What is the Song of the Summer? (2025 Summer Preview)

( Photo by Mike Marsland/Redferns )
Alison Stewart: This is All Of It on WNYC, I'm Alison Stewart. All this week we're going to be looking at the sights and sounds of summer. Today we're going to be taking your calls for the songs that will be on your playlist for summer 2025 and possibly the song of the summer. Maybe you think '25 is Drake's turn, after last summer's Kendrick Lamarathon. Could Drake come back with NOKIA? [MUSIC - Drake: NOKIA]
Alison Stewart: Maybe it'll be a Haim song. They just played Glastonbury Festival and people are responding to Down to be wrong.
[MUSIC - Haim: Down to be wrong]
Alison Stewart: Will we have a repeat of last summer? Sabrina Carpenter was everywhere with Espresso. Maybe her hit Manchild will be wafting out of cars headed to the Jersey shore.
[MUSIC - Sabrina Carpenter: Manchild]
Alison Stewart: Aside from these songs, there are plenty of potential new earworms and albums to look forward to this summer. Joining us to recommend some songs that should be on your radar is musicologist and Switched On Pop podcast host, Nate Sloan. Hey, Nate, it's nice to see you.
Nate Sloan: Alison, it's great to be back. Thank you.
Alison Stewart: Listeners, we want to hear from you. What are you listening to this summer? Maybe it's a new release or a song that's been an earworm during these summer months. Our phone lines are open. 212-433-9692, 212-433-WNYC. You can call in, you can join us on the air, or you can text us at that number, or reach out on social media, @AllOfItWNYC. We know there are a ton of big releases this summer. Nate, could you pick three that you're just excited about? We'll get into your songs first, but I want to know three releases you're really excited for.
Nate Sloan: Three releases I'm really excited for. You mentioned her at the top, Sabrina Carpenter. Her new album, I think, continues the success she had with her last album, Short n' Sweet. It's breezy, it's fun. I think it's going to be all over the airwaves. I also am looking forward to the new album from Lorde. I think she's one of the most interesting singer-songwriters we have right now who's able to marry experimental pop with mainstream success. There's a rapper out of the UK named Little Simz, who is I think the most exciting emcee around right now. Not only is her music amazing, but her music videos are pretty mind blowing. Those are three artists I'll be looking out for.
Alison Stewart: They all sound good. Let's circle back to Sabrina Carpenter. What's something you think is unique about her that she brings to the pop landscape?
Nate Sloan: In short, one word. Humor. I love listening to her music because it makes me laugh. So much pop music can be so serious or emotional or treacly. She has a great sense of humor. She's got some one liners that you've never heard before. I think the mix of humor and catchy melodies is what makes her sound so distinctive.
Alison Stewart: Do you think she's a good singer?
Nate Sloan: I think she's a great singer. I mean, is she a Whitney Houston diva who can hit stratospheric high notes? No, but she can sell a song. Not a lot of singers could sing a line like, why so sexy if so dumb, on the second verse of her new song, Manchild, and make you bop your head. So, I think that's a gift.
Alison Stewart: Fair point. Another one of your picks this summer is Jensen McRae's Praying On Your Downfall, from her most recent album, I Don't Know How But They Found Me!. Tell us a little more about Jensen McRae.
Nate Sloan: Jensen McRae is an up and coming singer-songwriter who I would be a fan of regardless, but I have a personal connection to her because she was one of my students. The very first year I started teaching at the USC Thornton School of Music, Jensen was in my class. She was brilliant. Sometimes that doesn't correlate to musical success, but in her case, she has a burgeoning career, a sold out tour, and her album is fantastic. She's got a singular voice that sounds like nothing else. It's a little bit of folk, it's a little bit of propulsive dance rhythm. It's got something for everyone. I think she's going to be huge.
Alison Stewart: Let's listen to Jensen McRae's Praying On Your Downfall.
[MUSIC - Jensen McRae: Praying On Your Downfall]
Alison Stewart: That was Jensen McRae, Praying On Your Downfall. In an L.A. Times piece, Jensen McRae said when she first started singing, she was trying to intellectualize her feelings to get away from being vulnerable, and now she sees there's room for both. Nate, have you witnessed this in her music?
Nate Sloan: Yes, I think even in that little snippet we just heard, she has that wordless tag at the end of the chorus, la da da da da da. I wonder if that's something she would have done earlier in her musical career. It's wordless hook. It doesn't have meaning, and yet it's so satisfying for a listener. Maybe that's reflective of that quote you just read. Sort of leaning into the emotion of music in addition to the intellect of it.
