By Bethany Banks, Third Year, English
This summer, I chose not to stay at home, but to spend the season in Bristol, anticipating a long few months of sunny weather, late nights spent in the pub with my friends, and lazy days off tanning in the city’s lush green parks. This playlist serves as a reflection of my time living, working and experiencing what Bristol has to offer when the academic year is over.
Featuring mostly hits released this year, but also a couple of songs that are a little more nostalgic and personal, these tracks will forever remind me of summer 2025 and carry me into the upcoming academic year.
SONG: ‘Let Me Live In Your City - Work In Progress’ (1973) - Paul Simon
If I wanted to be able to stay in Bristol over summer, the first agenda was to find a job to fill and fund the days. I managed to find myself a job at an independent cafe local to me, making builders their breakfast baguettes and cups of tea, and office workers their lunch-break sandwiches and coffee. In order to be able to serve the builders before their day of work ahead, a pretty early opening time is needed, which is a shift I often do.
Nothing reminds me more of that early morning walk to work than ‘Let Me Live In Your City’, a Paul Simon track I first heard when watching the latest series of The Bear (2025) (another smash-hit of this summer). Already a huge Paul Simon fan, I was overjoyed to discover more beautiful lyrics identifying with living and loving in a place away from home, from a voice that has always been so special to me.
Complete with a lilting guitar melody and the transcendent tones of Simon, ‘Let Me Live In Your City’ is the perfect song to unwind to after a hectic shift, or have a quiet moment with on an early journey to work. I listened to this song most days this summer, comforted by it in my headphones on my 6am walk to the cafe, helping me appreciate the dusky peace of the city at this time.
SONG: ‘Headphones On’ (2025) - Addison Rae
After the release of her hit single ‘Diet Pepsi’ last year that led up to her debut album Addison this year, it is clear that summer 2025 was the summer of Addison Rae. TikTok dancer turned dance-pop It girl, Rae oozes cool-girl charm with her pop-princess persona, and I can’t help but sing along.
Whilst I have enjoyed every step of the Addison Rae-naissance so far, a standout track to me is ‘Headphones On’, a song in which Rae’s sultry-sweet voice conveys the joys of shutting out the anxieties of the world and disappearing into the music you love, over an invigorating beat with lush instrumentals.
I spent this summer, as I’m sure many of us did, singing the chorus of this song as it remained wedged in my brain. I blasted it at top volume in my room whilst putting on makeup, I belted it with my girlfriends as we got excited for the night ahead, and hummed it continuously into the ear of my long-suffering boyfriend.
If anyone caught a live Addison Rae performance this summer, I will be eternally jealous, and I cannot wait to see what she does next.
SONG: ‘Love Takes Miles’ (2024) - Cameron Winter
Whilst his critically acclaimed debut Heavy Metal came out in December of 2024, the summer of 2025 was when I really delved into the music of Cameron Winter. Thanks to an enthusiastic recommendation from my brother, whose opinion I hold in the highest regard when it comes to anything music related, I listened to Heavy Metal from start to finish. I was struck most by Winter’s intriguing, awe inspiring voice, which seems to be the stand-out instrument on this album.
This summer, Winter’s warbling vocals lingered the longest in my head from the track ‘Love Takes Miles’, a standout on the album that somehow shouldn’t be catchy, but really, really is.
‘Love Takes Miles’ reminds me of some of my favourite people in Bristol, and leaves me feeling slightly mournful when thinking of my final year of study to come, after recalling the seemingly endless summer gone by.
SONG: ‘The Field (featuring The Durutti Column, Tariq Al-Sabir, Caroline Polacheck)’ (2025) - Blood Orange
In typical Bristol student fashion, I was eagerly awaiting the Blood Orange album release this summer, and was not left disappointed. The music of Blood Orange has remained a constant for me from secondary school up to present day. Dev Hynes’ production has the ability to transform any gloomy afternoon into feeling like the start of an alluring summer night.
‘The Field’ is no exception, even the song’s name invoking a revered pastime of British summertime. I, as I’m sure is the same for many of you, have spent a hefty chunk of my summers wasting away the hours lazing around in fields with my friends, and this song perfectly encapsulates that nostalgic, sunny feeling.
ALBUM: Decius Vol. II (Splendour & Obedience) (2025) - Decius
Whilst this album was released at the start of the year, no other tunes have remained more constantly in my 2025 rotation than this offering from acid-house supergroup Decius. Pulsing techno beats are made even more addictive by the swaggering, ghostly vocals of Lias Saoudi (frontman of Fat White Family, a band definitely worth checking out if this album proves to be your thing). With provocative lyrics and an electronic sound that draws from house, techno and disco, Decius Vol. II feels like pure hedonism packed into a 52 minute album run time.
Others may disagree, but I have found this album to be perfect for any uni occasion. Decius Vol. II has provided the soundtrack for mammoth essay writing sessions in the library, pumped me up before nights out on the triangle, and given me the energy for my lectures the next day.
This album was a staple in my headphones during the latter half of my second year and summer 2025, and I’m sure it will remain there going into my third year.
Featured Image: Sophie ScannellWhat did you have on repeat this summer?
