Letters
Knit to This: Like I Used To
It’s always fun in May or June to try and figure out which song might end up being your “song of the summer.” It’s a hard game to play because it’s hard to predict an earworm in advance.
Sometimes there’s a cultural consensus, a song it seems like everyone gets behind at once, but sometimes you go a different direction from everyone else and end up with some weird thing. I’ll never forget the summer I couldn’t stop singing “Genie in a Bottle” … and neither will anyone else from my life at that time.
By mid-August of this summer, I was down to two finalists: the runner up is “Chaise Longue”. External Link. Opens in new window. by Wetleg (which I will NOT talk about here because it is hilariously DIRTY and, as I’ve mentioned before, my mother reads this … but you should go listen anyway; it’s goofy and almost psychotically catchy and they do pronounce “chaise longue” correctly, so fifty extra points are awarded).
The winner—the song I am STILL singing three months after first hearing it in May—is “Like I Used To”. External Link. Opens in new window. by Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olsen, which is just the sort of thing I always love: sweeping, swoony, catchy, and just a little mysterious.
It’s also a really good excuse to go down the twin rabbit-holes of Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olsen, both of whom have a pretty healthy, totally fantastic batch of records to pick from. There’s no album-long project attached to “Like I Used To” (as of yet, but my fingers are crossed), so if you plan to Knit to This to it, you’ll need to listen to it about twenty times in a row, but you’ll do that anyway because it’s so good. You might as well get a scarf out of it.
From the video still I was anticipating something abba related lol. Chaise longue is brilliant isn’t it <3
I absolutely LOVE the half-face ABBA references toward the end.
The picture on the email page is reminiscent of the cover of the Heart album, Dreamboat Annie. I actually still have it after 45 years.
Thank you! It was so familiar to me… I love listening to both of these women,.
DG! I thank you for the new track on my list, Chaise Longue is a delight.
I’ve got “Cherish” by the Association playing on constant loop. A message to me? A message to you? Call my hippy friends? “Cherish is the word I use to descri-ah-ah-ahahahaha-be…”
Hey you, over there, on the chaise longue in your underwear
Brilliant!! Thanks for sharing these 🙂
I think Chaise Longue is my song of the summer. It’s brilliant!!
Also, since listening to Like I Used To, I’ve had Life In A Northern Town playing on repeat in my head and I’m not sure why.
Thank you for “Chaise Longue”. Thank you.
Omg… thanks for the music lesson. Chaise Lounge is such fun. I am the quirky girl dancing in the background. Had to share with my daughter who just moved away yesterday for college. Maybe she’ll think I’m a little bit cool. 😉
Editing my spelling… so sorry! “Longue”
Thanks for that 🙂
Angel Olsen is kinda rocking a Stevie Nicks vocal ability, isn’t she?
Have you heard Solar Power by Lorde? I cannot stop singing it.
My song of summer 2020 – southern hemisphere, summer of 2021 is approaching – was Jerusalema by Master KG featuring Nomcebo. I. Could. Not.Stop.Dancing!!!!