{"id":229,"date":"2025-11-19T22:56:58","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T22:56:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.sccs.swarthmore.edu\/orpheusreview\/?p=229"},"modified":"2025-11-19T22:57:32","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T22:57:32","slug":"staff-playlist-songs-about-cities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.sccs.swarthmore.edu\/orpheusreview\/2025\/11\/19\/staff-playlist-songs-about-cities\/","title":{"rendered":"Staff Playlist: Songs about Cities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This week, the Orpheus Review staff got together and collected some of our favorite songs about cities. Some are about our hometowns, others about places we have never been before. Maybe it\u2019s time for an Orpheus field trip\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-spotify wp-block-embed-spotify\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Spotify Embed: Staff Playlist: Songs about Cities\" style=\"border-radius: 12px\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/playlist\/3cGvh9hVu8rogWswEJHfRb?si=b6trGHkVR0Se7WFndpe9uQ&#038;utm_source=oembed\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-text-annotation is-style-text-annotation--1 wp-block-paragraph\">Neria<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cGlasgow\u201d by Jockstrap<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">This is a huge song for me\u2026a great song about getting over a crush, and also about Glasgow, which is famously a city.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAthens, France\u201d by Black Country, New Road&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Wow, I\u2019m going hard with these Windmill selections. While this song is not about a real city, per se, the song does mention Paris in its first minute. There is also a shoutout to a \u201crural American town,\u201d so that&#8217;s two potential cities mentioned.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cZ\u00fcrich Is Stained\u201d by Pavement<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Another great song about breaking up and falling out of love. Z\u00fcrich, which is now stained according to Stephen Malkmus, is a city in Switzerland.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-text-annotation is-style-text-annotation--2 wp-block-paragraph\">Avery<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI Left My Heart In San Francisco\u201d by Lisa Ono<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">I like Tony Bennet\u2019s original ballad-adjacent serenade to the city. Lisa Ono\u2019s Brazilian roots give the song a new life and a fun bossa-nova flair that places the listener into San Francisco on a sunny day, absent of gloom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cSeattle Afternoon\u201d by Reilly &amp; Maloney<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">I first saw Reilly and Maloney with my Great Grandma and family at the Marina close to my house in Northwest Washington. We sat on the deck of the port\u2019s Italian restaurant and watched the endearing duo sing a variety of happy folk songs. Suffice to say, it was a very, albeit sunny, <em>Seattle Afternoon<\/em>, beautifully painted by Ginny Reilly\u2019s soaring Soprano voice. When I listen to this song it is a capsule of that moment\u2013for me the song is imbued with a warmth that is home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-text-annotation is-style-text-annotation--3 wp-block-paragraph\">Melissa<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cSanta Fe\u201d by Beirut<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Why have just the song title be a city when the band name can be as well? Not only is this song incredibly on theme, but it is also incredibly catchy. The way it builds layer after layer only to strip them all back down to just the drums at the very end\u2026 \u201csign me up, Santa Fe\u201d is right!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWichita Lineman\u201d by Glen Campbell<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">If we were doing a \u201cmost romantic songs of all time\u201d playlist, this one would be top of that list too. Though I have never worked on telephone poles in the great plains, I can only imagine that the way the violins soar and whine throughout this song is how it feels to be up there all by yourself, missing your lady.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe District Sleeps Alone Tonight\u201d by The Postal Service<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Nothing makes me more homesick than this song. \u201cDC sleeps alone tonight\u2026 because Melissa is at Swarthmore\u201d was actually the rest of the lyric but they cut it because Ben Gibbard couldn\u2019t get through it without crying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-text-annotation is-style-text-annotation--4 wp-block-paragraph\">Zephyr<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Brooklyn Hip-Hop<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Fun fact: though Brooklyn is just a lowly borough nowadays, it was a city of its very own until the consolidation of Greater New York in 1898. Another fun fact: entire staff playlists could be made up exclusively of hip-hop songs that reference locations in Brooklyn, or even of hip-hop songs that are entirely devoted to the discussion of Brooklyn, or even of hip-hop songs that are named after Brooklyn. With that in mind, here are some of the Brooklynest Brooklyn hip-hop songs of the past five decades: No Sleep Till Brooklyn (1980s), Brooklyn Zoo (1990s), Brooklyn (2000s), Brooklyn\u2019s Own (2010s), Brooklyn Chop House (2020s).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cEnglishman in New York\u201d by Sting<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cEnglishman in New York\u201d is Sting doing what Sting does best: barking out melancholy lyrics over a bassline so effortless and buoyant that you don\u2019t realize how bummed out he is even when you (inevitably) start singing along. Also, if you haven\u2019t heard Shinehead\u2019s reggae adaptation of the song, \u201cJamaican in New York,\u201d do yourself a favor and give it a listen. Not to be out-cooled, Sting later teamed up with Jamaican national hero Shaggy to perform his own reggae-fied version of the piece for an NPR Tiny Desk concert. Seriously. Check it out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAll the Critics Love U In New York\u201d by Prince<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">I may be a humble collegiate music magazine contributor, but I mean it with all my heart when I say that this amateur critic loves u, Prince. The song is a satirical takedown of the New York arts scene of the early 1980s, which Prince accused of being subject to the whims of capricious, superficial posers. Prince fails to make the \u2018Scene\u2019 sound unappealing though, for the simple reason that the minute Prince sings about anything, it becomes impossibly, unattainably dope.