The Best Music To Cool You Down During A Heatwave
Perception influences body temperature more than you think; even when it comes to your body, it’s all in your head.
However much despair you may feel about it, the UK heatwave is, undoubtedly, here to stay. The country is now weeks into a weather front that’s at best cloying, and at worst inescapably smothering. What’s worse: we all know by now that the bottle of ice in front of your fan or the socks in the fridge are barely even temporary fixes. There remains, nonetheless, a single solace: the soundtrack you choose. Here’s your definitive guide to staying cool via any combination of earphones, speakers, or record players that you prefer.
Go to your happy place
‘The British heat is different,’ we all commiserate to one another in the queue. ‘It’s not like when you’re on holiday’. There’s a variety of infrastructural and geographical reasons for this, but have you ever thought about intention? Sunbathing on a picturesque beach with lapping waves feels cooler than schlepping on the Central Line, even if the temperature is identical.
Our perception is one of the most powerful tools we have, and there’s a wealth of evidence to suggest that sensory cues impact how we experience temperature. Studies show that looking at visual stimuli indicating different temperatures, such as fire or ice, can affect self-reported temperatures - even when there’s no difference in physical temperature. Similarly, the study that famously investigated Cardi B’s claim that “a hoe never gets cold” concludes that yes, our perceptions around how others perceive us truly do affect how we report experiencing temperature; I’d suggest the same is true of setting. If the music you’re listening to is associated with being intentionally warm, you’re likely to feel less uncomfortable with the sweat running down your back and the hair sticking to your neck.
By this logic, we’re going tropical. Anything that feels like lying back in the sand mere metres from the sea, with towering cliff faces overhead, a book placed upside down and open-faced beside you, and an endless day ahead. Pointy Heights by Fousheé is a great place to start with this. It’s so vivid that you could almost feel the sea’s proximity; or, you may imagine being sheltered from the sun by the tall, cooling walls of a city, dust gathering on the soles of your shoes and a night of street bar hopping ahead. Lean into the movement of that romantic summer with Marvin Gaye’s I Want You, or immerse yourself in spiritual jazz with Journey in Satchidananda by Alice Coltrane. For complete bliss, Mojave 3’s Ask Me Tomorrow, or keep it chill with Love Made Trees by Loaded Honey, Lydia Kitto, and J Lloyd.
We could also be thinking ‘cowboy plodding through the desert’, with songs that conjure images of the stirrups and beating sun of a western. The Truth by Prince is the very first album that comes to mind on this one, with its guitar twangs and rich vocals. The seminal Still Bill by Bill Withers is a close second, Labrinth’s recent release COSMIC OPERA ACT II is, if we’re keeping it modern. If all else fails, turn to old reliable: America by America, for enveloping, heat-defying comfort.
Maybe there’s even scope for the rooftop party, something electronic and light that you’d listen to at sunset with a drink kept firmly in hand and a disregard for the night’s residual heat. Stacy N.K.R and oakland are a match made in heaven on smooth fm, particularly if you’re feeling the London pride that’s made easier in the golden summer’s light. Beats 2 Bomb 2 by 1 9 0 5 and Former City Records is the way to go if you want something upbeat and fun, or Healing by Max Sinàl if you’re looking for a slinking, cyclical groove. Through The Wall by Rochelle Jordan and Loosies by Amber Mark both feel like a warm-up to a night you’ll be talking about for years to come: slick, smoky, sexy dance tracks to let go to. Top it all off with classic city record We Go Again by ENNY, and you’re set for whatever cocktail-sipping, ash-traying evening awaits.
Give Pavlov a run for his money
All of these perception phenomena work because association is one of the most powerful processes that takes place in our brains. Much like a hangover, the heat is easier to cope with if you can lean into it rather than resisting. While we’re idealising summer, it works well to go back to a blueprint. If you have a playlist from a few summers past that you associate with some romanticised image of the heat, it’s time to get it playing. Whichever year was long enough ago that it’s memorialised as a mental scrapbook for you to reach into, that’s the music you should be turning to.
Some albums that will feel like summers past, whether you’ve experienced them before or not, include genre-hopping Gemini by Angélica Garcia, Love 4 Rent by Smino, and ever-punchy jazz/hip-hop/soul musings of Studio Monk by Junia-T. Corinne Bailey Rae’s Black Rainbows is the epitome of summer listening, a Mercury-nominated powerhouse of history and feeling, while Honey by Robyn delivers the artist’s token emotive electronica. Or, Moth by Fana Hues is a dreamy wonderland that’ll leave you nostalgic for the late nights of yesteryear.
Or perhaps it’s time for the picture-perfect summers of your youth to rear their heads. We’re a decade on from what was a golden era of indie - one with surf-rock and shoegaze pumped into every album. Revisit Cola by A Beacon School or Joy Void by Hazing to feel like you’re sixteen again and falling in love with music for the first time. Listening to Great Big Blue by Geowulf is akin to lying back on a friend’s bedroom floor, talking about nothing and everything. Connan Mockasin and Dev Hynes collaborated on Myths 001 in X, but its reverb can still be heard now, much like the seminal Her’s album Songs of Her’s. Top it off with Summer Break Mixtape by No Vacation or Foreplay by Mild Orange to really method act your way back into the 2010s.
Maybe going even further back in time is the key. Think Stereo Typical by Rizzle Kicks- the kind of songs that would spin at the end of year six school disco in a sticky assembly hall in July. Kickstarts by Example, Dance Wiv’ Me by Dizzee Rascal, and Superstar by Jamelia all still deserve a place on your summer mixtape, no matter what year it is. Blast LDN by Lily Allen to really convince yourself that on a Lime bike with the breeze in your hair and the heat beating back off the concrete is exactly where you need to be. To really lean into the humidity of it all, try Sound of the Underground by Girls Aloud or Round by Sugababes; they still feel like close walls and uncertain nights ahead. I defy you to still notice the heat’s full pelt while you play Anything Could Happen by Ellie Goulding or Closer by Ne-Yo.
Take a dip
By similar logic, music that evokes running water is likely to help you feel cooler. Some research suggests we can even tell the temperature of water based on the sound of it pouring, even if we can’t quantify why this is.
Something with an experimental, electronic intersection could work here. I Created The Universe So That Life Could Create a Language So Complex, Just To Say How Much I Love You by Sega Bodega could just about drown out the ever-oscillating whir of a desk fan, or, failing that, try Blood Orange’s Essex Honey. For something more dissonant, go for Re: by the The Sound Chalk Makes. Or, to keep it smooth Powders by Eartheater and Into The Doldrums by Now Always Fades could definitely help you drop your temperature by at least a degree or two.