eSounds of eSummer

Last month Emusic polled their users for the the greatest "summer albums" available on their service. They unveiled the results yesterday and this is the top ten.

1. The Pixies - Dolittle
2. Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
3. The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema
4. Creedence Clearwater Revival - Green River
5. Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
6. M.I.A. - Arular
7. Pavement - Slanted and Enchanted
8. Bob Marley And The Wailers - Complete Upsetter Singles
9. Big Star - #1 Record/Radio City
10. Spoon - Kill The Moonlight

I've never thought of Pavement as a "summer band", but I guess they are. Their first two albums in the top ten. The rest of their top 50 is here. I braved the clunky interface and voted in their poll by finding something I liked, then clicking "related artists" until I had ten albums. Because my list was somewhat arbitrary (and a little SF-centric), I've put it in alphabetical order.

1. Brendan Benson - Lapalco
2. Beulah - The Coast Is Never Clear
3. The Format - Dog Problems
4. Mother Hips - Green Hills Of Earth
5. New Pornographers - Electric Version
6. Yuji Oniki - TVI
7. The Orange Peels - Square
8. Oranger - Shutdown The Sun
9. Papas Fritas - Pop Has Freed Us
10. Teenage Fanclub - 4,760 Seconds

I'm always surprised at how well my tastes jibe with the emusic community when they do these lists, so I'm also surprised that my selections (especially Teenage Fanclub and Brendan Benson) didn't make their top 50. My votes may have pushed Beulah and the Format into the top 50 though.

My definition of what constitutes a "summer album" isn't etched in stone, but I would consider to be something that I can listen to and enjoy without having to think about. Albums that sound great at a barbecue, or on the beach, or driving around in my Integra with the sunroof up.

I've fallen out of the practice of mix making for the last few months, but I can feel a summer mix in the making. Without doing an iTunes search for "summer", what are definitive summer songs?

[First rule of blogging: When you're too lazy to write. just make lists!]