(free) New Wave Does the Summer
8 summer songs!
Listen here, or read on!
Summer’s Around the Corner
New wave wasn’t just about icy synths and gloom — it had a sun-streaked side, too. Whether celebrating romance, dreading change, or dreaming of escape, these eight songs capture how new wave artists twisted summer themes into something stranger, sharper, and smarter. It’s synthpop with sweat on its brow. Just in time for the summer solstice!
🌞 Optimistic / Uplifting Vibe
Katrina and the Waves – Walking on Sunshine
Katrina and the Waves were a one-hit wonder, but that hit was massive in the Motown-inspired Walking on Sunshine. Usually summer has lots of sunshine, and writer and guitarist Kimberley Rew uses that to represent euphoria and good times. In the song, the singer (Katrina) just found out her love for someone is mutual. She’s excited, and needs to “hold herself down” when checking the mail for a love letter from him. And while the rest of the song is just similar affirmations, Katrina’s vocals and the melody elevate it to new wave bliss. But underneath is a dark undercurrent of… just kidding, it's pure bliss.
Katrina and the Waves - Walking on Sunshine (listen on Spotify)
Squeeze – Pulling Mussels
Before their global classic Tempted, Squeeze had a string of British hits. In them, Difford crafted catchy, energetic melodies while Tilbrook melds it with his storytelling prowess. Pulling Mussels (From the Shell) is a sharp, upbeat example of that. The verses are happy snapshots of beach life, complete with a macho man scared of a thunderstorm, people reading and surfing, and two women shopping near the sand. But in the choruses, the narrator also looks back happily at sneaking sex with his lover while all of this is going on. Well, the song title is British slang for sex.
The B-52s – Summer of Love
In 1985, Summer of Love was a great introduction to the B-52s ($) phasing in a gentler sound that culminated in their 1989 comeback album Cosmic Thing. Indeed, it’s a great foreshadowing of their later hit Roam. The song describes well the euphoric aspects of summer (“orange popsicles and lemonade”), used as a metaphor and catalyst for falling in love. And she sees “no clouds ahead” that will get in the way of her love, as summer is often sunnier. The melody is easy breezy, like a peaceful summer day. Be sure to try out the B-52s other summer tunes: Dry County, Give Me Back My Man, and of course Rock Lobster ($).
Simple Minds – Someone Somewhere in Summertime
Sonically, the Scottish Simple Minds’ Someone Somewhere in Summertime is the odd duck of these four: a slower melody and contemplative lyrics. This reflects their penchant for cinematic synthrock and introspective lyrics. But it’s still a positive summer song; The singer hasn’t found love yet. Musically, the verses are brooding but anticipatory. But the chorus’ quick, bright synth reflects the singer’s realization that love will come, again with the shift to summer being the catalyst for that (“wake up on brilliant days”). A mood piece rather than a pop single, but one with lasting resonance.
Simple Minds - Someone Somewhere (listen on Spotify)
🌒 Pessimistic / Bittersweet Vibe
Summer in new wave isn’t always sun and surf. It’s longing, discovery, heat, heartbreak, and the occasional popsicle.
The first four songs capture the season at its brightest — love found, days stretched wide, and everything shimmering with possibility. But as any summer kid knows, the sun eventually sets. The next four songs explore what happens when the glow fades: loneliness creeps in, the beach gets quiet, or that perfect moment slips away. Whether through metaphor or mood, these songs show summer’s shadow side — and how new wave artists weren’t afraid to sit in it.
Bananarama – Cruel Summer
Before producers Stock Aikman Waterman transformed Bananarama into a dance-pop band (see Venus), their music and especially lyrics had a heavier vibe. Cruel Summer paints a lonely picture: the singer’s friends are gone, and she’s stuck sweating in the big, crowded city (New York in the ‘80s maybe?) The line “Strange voices are saying (what did they say?). Things I can't understand” illustrates lyrics of paranoia and alientation that are in Bananarama’s early work (like State I’m In and Dream Baby). This unease gives the track a weight that sets it apart from most beach-ready anthems. It’s summer, but something’s clearly off.
Bananarama - Cruel Summer (listen on Spotify)
Blondie - Island of Lost Souls
Hunter was the last Blondie album before their hiatus (unit the late ‘90s). The single Island of Lost Souls is a sonic and thematic followup to their big hit The Tide is High: a lush, tropical pop escape. But with Debbie Harry singing about abandonment and emotional retreat, It’s no vacation. She sings about how her boyfriend - let’s say it in today’s terms - ghosted her, and she wants to escape as far away as possible. The tropics serve as a stand-in for summer, a distinctly different (and often pleasant) time of the year.
Blondie - Island of Lost Souls (listen on Spotify)
The Motels – Suddenly Last Summer
The Motels had some hauntingly melancholic songs for sure, and Suddenly Last Summer is a shining example (the gloomiest of this bunch) . Summer is much different than other times of the year for many, so when its ending it serves as a perfect metaphor for change. The lyrics are vague but the narrator is clearly frightened about change is living in the past. Singer Martha Davis was mourning the recent death of her parents when she wrote it. But it also works on other levels: not getting over an end-of-summer breakup, aging, or even growing up and the loss of innocence. For a similar song with a slightly brighter mood, try Footsteps by Squeeze.
The Motels - Suddenly Last Summer (listen on Spotify)
The Police – Message in a Bottle
Despite their catchy and sometimes upbeat melodies, the Police loved to throw curveballs at the listener. A great example is their hit Message in a Bottle. While Debbie Harry views the tropics as her answer to her breakup, Sting is already there, and boy, he’s not liking it! The “message in a bottle” could be an unrequited request to his girlfriend to get back together. A year later, he’s in despair, as he expresses with his signature wail. It’s not all bad though: by song’s end Sting realizes (through seeing a billion more bottles) that others share his pain. Hopefully that will help him heal and start up a Brand New Day.
The Police - Message in a Bottle (listen on Spotify)
Conclusion
Whether you’re falling in love or watching something fade, these songs remind us that even the brightest season has shadows. Queue them up — and let your summer soundtrack get a little weirder. After all, no genre captured emotional contradictions quite like new wave: synthetic but soulful, shimmering but sharp, sun-drenched but never simple.
Enjoy this article? Our Best-of-Year series dives into the genre year by year—ranking the tracks that defined new wave as it evolved. Explore the series.