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-text-annotation is-style-text-annotation--5 wp-block-paragraph\">Maddy<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cPulaski at Night\u201d by Andrew Bird<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">As far as cities go, Chicago is a place I have never actually visited. Yet now that I\u2019ve heard this song, I can say that I love this city at least a little bit. Built around the sentence \u201cI want to see Pulaski at night,\u201d which Bird overheard a visiting student from Thailand telling their friend, the song is a tribute to the bittersweetness of the city, a not uncomplicated love story to Bird\u2019s hometown. With the help of melodic violin and bass, the tune creates a sophisticated and dynamic accompaniment to the sparse yet powerful lyrics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cLos Angeles\u201d by Big Thief<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">A place I have visited, Los Angeles is one hour removed from being my hometown. Yet it&#8217;s not my attachment to the place that lights up the song for me. The city is the backdrop for a deep kind of friendship and love that Adrienne Lenker sings about in this song, a relationship clearly deserving of the kind of joy that the song\u2019s opening ushers in with laughs. She might not live in LA, but she gets it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cNew York\u201d by St. Vincent<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">As a city that is diametrically opposed to LA and yet only slightly less relevant, New York is proudly the object of many songs. Yet in this song, the city shares the spotlight with an anonymous and somberly missed individual, whom \u201cNew York isn\u2019t New York without.\u201d Still, St. Vincent would \u201cdo it all again,\u201d just as you should listen to this song \u2013 again and again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-text-annotation is-style-text-annotation--6 wp-block-paragraph\">Dani<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cPhiladelphia\u201d by Good Night &amp; Good Morning<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Wow! We kinda live there. A song that feels like catching the last SEPTA train home. It has that Philly tenderness, Brotherly Love, tenderness hidden under chipped paint. The kind you only notice when you pretend you\u2019re in a movie staring out the window of the train, realizing you don\u2019t feel as alone as you felt an hour ago.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cSan Francisco\u201d by I Hate Sex<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">San Francisco is a city. Also, the title of this song. I used to listen to this one on repeat in middle school, pretending I understood every messy emotion in it. Now, it just reminds me how dramatic I was back when I would blast it in my room and feel so angsty. It still hits, just in a funnier, more self-aware way.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHeaven or Las Vegas\u201d by Cocteau Twins<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHi I\u2019m Dani, I use she\/her pronouns, and I\u2019m from Las Vegas.\u201d &#8211; my intro obv<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">I listen to this to feel like I\u2019m home. Not the Strip version of Vegas, but the slow desert mornings and the quiet neighborhoods where the sky feels too big. This song and I are a bad combination when I\u2019m too homesick.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-text-annotation is-style-text-annotation--7 wp-block-paragraph\">Oona<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe City\u201d by Jockstrap&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-text-annotation is-style-text-annotation--8 wp-block-paragraph\">Darius<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cDallas\u201d by Silver Jews&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019ve never been to Dallas but the lyrics evoke such a sinister pynchonian suburbia that I find engrossing. My favorite lyric in the song sums it up best:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;\u201cOnce you taste the geometry of a church in a cul-de-sac\/you&#8217;re gonna wanna sit with the bad kids in the back\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cPortland\u201d by The Replacements&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Admittedly if I hadn\u2019t been searching for city themed songs, this would not have been a song I would actively choose to listen to. Regardless, I\u2019m so happy I did because now I\u2019m obsessed!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cNight Lights\u201d by Gerry Mulligan Sextet&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cNight Lights\u201d is an instrumental jazz song about no city in particular. Either way, it\u2019s the song I picture myself listening to as I walk late at night down some rainy city avenue. The album cover basically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-text-annotation is-style-text-annotation--9 wp-block-paragraph\">Hope<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cLosing Touch (NYC)\u201d by thanks for coming<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">This instant classic is from indie rock god Rachel Brown. Although their solo career, under name thanks for coming, is sometimes upstaged by their very popular awesome duo Water From Your Eyes with Nate Amos, thanks for coming has much to offer. This song leans more traditional singer-songwriter, but it is certainly equally as head-boppable as any WFYE song.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cDream of San Pedro\u201d by Dos<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">A duet of two basses, just singing to each other. Perhaps one of the most beautiful songs ever made. The tune is made even better when you learn Dos is a project featuring Mike Watt of the Minutemen and Kira Roessler, a former Black Flag bassist. This song, on their third album <em>justamente tres<\/em>, was recorded shortly after their divorce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City\u201d by Harry Nilsson<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">I listen to this every time I go to New York; the perfect song for returning home.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-text-annotation is-style-text-annotation--10 wp-block-paragraph\">Isaac<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cJust Outside of Austin\u201d by Lukas Nelson<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">A song that does a wonderful job capturing the essence of Austin. Written by the son of outlaw country legend WILLIE NELSON!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cTerlingua Sky\u201d by Gary P. Nunn<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">For those unfortunate enough to have never spent a night in Terlingua, eating three-bean chili beneath the West Texas stars, this song will give you a glimpse of what you\u2019re missing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week, the Orpheus Review staff got together and collected some of our favorite songs about cities. Some are about our hometowns, others about places we have never been before. Maybe it\u2019s time for an Orpheus field trip\u2026 Neria \u201cGlasgow\u201d by Jockstrap This is a huge song for me\u2026a great song about getting over a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_crdt_document":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[30],"class_list":["post-229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-playlist","tag-staff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.sccs.swarthmore.edu\/orpheusreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.sccs.swarthmore.edu\/orpheusreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.sccs.swarthmore.edu\/orpheusreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.sccs.swarthmore.edu\/orpheusreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.sccs.swarthmore.edu\/orpheusreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.sccs.swarthmore.edu\/orpheusreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":231,"href":"https:\/\/sites.sccs.swarthmore.edu\/orpheusreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229\/revisions\/231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.sccs.swarthmore.edu\/orpheusreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.sccs.swarthmore.edu\/orpheusreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.sccs.swarthmore.edu\/orpheusreview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}