Get you barf bag ready...i'm in a reflective mood.

While I realize that once again, this post is a few weeks late, I want to put up some songs that to me, fit the end of summer. Depending on where you live, you may have one, two, three, or four seasons. Here in Los Angeles, I would say you only have two; summer and winter (even though it’s hard to call winter that when it’s 75 degrees out). I really consider fall the end of summer rather than it’s own distinct season since it’s usually still warm enough to wear your flip flops and shorts without getting cold.

For me, the close of summer recalls the end of a more lighthearted and blissful time of year. While I associate picnics, outdoor concerts, and days at the local mall with summer, fall is a time where I tend to stay inside, mellow out (even more than I already do), read books, and think more about my life (eep).

There’s a weird, sometimes surreal, feeling in LA during the winter, as if for 6 months, the city is not quite itself without its crowded beaches, the smell of backyard barbecues, and endless sunshine. As winter creeps up, the hum of the city dies down ever so slightly, the mornings become crisp and dewy, and there’s a sense of finality to things once again. Summer flings are over, seemingly endless school vacations come to a close, leaves turn a fiery red before they fall, and that carefree feeling slowly fades. Despite this, I always appreciate the approach of winter because I know that summer wouldn’t quite be summer without a fall and a winter, just like life can never be fully appreciated without the occasional reminder of our own mortality.

So before I puke at how sentimentalized I’ve made the close of a season, here’s a few songs that will be tiding me over until the next endless summer.

[MP3] Beck :: Dark Star
[MP3] Iron & Wine :: Naked as We Came
[MP3] Red House Painters :: Have You Forgotten
[MP3] Nina Simone :: Black is the Color of my True Love’s Hair (Jaffa Remix)
[MP3] Duke Ellington :: Unknown
(off the Piano Solos Album, anyone know the track name?)

ps. Oh No! Oh My!’s “The Backseat” could just be the perfect end of summer song, but I already put it up on a previous post. Poo.