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By Maya Salam
Dear listeners,
As a pop culture reporter and editor at The New York Times, I spend much of my life toggling from one of a few modes to another: full-focus viewing, extensive conversation about said viewing, deep-think typing and — to cleanse my soul of all I’ve seen on all the screens — blissed-out nature bathing.
Still, whether I’m kayaking down a river, hiking up a mountain, hanging around a campfire or swaying in a hammock, my phone tags along so I can listen to music. My tastes run the gamut, but us outdoorsy types sometimes get a reputation for gravitating primarily toward folk, reggae and acoustic light-rock tunes. There’s room in my heart for it all.
But often, especially under a radiant sun or shimmering moon, I enter a mental space that can best be described as “forest girlie vibing hard.” The necessary ingredients: a splash of existential euphoria, a twist of party energy, an addictive groove and beats packed to the brim.
Here are 10 songs I’ll have on repeat day and night while vacationing in Acadia National Park this summer, listening solo on headphones or triangulated on Bluetooth speakers with my crew.
If the sun is bright, no matter where you are, this list will hit,
Maya
Listen along while you read.
1. Kari Faux: “Supplier”
Cousin to Curtis Mayfield’s “Pusherman” and sister to Leikeli47’s “Girl Blunt,” this track from the Arkansas rapper Kari Faux keeps me in a suspended state of head-bobbing. Off her 2016 album “Lost En Los Angeles,” it features Faux’s conversational, even-toned delivery that is so smooth and cool, let’s just call it soft serve. In the chorus, she assures us that she can deliver “the futuristic fire” and “the vibes that you desire.” Can confirm on both. Wrap it all up with a trippy extended instrumental outro and call me hooked.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
2. Remi Wolf: “Cinderella”
This playlist could easily be stacked with Remi Wolf songs. Her powerhouse vocals blend rock, funk and pop to glorious oddball perfection, and in this opening track from her 2024 album “Big Ideas,” she explores the challenges of juggling the demands and personas of stardom. (Many songs on this list tap into deeper reflections despite their sunny-day spirit.) “Is there something wrong with the way that I’m designed?” Wolf wonders. “Can’t find comfort in anything.”
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
3. Doechii: “Boiled Peanuts”
There was me before the Tampa rapper Doechii burst on the scene in a big way last year — catapulted by wowing back-to-back performances on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” and NPR’s Tiny Desk — and there’s me now. The now version is way better. This year, Doechii’s mixtape “Alligator Bites Never Heal” earned the Grammy for best rap album, making her only the third female artist to win it. This springy, playful groove with a spooky undercurrent starts with bars made for this playlist: “It’s a sunny day, the gang’s all here, no chip on my shoulder.” Later, Doechii delivers one my favorite lyrics in recent memory, a sort of call to action to leave it all on the table in this all-too-short life: “I’m a dying sunflower leaving a trail of seeds.”
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
4. Doja Cat: “Paint the Town Red”
Doja Cat said what she said. And I’m all ears. This 2023 track from her fourth studio album, “Scarlet,” was her first No. 1 solo smash, and it’s easy to see why: the laid-back bravado, the sharp-edged verses, the ultracool delivery and the killer sample at its center, from Dionne Warwick’s ethereal 1963 hit “Walk on By.” Upon the song’s release, Lindsay Zoladz, who normally writes this column, said it best: “It’s the perfect soundtrack for striding off into the sunset, leaving doubters in the dust.”
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
5. Jessie Ware: “Begin Again”
Front to back, Jessie Ware’s 2023 album “That! Feels Good!” breathed new life into me. And this track in particular, with its big, brassy horns and disco-meets-dreamy-darkness atmosphere, has brought me to tears in a good way. It’s also the “touch grass” dance anthem, as far as I’m concerned: “Why does all the purest love get filtered through machines?” Ware asks. “Gimme something good that’s even better than it seems.”
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
6. Sofi Tukker: “Jacaré”
While the horns are horning, this sexy track from the electro-pop duo Sofi Tukker — Sophie Hawley-Weld and Tucker Halpern — pulsates with humidity, transporting me to a faraway beach. Much of Sofi Tukker’s music draws on global dance sounds anchored in the pair’s love of Brazilian culture and the Portuguese language. The word jacaré means alligator in Portuguese but, as the duo told the music website Northern Transmissions in 2023, it’s also used as a derogatory word for women who are attracted to women. “We wanted to take the word and flip it into something positive and joyful rather than a term used as an insult or threat,” the duo said. A perfect pick for Pride Month.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
7. Wet Leg: “Catch These Fists”
This British indie-rock group skyrocketed to fame in 2021 off the success of its bawdy single “Chaise Longue,” which is delivered with scary-cool deadpan confidence. This new track off the band’s soon-to-be-released second album, “Moisturizer,” captures that mood with “bristling bass and guitar riffs and a beat that stomps its way into the chorus,” as our chief pop music critic Jon Pareles put it. Its combative twist gives me that adrenaline I.V. I need to push up a hill or keep my energy up for a late-night bonfire. “You should be careful, do you catch my drift?” the lead singer Rhian Teasdale taunts. “’Cause what I really wanna know is can you catch these fists?”
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
8. Lady Gaga: “Shadow of a Man”
While the consensus seems to be that “Abracadabra” is the crown jewel on Lady Gaga’s latest album, “Mayhem” (I’m not disagreeing!), it’s this swagger-drenched electro-pop bop that I haven’t been able to shake for even a minute. With its Michael Jackson-esque drip, sonic energy and feverish peaks, I almost spun into the fire pit dancing to it under the last full moon — so beware the “little monster” in you and I’ll do the same.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
9. Billie Eilish: “Lost Cause”
No song could have saved me from the toxic relationships of my youth like this might have. Oh well! I can live vicariously now. From Billie Eilish’s second album, “Happier Than Ever,” this song about finally seeing an ex as the flop they’ve always been is breezy yet smoldering, jazzy yet modern and, best of all, studded with savage digs like, “Thought you would’ve grown eventually, but you proved me wrong.” Play it as soon as the sun has fully dipped and the darkness is expanding to cultivate a sultry and cheeky vibe.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
10. Erykah Badu: “On & On”
I have without question listened to this lead single from “Baduizm,” Badu’s debut studio album, at least once a week since the LP was released in 1997. The track — with its languorous sound, rolling beat and sage and self-possessed lyrics — has become a sort of totem I use to remind myself to breathe amid the relentless troubles of the world. “I think I need a cup of tea, the world keeps burning,” Badu tells us. “Oh what a day, what a day, what a day.” Also a good reminder that the comings and goings of the seasons can be acknowledged with a sort of serene acceptance and tranquil detachment, which is about as good a way to describe nature-bathing as anything else.
Listen on Spotify, Apple Music or YouTube
The Amplifier Playlist
“Touch Grass With an Unexpected 10-Song Nature-Bathing Playlist” track list
Track 1: Kari Faux, “Supplier”
Track 2: Remi Wolf, “Cinderella”
Track 3: Doechii, “Boiled Peanuts”
Track 4: Doja Cat, “Paint the Town Red”
Track 5: Jessie Ware, “Begin Again”
Track 6: Sofi Tukker, “Jacaré”
Track 7: Wet Leg, “Catch These Fists”
Track 8: Lady Gaga, “Shadow of a Man”
Track 9: Billie Eilish, “Lost Cause”
Track 10: Erykah Badu, “On & On”
Maya Salam is an editor and reporter, focusing primarily on pop culture across genres.
The post Touch Grass With an Unexpected 10-Song Nature-Bathing Playlist appeared first on New York Times.
