I'M CALLING IT: THE SONG OF THE SUMMER IS THE INSTRUMENTAL FOR THE TAME IMPALA / JENNIE SONG "DRACULA"

2026, we're all just here doing our best. Different countries are playing soccer. Basketball just wrapped up with great results for the Knicks. Madonna put out an amazing album, she should be very proud of herself. Meanwhile me, my finger ever on the pulse, my consciousness mind-melding with mass consciousness until I can see all trends as lines of neon green code like the freakin Matrix....I have a song of the summer for you...

....and it's, yes, the "Dracula" remix by Tame Impala feat. JENNIE....

BUT WAIT

....just the instrumental.

hear me out...

"Dracula" came out in September of 2025. The remix came out in February of this year. Somebody told me you had a boyfriend who looked like a girlfriend that I had in February of last year. The song didn't start catching buzz for a month or so, then on the strength of TikTok (naturally) it started climbing the charts and peaked at number 10 on the Hot 100 (Kevin "Tame Impala" Parker's first top ten hit, congratulations Kevin). Now if you listen to any iHeartRadio pop station, you will hear the "Dracula" remix about once an hour.

And the version with words is...uhh...it's fine! It's fine. Do I feel like the concept is a little goofy, lyrically? Yes, I do. The song's protagonist, the "speaker" if you are willing to get a little poetic-analysis with it, is a man who lives for the nightlife. He's out in the club, hopping from hot spot to hot spot, partying it up and also seeking out a Draculette to share his life with. He has eyes on one lady in particular but he can't quite land her. "In the end I hope it's you and me / In the darkness I would never leave," he sings with JENNIE. He yearns; he pines.

But something's stopping him from seeing her...and oh no, the sun is about to come up! Run from the sunlight, Dracula! Is this girl a daywalker, a morning girl who likes matcha and yoga and walking her French bulldog, and they are misaligned in their basic personalities? Or is she a fellow nightstalker, and they just cannot get it together and figure out how to end up at the same discotheque? It is unclear. I think Dracula should just text her, or get her number if he doesn't have it yet, and then text her.

(I misheard the lyrics for a while at first, I thought he was singing Run from the sun, like Dracula. Keeping things in the realm of simile, the way he first introduced the Dracula concept ("daylight makes me feel like Dracula"). But with the chorus, Dracula has become REAL. A real guy. Who is in danger.)

Whatever. The song is juuuust dumb enough to work, particularly if you listen to it once an hour every day for a month straight. And the bone-dry JENNIE line "Hey Kevin, what's up?" that happens when the beat drops out is perfect. But I want you to listen to the instrumental. Here it is:

This song sounds like Kevin was in the studio and someone was like "Hey Kevin, what's up? What do you want this song to sound like?" and he said "Yes." It's maximalist as hell but also so damn smooth. I kind of can't believe they found a topline for this song, there's just so much going on. Little Taco Bell dings, the sinister organ, miniature watery blorps, funk guitar, disco piano, Tom Tom Club bwamp bwamps, and best of all, that jaunty rising melody in the chorus that reminds me of rap songs with music videos set on boats. Don't get mad at me but I think this music shares a lineage with Quincy Jones in the '80s (shades of "Thriller," of course, monsters and ghouls and zombies with no conscience) and Pharrell in the '00s.

Divorced of its muddled vampire premise, the song soars. You could play this in a car, on the beach, really anywhere. It has the zest of something you'd hear on Poolsuite, and I think it would make people dance if you played it in a dancing context. It's a perfect song. It's the song of the summer. And ironically it sounds great in the sunlight. Don't run from it, Dracula. Let it wash over you. Let it burn your sensitive vampire skin.

Do you have a different concept for the song of the summer 2026? Tell me. I'm willing to entertain other opinions (no QUIBBLING though...god I hate quibbling).

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