Alison Stewart: My guest is Nate Sloan, he's the co-host of Switched On Pop. We are talking about a summer music preview. Listeners, we want to hear from you. What are you listening to this summer? What is going on that playlist? Our number is 212-433-9692, 212-433-WNYC. Perhaps you want to tell us about a concert you're going to go to this summer, that you're a little excited about. You can call and text us that, too. 212-433-9692, 212-433-WNYC. Next up on your list, Girl of Your Dreams, by Eli. Ones to Watch music blog said, "A bubblegum pop renaissance is upon us and Eli is leading the charge." Do you agree with that assessment?
Nate Sloan: Yes. If you're a fan of late '90s, early 2000s pop, like Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys, then you will be a fan of Eli's. This artist embraces that Millennial sound while updating it for 2025.
Alison Stewart: Let's take a listen to Eli's Girl of Your Dreams.
[MUSIC - Eli: Girl of Your Dreams]
Alison Stewart: Okay, Nate, I can picture being in the car, rolling down the window, doing the thing with your hand like you're on a wave. What does a summer song need? What do you think it needs to have?
Nate Sloan: I think it needs to have that sense of escapism that you were just describing. It needs to make you feel like you're floating. It needs to make you feel like if someone else heard that song coming out of your car, Alison, they would smile and nod and wave right back at you. There's something communal about the summer song. It reaches out to everyone. A time when we're all out on the streets and in the fields, I guess, if you're a rural listener and you're out and about listening to music together. I think it needs that sense of bringing people together.
Alison Stewart: Let's talk to John from Westfield, New Jersey. Hey, John, thanks for calling All Of It. What are you going to listen to this summer?
John: Hey, how you doing? Thanks for taking me on the show.
Alison Stewart: Yes.
John: I'm listening to a band called Sloth, S-L-O-T-H, which I'll be honest, is my son's band. They're incredible. They're like a three piece, like Zeppelin band, but they also mix kind of a Monty Python-esque Holy Grail humor to what they do. They were just playing in Brooklyn to a sold out house. They're absolutely phenomenal. They're on Instagram, on slothbandawesome. I am his dad, but they're also really, really good.
Alison Stewart: Thanks for the shout out. This says, this is interesting, "Collective Soul and Live are touring this summer and I can't wait. Brings me back to listening to the radio in elementary school." That's a throwback. You know, it was interesting because Eli was a little bit of a throwback, too. Nate, what do you make of nostalgia in this kind of music? Because we're looking for a song of the summer.
Nate Sloan: Yes, nostalgia, throwback, retroism. It is a sound of the moment. I think partially, this is just a facet of the music industry. People want to listen to things that are familiar to them. So, composers, songwriters, they're constantly mining the musical past to find things that will resonate with people. Then perhaps there's a desire to escape the moment we're living in and reach back to different historical moments that, at least in the rear view, seem more peaceful and less fraught than intensity that we're undergoing right now. So I think there might be a bit of both that explains why we're gravitating towards sounds from the past.
Alison Stewart: Listeners, we want to hear from you, what's going to be on your summer 2025 playlist? Our phone number is 212-433-9692, 212-433-WNYC, or maybe you're going to a summer concert this summer that you're really excited about. You can call in and tell us. 212-433-9692, 212-433-WNYC. We'll have more of our summer music preview after a quick break. This is All Of It.
[theme music]
Alison Stewart: You are listening to All Of It on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. My guest is Nate Sloan. He's the co-host of the podcast Switched On Pop. He's a musicologist as well. He is helping us put together our summer music preview, giving some shout outs to some singers that he's really excited about. Emma Harner. Tell me about Emma Harner.
Nate Sloan: Emma Harner is an artist I discovered recently who created this genre she calls math folk.
Alison Stewart: Math? Like M-A-T-H?
Nate Sloan: M-A-T-H. Yes, exactly. Combining the rhythmic and melodic complexity of math rock with the stripped down acoustic style of folk music. She is originally from Nebraska, I believe. Trained at the Berklee School of Music. She is a virtuoso guitar player, a brilliant singer. She uses odd time signatures and surprising harmonies to create these songs that are complex but also really easy to listen to.
Alison Stewart: Well, let's listen to Emma Harner. This is False Alarm.
[MUSC - Emma Harner: False Alarm]
Alison Stewart: That was Emma Harner with False Alarm. Let's go to a couple of callers. We've got Robert from Montclair. Hi, Robert. Who are you listening to? Who are you going to see this summer?
Robert: I'm going to see a great tower trio from Mexico, The Warning. They're really becoming very, very big. They really had a viral video of a cover of Enter Sandman in 2014, over 25 million views, and they're really one of the hottest things in rock music now. It kind of brings back all the great rock music from prior decades, especially late '90s, early 2000s. I think they're amazing.
Alison Stewart: Thanks for the call. Also, we've got Kevin, who's calling from Manhattan on line two. Hi, Kevin. Thanks for calling All Of It.
Kevin: Hi, Alison. He was talking about retro. Well, this is really retro and nostalgia. I'm going to be listening to The Go-Go's and The B-52s.
Alison Stewart: Nice. That's exciting. Where are you going to go see them?
