Traffic Jams: Sofi Tukker – ‘Summer in New York’

Ah, summer. The promise of days out on the town and nights spent dancing until the sun comes back up, not a care in the world beyond the festivities of right now. We could all use a little bit of that energy right now, and Sofi Tukker is here to help.

SOFI TUKKER – Summer In New York (Official Lyric Video) [Ultra Records]

“Summer in New York” is a play-by-play retelling of a hypothetical summer day in New York City, Greatest City In The World, Let’s Go Mets Baby Love Da Mets. The locations, the encounters, all seem real and possible when told in Sophie Hawley-Weld’s voice.

The song does, however, have an interesting twist to it: It samples Suzanne Vega’s “Tom’s Diner,” a song that I cannot escape. It, most specifically the Giorgio Moroder version featuring Britney Spears, has haunted me since my college years like an undying, unfaltering specter. The sample’s presence here serves as a grim reminder that I will never escape that diner, that man who pours the coffee. It doesn’t make “Summer in New York” any less fun, though.