Now, I love upbeat summer jams as much as the next guy, but after a few sun-soaked pop tunes I always get the urge to hear something with a little more of an edge to it. And when that dark desire surfaces, I always reach for the same record: Portishead’s 1994 masterpiece, Dummy.
While it’s an amazing album for wintery nights and macabre short films, I assert that it can also be great summer music when used in the right context. Portishead’s combination of otherworldly synth tones, trip-hop rhythms, and vocalist Beth Gibbons’ haunting coo causes the perfect kind of uneasiness; like the lonely paranoia you feel driving into the sunset at dusk, or the eerie introspection of warm rain in the evening.
Enjoy the spookier side of summer.