With summer, both seemingly feeling relentless, and yet inevitably drawing to a close, I continue to find myself basking in a series of sun-kissed slices of melody.
The latest of these perfect-for-summer records is Your Favorite Girl by Country Girl, a record that basks in its scattershot percussion and hushed vocals. Those voices evoke the feel of a perfect, soft kiss, as the lyrics depict the experience of directing our movie scenes in our heads, the construction of a movie narrative of our latest crush.
Raised in New York and now biased in Brooklyn, Country Girl was homeschooled in preparation for studying classical composition at Juilliard. Insulated from the impact of popular culture, his influences instead came from the likes of Maurice Ravel and Steve Reich. On Your Favorite Girl, the debut single for Country Girl on the FADER label, Country Girl combines his classical upbringing with contemporary pop sensibilities. The result is modern, yet also has a touch of 90s Britpop to it, with echoes of Teenage Fanclub and James, whilst simultaneously evoking the Country Girl’s own environment, as he describes the song as:
‘The very essence of sticky New York summer, an exploration of those little moments when your heart bursts out of your chest, when you have to pour a whole bottle of water on your head and you don’t even feel cold when it hits.’
Your Favorite Girl is a little perfect capsule of summer fancy: apply liberally like sunblock.