A bunch of songs that bring in the sunshine to your summer playlist

Summertime is playlist-making time, an opportunity to gather together stadium-packing, festival-headlining superstars with more subtle, worthy-of-discovery music makers in one streamable package annotated here for your listening pleasure.

This 25 song playlist is front-loaded with big names — and has many Philly acts interwoven along the way, from marquee artists like Lil Uzi Vert to relative unknowns like Ron & the Hip Tones — as well as a handful of older songs that have resurfaced in 2023.

It’s not ranked from best to worst, or meant to be a competition to name the “song of the summer.” Rather, it’s arranged in listening sequence, with segues meant to be meaningful, though please feel free to hit shuffle and scramble my best-laid plans.

And to be honest, music is more fun when you don’t know what’s coming. So go ahead and hit shuffle.

Summer is the season of heartbreak in Taylor Swift songs. (Come to think of it, so are winter, spring, and fall.) This isn’t Swift’s biggest hit of the moment (That would be the remix of “Karma” featuring breakout rapper Ice Spice). But this is the most inevitable expression of her cultural dominance, a four-year-old song finally released as a single that shares a title with a 1983 Bananarama song. (Swifties: Compare and take notes.)

Just in time for the “Renaissance” tour’s arrival in Philadelphia on July 12, Beyoncé surprise released this remix with Lamar. Despite the title, the song is not a sociopolitical critique; instead it samples Kilo Ali’s 1990 hit to make its point about Beyoncé’s own irresistibleness. Lamar gives it extra juice.

Nicki Minaj has toyed with her Harajuku Barbie persona before, so it’s only natural she would be found on the star-studded soundtrack of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie movie, due July 21. The song teams Minaj with Ice Spice, who plays Made in America in September. Listen closely for the Bob Dylan reference.

British singer-songwriter Corinne Bailey Rae is best known for her 2006 hit “Put Your Records On.” She’s up to something unexpected with her forthcoming Black Rainbows album, inspired by Chicago installation artist Theaster Gates. This punky intro to the project is a joyous celebration of Audrey Smaltz, who was the first Black woman to be named Miss New York Transit in 1954. Rae plays the TLA Sept. 8.

When artists of close-to-equal stature team up on summer tours these days, they’re expected to share an Instagrammable moment on stage together. Beck and French band Phoenix, whose “Summer Odyssey” tour comes to the Mann Center on Sept. 8, have done one better. They wrote and recorded this synth-happy confection, which shows them both in their best light.

This hypnotic Michael Stipe-sung track was originally included in 1994′s rocked out Monster. It’s here because an alternate version has just been released as a tie-in with the new season of The Bear, the music-infused food lover’s FX series, whose soundtrack also includes Mavis Staples, Wilco, and Fine Young Cannibals.

“Sure Thing” by the Los Angeles R&B synthesist has a history going back to MySpace in 2007. Sixteen years later, thanks to TikTok, it’s now his biggest radio hit to date. Miguel returns to Made in America in September.

The New Orleans bounce queen’s 2014 song “Explode” was sampled on Beyoncé's “Break My Soul.” Her new single teams her with Lil Wayne and NOLA performance artist Boyfriend.

As has proven true in the past, Kendrick’s collaboration with his younger cousin frees the Pulitzer Prize-winning rapper from self seriousness and nudges him to let it rip.

The lead single to The Pink Tape, the long awaited follow-up to the Philly rapper’s 2020 opus Eternal Atake is a high speed, whispery production that’s idiosyncratic and strangely addictive.

Not to be confused with the Goats, the 1990s Philly band ahead of their rap-rock time, Philly Goats are a trio of 215 teen rappers and dancers. They have gone viral on TikTok with high-speed Philly club tracks like this one, which samples Kool & The Gang’s “Get Down On It.”

The lead single from Don’t Look Back, the forthcoming album by Matt Scottoline, front man of Philly foursome Hurry, which is due Aug. 5. It keeps up the band’s pursuit of power-pop perfection. Hurry play PhilaMoca on July 9 and Johnny Brenda’s on Aug. 11.

On her frisky new The Age of Pleasure, Janelle Monae leaves careful sci-fi conceptualism behind for something soft, focused, and sensual; employing Afrobeat, reggae, and R&B to make erotic ends meet. She plays the Met Philly Sept. 18.

Frank Brown, the Philly jangle pop songwriter par excellence, writes winsome, catchy pop tunes. Brown’s trio Flight of Mavis has reunited and his current band, Travel Lanes, are actively gigging. Now out of the vaults comes Buzz Zeemer, the 1990s band that teamed Brown with Tommy Conwell. Lost and Found is due at Main Street Music Records on Sept. 8.

The title track from the 25th album by legendary art-pop duo of Ron and Russell Mael, subjects of Edgar Wright’s revelatory 2021 documentary The Sparks Brothers.

After Taylor Swift, who will play to the most people in South Philly this summer? Beyoncé? Bruce Springsteen? Nope. Luke Combs is playing the Linc twice on July 28 and 29. The North Carolina country singer’s unlikely new hit is a reverent cover of Tracy Chapman’s 1988 folk-rock classic.

Texas-born songwriter Jess Williamson teamed with former Philadelphian Katie Crutchfield of Waxahatchee as Plains. This title track of Williamson’s superb new solo album is a summery romance in which ace short story writer Raymond Carver is name-dropped by the pool.

Nobody would accuse SZA of being sleepy, but here she makes some hypnotic, lulling music while reminding herself to stay in the moment. She headlines Made in America Labor Day weekend, then will be back at the Wells Fargo Center on Sept. 26.

A fully realized foray into psychedelic rock on Atlanta rapper Lil Yachty’s Let’s Start Here, his left turn album with the creepy AI-generated album cover. He’s also playing Made in America.

The new single from Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, of Radiohead, starts off slow and dreamy and builds to something grand. The Smile play Franklin Music Hall July 8.

The Philadelphia progressive doomcore band, named after a character in Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, are back with their wordless ninth album Anthems and Phantoms. The song delivers on its name with controlled abandon. The band plays MilkBoy Philly on Aug. 31.

Tender and playful classic R&B, from Ron Aiken, the South Philly singer who sang with the soul ensemble United Image and funk band Power of Attorney, before putting music aside for four decades.

Longtime Dr. Dog coleader Scott McMicken’s new band makes summer music for sitting by the campfire. “Are you still living down in denial?” he pointedly asks, while holding out an olive branch. “Oh you and me baby gotta reconcile.”

Alabama songwriter Isbell’s tribute to his late brother in arms Justin Townes Earle nods to Townes Van Zandt and Earle’s father, Steve. It delivers its riff rock with taut intensity.

Loving You is the collaborative album between Willie Nelson’s pianist sister Bobbie, who died in 2022, and Shires, the fiddle-playing Texan who is a member of husband Jason Isbell’s band as well as a solo artist and cofounder of the Highwomen. George Gershwin’s “Summertime” includes a guest vocal by Willie, whose Outlaw Music Festival comes to the Mann Center on Aug. 5.