Way back in 1964, United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart notoriously deferred to properly define obscenity during the case of Jacobellis v. Ohio, infamously stating of hardcore pornography simply that he knows it when he sees it.
That’s kinda how we feel about the annual chase for the Song of the Summer. We’re not entirely sure what we’re looking for when spring arrives and the weather turns warm, but when we hear something that fits our often varied definitions (and desires) of an alleged Song of the Summer, well, we seem to simply know it when we hear it.
The latest entry to jostle with the Billie Eilishes and the Hatchies of the world emanates from Massachusetts via Eddie Japan, who set the tone for next week’s The Amorous Adventures of Edward Japan (Side 1) with a seasonally-appropriate new single called “Summer Hair”. It furthers Eddie Japan’s penchant for melodic, genre-bending approaches to pop, another soaring track that sounds better when heard with no roof overhead.
And like most things enjoyed in the summer, this track of riotous joy and hazy summertime lust was born of spontaneity.
“This song came out of nowhere,” Eddie Japan’s David Santos tells Vanyaland. “The chord progression and melody presented themselves, and the wonderfully evocative phrase ‘summer hair’ came into my mind at some point. And so the challenge of writing something a summer anthem was on. Sonically, the track is as big as the ocean. The lyrics paint a hazy picture of romantic desire that burns as hot, but is just as fleeting, as summer.”
Know it when you hear it below.