mac DeMarco since I was a moody 14-year-old who stared out the bus window on the way home from school, something about his music drew me back the moment I landed in Boston. I feel like my personality is divided into two parts: the girl in Miami who's always lounging in her bed during summer and the curious student trekking back and forth from the public garden to class, class to work, and work to my dorm. Both parts of myself have separate soundtracks to my double life, and I found that DeMarco's mellow, dream-like music perfectly complements my student Boston persona. I really love that “On the Level” is in the key of G# Minor, since I feel that it adds to the somewhat diminished harmonic feel of the song’s famous intro. “On the Level”’s laid-back and perplexing synths ease the chaos of my quick walks across campus, rushing from one place to the other.

Lucca Swain

Los Libros de la Buena Memoria by Invisible

This classic Argentine band, masterminded by the great Luis Alberto Spinetta, has in recent times become one of my absolute favorites. I could go on forever about how awesome Spinetta is, or how amazing El Jardin de los Presentes and all his other bands and albums are, but all that’s important for anyone not in the know to understand right now is that Spinetta is indisputably one of the absolute GOAT’s of Latin rock music. He was a pioneer on all fronts. But I’ve picked “Los Libros de la Buena Memoria” in particular because of how fitting it is of the season we’re in right now, that perfect midway point between summer and fall where it’s getting cold, the leaves are falling, but the Halloween spirit hasn’t quite kicked in just yet. It’s a lowkey tune, more atmosphere than anything, Spinetta’s voice a dejected whisper, the meandering guitar hardly ever coalescing into anything solid. For music labeled as prog, it totally lacks the pomp and showiness that defined foreign contemporaries like Rush and Pink Floyd. It’s more akin to the Argentinian style of tango, if anything, especially in its breathtaking use of the bandoneon, a staple instrument in tango similar to the accordion. When I listen to this song, I remember walking the beautiful paved streets of Buenos Aires and watching the tipa trees that line nearly every street sway steadily in the wind. I think of how amazed I was standing in El Ateneo, a massive theater-turned-multileveled bookstore in the heart of Buenos Aires. But also, I think of now and wandering the chilly streets of Boston with this song in my headphones, scampering up Beacon Hill past the old-time chestnut-brown houses, the view over the water off of Longfellow Bridge, the silence and majesty of Bates Hall at the Boston Public Library. “Los Libros de la Buena Memoria” is a song that is so distinctly urban, but in that it embodies only the best parts of city living. It’s a day spent wandering, not at all knowing where you’re going, and finding something new at the end of it. It’s the perfect song to get settled back into fall in Boston.