#365songs (202 / 365)

It was all hot and gross on July 21, 2026 in Seattle, one of our infrequent late-summer runs of hot days where it doesn't cool down enough overnight for you to get a reset and so you start the day at a disadvantage from the heat. Because the Pacific Northwest is usually so temperate, even in 2026, we don't have AC, not even a window unit. So we just have to hunker down and deal with it.

I have some specific albums for days like these. One of them is R.E.M.'s Reveal, which while it's certainly generally regarded as a lesser R.E.M. album — bottom 5 of 15 in pretty much any ranking you'll find out there — I have a soft spot for because it was their first new album after I rediscovered them with 1998's weird and also often-underrated Up. From its release date in May to the generally easygoing and poppy sound to the bright and overexposed album cover to song titles like "Summer Turns to High" and "Beachball," it seems intended to be a summer album and that's certainly the association I have with it.

"Saturn Return" is one of Reveal's weirdest and darkest songs, and it was and remains one of my favorites. The studio manipulation is pretty thick on this one but it's still a gorgeous song with one of Reveal's most daring melodies, and despite the murkiness of the production it still feels very summery to me; it's just a sweltering summer night where it's still in the upper 80s even at 10:30pm when the sun has completely set. Something lethargic about that staticky processed percussion. Something about that swampily atonal guitar that cuts in and out. The baffling but somehow compelling sample of a sports coach's whistle starts to feel reminiscent of crickets. I could give a fuck about astrology and don't know what a Saturn return has to do with the lyrics here, which I also don't understand at all, but this is a song that's all about the atmosphere for me, especially when it's 1pm and I'm bracing for the hottest part of an already-hot day.