I'm writing this in October but LA’s been experiencing an intense record-breaking heat wave this week. To keep things cool, I created my third J-pop summer playlist, "Endless Summer Vol. 3”. It includes thirteen songs that would make the perfect playlist as you walk along the boardwalk of Redondo Beach. I also made a custom cover art for this mix and I'm sharing my process below.
This mix consists of chill R&B and upbeat pop songs that are great to listen to while walking along the beach. These are songs that I discovered throughout the summer on Spotify and have been listening to on repeat. These songs deserve to be heard by more people outside of Japan, and a lot of them have English verses too so I hope you like it!
FEATURED SONGS
太陽になれたら — Furui Riho
花火ポトリ — susumu.
夜的平成浪漫 — First Love is Never Returned
オモイオモワレ — XinU
アイスコーヒー — VIDA Hollywood
L.O.L — Blue Vintage
All In (feat. Sincere) — LodiLodi, Sincere
忘れられないの — sakanaction
Good Bye Boogie Dance — Anri
Your Song — Offo tokyo
You (feat. UMI) — Fujii Kaze, UMI
独り言 — Asagaya Romantics
End roll — yama
STORY BEHIND THE COVER ART
The artwork was inspired by the day we hosted our beach-side baby shower for our friends and family in September. It was a beautiful day with blue skies and crystal clear water.
It was a long day of hosting our friends and eating pizza under the sun. After we wrapped up the event, my sister, husband and I stripped down to our bathing suits, jumped into the refreshing water, and splashed around like little kids. It was the highlight of my day.
I drew my design on my ipad using Adobe Fresco and followed a similar layout to my ENDLESS SUMMER: J-Pop Summer Hits Vol. 2 cover art. I had a lot of fun incorporating real life objects into my artwork.
Finally I mocked up my illustration with a vinyl record to give it some extra flair. I'm pretty happy with the final results!
Hope you like this playlist and if you'd like to save it or share it, use this link!
And if you have other song recommendations, please send them my way!
Cheers,
Chie