Melissa Kacar

"One Kiss" was one of Dua Lipa 's first major worldwide hits, coming out shortly after her debut self-titled album was released in 2017. She now has several other massive hits, but it's so cool to be able to look back at this as an early foreshadowing of the superstar she would become in the following years. This song is in collaboration with Calvin Harris , who really dominated the dance pop market throughout the 2010's. This may be one of the best he has ever released. Dua and Calvin first met in 2015, soon after her first single "Be The One" was released. They didn't work together until two years later when he discovered a half-written song he had been working on that he thought Dua would sound great on. They recorded and finished writing the song together at his studio in Los Angeles while Dua was on her first US tour - and the rest is history!  This song topped the charts all of summer 2018 in the UK, spending eight weeks at number 1, the longe...

Tough" // Lana Del Rey & Quavo Lana Del Rey and Quavo teamed up for "Tough", a dreamy Americana summer anthem released right before the Fourth of July. It reminds me of something that could have been included on one of my all-time favorite albums by Lana,  Lust For Life , which is a sound I love to hear her channeling again. I also love the resilient message of the lyrics and the varied influences they draw from in this song. Their voices unexpectedly blend so well together and they truly make a great pair on this song. It's one of my favorite songs of the entire year so far, I love it so much and hope that we get more new music from Lana soon! "Juna" // Clairo I absolutely love every single song on Clairo 's latest release,  Charm , it flows together so beautifully into such a calming and transcending listening experience. "Juna" is definitely a highlight for me, it is such a sweet and simple jazzy song that feels like it could have been...

hot summer nights, mid july is a curated playlist centered around some of the songs that really capture the heat of the summer for me.  The title and the theme is inspired from a lyric by Lana Del Rey 's classic "Young And Beautiful" - which is such a gorgeous song in every regard. Since that song was originally released as a part of  The Great Gatsby  film soundtrack, I was inspired by a lot of the aesthetics and themes of both the original book and the 2013 film. Many of these tracks sound very grand to me, with hints of melancholy and introspection in the lyrics. I was also very inspired by another Lana classic "Summertime Sadness", which fittingly goes well with this theme and one that I took a lot of inspiration from while curating this playlist.  hot summer nights, mid july also really embodies a lot of the same themes of Melodrama by Lorde too - from the holy sick divine nights, to all of the glamour and the trauma and the fucking melodrama. I also rece...

I'll take you out of the city, right into the shadow 🍅 I recently had the best time seeing one of my favorite bands, Bleachers , live in Jack Antonoff 's home state of New Jersey ! This year marked the sixth Shadow of the City event, which is always held at The Stone Pony's Summer Stage in Asbury Park, NJ. I grew up going to Asbury Park with my family and have seen a couple of shows inside the legendary venue, but I have never seen a show outside at their bigger Summer Stage. I have also never been to a festival like this before, so it was very exciting that this was my first!  Shadow of the City is a festival founded by Jack Antonoff and is usually held just about every other year or so. His band, Bleachers , is always the headliner but there were also several other amazing artists that played throughout the day too. When the event was announced, it was just Bleachers on the lineup, with the rest of the artists being announced much later. Some of the artists that were ev...