Kevin: I'm not. I don't have plans to see them, but in the summer of 1984, I saw The Go-Go's three times and The B-52s twice, so I'm really dating myself.
[laughter]
Kevin: At Jones Beach and Merriweather Post Pavilion. Both outdoor spaces.
Alison Stewart: That's exciting. Thank you so much for calling in. That's going to add to the playlist. I have to say, Nate.
Nate Sloan: Oh, yes. I believe The B-52s just announced a tour.
Alison Stewart: I know. Exactly.
Nate Sloan: I don't know, I could maybe relive some of those memories. They're such a great band.
Alison Stewart: This text says, "I heard the talented singer-songwriter Jason Isbell on an episode of Terry Groth a month ago and found out he was going to be playing at my local theater. I got tickets right away and can't wait to see him in person." Also, we got a text that says, "Run the Jewels and Wu-Tang at MSG." Those both sound like good concerts. Let's get back to your list, Nate. You pick a group. I hope I say, excuse me, their names right. Grupo Frontera and Fuerza Regada? Am I close enough?
Nate Sloan: Regida.
Alison Stewart: Regida. These are two big groups. One's from Texas, and I think the other is from California.
Nate Sloan: Exactly.
Alison Stewart: What's unique about them teaming up for this song?
Nate Sloan: Yes. They are two of the biggest Mexican regional acts right now. So they're combining forces, which is a big deal in itself. Then the song that they've created together, ME JALO, is a real interesting juxtaposition of their styles. It starts with Fuerza Regida and their corridos tumbados sound, and then in the chorus, we get this kind of beat flip and Grupo Frontera takes over with their blend of norteño and cumbia rhythms. It's such a fun moment as a listener when you hear this transformation, and yet at the same time, their sounds and the singers blend so seamlessly. It's a really great track.
Alison Stewart: Let's listen.
[ MUSIC - Fuerza Regida and Grupo Frontera: ME JALO]
Alison Stewart: I love that change over. That sounded awesome.
Nate Sloan: It's such a cool moment.
Alison Stewart: Yes.
Nate Sloan: Yes. I mean, we just did a whole week dedicated to country music on Switched On Pop, our podcast. Our producer, Reanna Cruz, brought this song to us and said, "This is part of country music today in 2025. Mexican regional music is country music." I thought that was really interesting. So I wanted to share the song with everyone.
Alison Stewart: Well, thank you so much. Our guest is Nate Sloan, he's the co-host of the Switched On Pop podcast. We're talk about songs of summer. Jack White. All right. People know Jack White traditionally. What do you think of the song that you've picked?
Nate Sloan: I love this track. I have obviously been a fan of the White Stripes. I have to say I've been less familiar with Jack White's subsequent solo career, but hearing this song makes me want to explore his discography. This is a barn burner. It doesn't really feature any singing, it's more of this talking in the style of a revivalist preacher, but it's mocking the religiosity of so much of these kind of Southern gospel types. It's very funny, it's very hip, and frankly, it rocks.
Alison Stewart: This is Archbishop Harold Holmes from Jack White.
[MUSIC - Jack White: Archbishop Harold Holmes]
Alison Stewart: Oh, that one be could keep me going. Let's talk to Mary Jane, calling in from Basking Ridge. Hi, Mary Jane.
Mary Jane: Hello. Hello. I have good ideas for summer.
Alison Stewart: Okay.
Mary Jane: They're outdoor concerts by The Chiclettes. Now, I don't know if you know about singing the diva songs of the golden years of women singers. Now, I think it's tomorrow. I am not well prepared, but tomorrow, the 3rd, they will-- oh, no, on the 4th, they're going to be up in Farmington.
Alison Stewart: Chiclettes? Okay. The Chiclettes. People should check them out. This says, "I saw Valerie June at the town hall about a month ago after hearing her perform on your show." Oh, that's so great. "Her sound is unique. Thanks for turning me on to her." Nate, we have your last song, which came out in 1969.
Nate Sloan: Yes.
[laughter]
Alison Stewart: Tell me why you wanted to put Sly Stone on your lists of songs for summer.
Nate Sloan: Like so many music fans, I was devastated at the death of two American music icons this month, Brian Wilson and Sly Stone. Brian Wilson, with the Beach Boys, transformed the sound of American rock and pop. Sly, with Sly and the Family Stone, introduced funk and soul to mainstream audiences. Not to-- I don't want to have to pick one of them, but I'm just going to share some music from Sly Stone because I think-
Alison Stewart: He's the best.
Nate Sloan: -his blend-- yes, his blend of-
Alison Stewart: He's the best. You know what? We're going to run out of time. You're about to speak on prophetically. I appreciate it. Nate Sloan, Switched On Pop co-host.
Nate Sloan: [crosstalk]. He's amazing.
Alison Stewart: He's amazing. Nate, thank you so much.