Music Editor Barry Fenton has compiled OTwo's favourite albums of the Summer, and now, we present them to you.
Albums are keepsakes. If you’ve ever spent a summer listening to one, you’ll know how it feels to then stumble upon it months later in the dead of winter. To be suddenly washed over with all the emotions and memories that compose our life outside of college.
OTwo presents our favourite albums released this summer:
Charm by Clairo - Robert, Head of Reviews
Clairo loves to release albums during the Summer. Charm presents some of her most relaxed and subdued songs yet, reflecting on the need for intimacy and wanting to be desired. On a song like ‘Sexy to Someone’ she’s much more flippant about somebody finding her attractive, but on the climactic track ‘Pier 4’ Clairo analyses brief touches that she shared with a partner that isn’t around anymore.
The album doesn’t have the heartbroken, sanguine sound heard on her prior album Sling, and this shift demonstrates how Clairo has evolved beyond the indie pop beginnings of her debut album Immunity. As a result, Charm oozes with catchy choruses presenting subtle but hard-hitting reflections on past relationships and the desire to be wanted. Overall, the album is equal parts fun and heartfelt which made for a contemplative yet joyful Summer.
Cold Visions by Bladee - Orla, Otwo Editor
Amidst the tongue-in-cheek lyrics, Bladee cuts at something earnest and real - a deep paranoia, an existential anxiety, an awareness of a cycle but feeling powerless to stop it. Cold Visions is perhaps one of the most intensely honest Summer releases I've heard. Lines like “I wake up with my blinds down, golden light of day slipping away,” echo an almost universal sentiment, the terrible dread of feeling you've wasted another precious Summer day. Seamless transitions between tracks create the feeling of one never-ending song - a cycle of irony-drenched misery, complete with samples from Roblox videos. Which kind of makes a perfect album, in my opinion.
Romance by Fontaines DC - Laura Kiely, Lit and Drama Editor
Farewelling the Summer is Fontaines DC’s fourth studio album Romance. Emerging from the Liberties over six years ago, the Dublin quintet has introduced an entirely new sound to their discography that makes their debut album Dogrel (2019) feel worlds away. Romance showcases a lyrical thesis on the idealism of romance. The album’s texture feels impulsively characterised by a fine threading that juggles hope in the tracks ‘Favourite’ and ‘Starbuster’, but also disillusionment in tracks like ‘Motorcycle Boy’, ‘Desire’, and ‘Sundowner’. Covering a range of high highs and low lows, the album opens with the eponymous track that places Love in a vulnerable situation but closes with ‘Favourite’ on a far more confident, upbeat and altogether energetic feeling. For this reason, I highly recommend a listen (or thirty) in chronological order for full effect.
These albums show different sides to our summer. They are time capsules, preserving the emotions, experiences, and memories that defined that long sun-soaked July or cold blustery August. Whether it’s Clairo’s introspective Charm, Bladee’s raw disparate hip-hop, or Fontaines DC’s exploration of romantic idealism, each album offers a unique lens through which to revisit the past few months.