Every Day Gets Hotter Than The One Before

While, no, not my usal fare at all, I’m starting to really warm to the music of Childish Gambino, a.k.a. Donald Glover

You may remember I ruminated on “This Is America” back in May, when the video for same created something of a media firestorm for its arresting imagery. That was indeed a bold statement, but just last week, Gambino released a new single/video that, while entirely different, is equally nuanced and layered.

At face value, “Feels Like Summer” is a gorgeous, swooning slice of soulful pop, recalling the angelic, world-weary voice of Marvin Gaye in what sounds like a sumptuous, bittersweet ode to the season just past. Cannily released just after Labor Day, the song taps into the wistful, post-summer melancholy that affects us all once all things “back to school” set in. It’s just an amazing, lovely track, full stop.

For the video, Gambino drafted an animator, depicting the singer/rapper/actor strolling through a neighborhood on what looks like a typical summer day, rife with multiple cameos from various famous rappers, singers and public figures, for those of you who care about such things. It spawned a few “can you spot and name them all” threads around social media. If you want to see that playful clip, click here.

I’m not embedding that version here because, in a way, I think it’s misleading … maybe deliberately so. Scratch the lovely, amber surface of “Feels Like Summer” – the song -- and a different narrative emerges entirely. For all its hazy, harmony-laden sweetness, it’s not about summertime at all. It’s about the realities and looming cost of climate change.

Don’t believe me? Check out the lyrics.

You can feel it in the streets
On a day like this, the heat
It feel like summer
I feel like summer
I feel like summer

You can feel it in the streets
On a day like this, the heat
I feel like summer (ey)
She feel like summer
This feel like summer
I feel like summer

Seven billion souls that move around the sun
Rolling faster, faster, not a chance to slow down
Slow down
Men who made machines that want what they decide
Parents tryna tell the children please slow down
Slow down

I know
Oh, I know you know that pain
I'm hopin' that this world will change (Ooo, I hope this world will change)
But it just seems the same (It is not the same)

You can feel it in the streets
On a day like this, the heat
It feel like summer
(I feel like summer)
I feel like summer
(I feel like summer)
I feel like summer

Every day gets hotter than the one before
Running out of water, it's about to go down
Go down
Air that kill the bees that we depend upon
Birds were made for singing, wakin' up to no sound
No sound

I know
Oh, I know you know my pain (woah, no no no)
I'm hopin' that this world will change (This world will change, yeah)
But it just seems the same (woah)

I know
Oh, I hope we change
I really thought this world could change
But it seems like the same

I know
Oh, my mind is still the same
I'm hoping that this world will change
But it just seems the same I know
Oh, I hope we change

Hear it for yourself.