Scary Bradshaw Presents.... The Ferragosto Playlist

This week we celebrate Ferragosto in Italy. Technically 15th August is the Feast of the Assumption but for most non believers, it is the public holiday which marks the high summer point when EVERYTHING in Italy is shut because EVERYONE is at the beach. If you've never been to Italy during August you can get a very good idea of what Ferragosto is like from Gianni di Gregorio's delightful 2008 film, Pranzo di ferragoso (Mid-August Lunch) in which a debt ridden bachelor gets burdened with entertaining everybody's mother because…everyone else is at the beach. In keeping with tradition, here in Civitavecchia we will have a firework display and a water shortage.

While the weather is still fine and hot for a long time after Ferragosto, the holiday does have a slight whiff of U.S. Labor Day or the U.K. August Bank Holiday about it - the last big blow out before the feeling that 'the best of the summer is over and that it's all down hill from here' takes over. Time then for another playlist, but unlike my Old School Disco post from a few weeks back, the biggest summer holiday in Italy calls for a more reflective clutch of tunes. You will not find a derivative Calvin Harris "anthem" that turns the titular season into a club head mantra here but instead songs that are more appropriate for the dog days brooding over missed opportunities and a sense of time passing.

So here's my alternative summer playlist for wistful sunset watching or crying into your mojito.

1. August & September - Elbow

Recorded as part of a Q magazine covermount compilation in 2006, this is one of the rare occasions where the cover surpasses the original. The bleak world view of Matt Johnson's (The The) dissection of a break up is rendered quite disarmingly beautiful by the plaintive piano arrangement and Guy Garvey's understated vocal.

2. Summer Skin - Death Cab For Cutie

From the album Plans, this is another languid piano led piece of indie angst perfect for wallowing on your sun lounger in the heat. Childhood summer memories of "squeaky swings and tall grass" preface a story of a summer romance that comes to an end when "we peeled the freckles from our shoulders". 

3. The Boys of Summer - Don Henley

The sunny California rock of The Eagles may have sountracked many a beach party and barbecue over the last 40 years but the solo career of their former frontman embraces the chill of oncoming colder times, no more so on this track where nostalgia is the last refuge for those who have grown up and sold out.

4. Branch Line Summers Fade/See Britain By Train - July Skies.

I could fill the whole playlist with the pastoral ambience of the album, The Weather Clock by July Skies, an album which effortlessly evokes the hazy light, changeable skies and green fields of a British summer.

5. Berserk Warriors - Mental As Anything

Maybe it's just the surf guitars in the intro but no other song takes me back to the summers of my antipodean childhood quite like this 1981 single from the album Cats and Dogs. I'm not the only one it would seem as Berserk Warriors is now a  soundtrack staple to any Australian film set in the 80's (check out brooding crime flick, Animal Kingdom for starters). Not bad for a novelty song about the break up of the two couples in ABBA. "Those vikings love to fight and play" indeed they do.

Tune in this Tuesday to Pausa Caffè on Radio Stella Città 101.2 FM at 11:30am (CET) when we will be discussing and listening to the Ferragosto Playlist. Listen on line here. What do you think of our picks? Let us know by posting on the Radio Stella Facebook page.

Going Further:
If lying on the beach doesn't appeal, you could always spend 15th August on the sofa watching these two excellent films.