Turn it up and put the top down with summer songs

Searching for a "song of the summer" can be a silly exercise, and the 2012 seasonal mix that is annotated below doesn't set that as a goal.

Instead, it means to weave together a playlist of 2012 tunes that would sound good played in a car with the top down on a sunny day. The list has its fair share of in-the-news names such as Kanye West, Frank Ocean, and, belieb it or not, Justin Bieber, as well as the proven one-name hitmakers Diplo and Pink

And, yes, right there on top of the list is the song that, as of early July anyway, would have to be the leading candidate, in terms of sheer catchiness, accuracy in depicting teenage courtship awkwardness, and digital-age adaptability.

That would be Carly Rae Jepsen's ubiquitous hit Call Me Maybe, a pop song so malleable that it's the subject of a 43-track cover album available on the Bandcamp website, including an a cappella remix by indie DJ Dan Deacon that layers Jepsen's vocal track 147 times. Go there with caution -- I'll stick with the original.

1. Call Me Maybe, Carly Rae Jepsen: Everybody from the Roots to indie DJ Dan Deacon to President Obama (Google it) has had their way with the 26-year-old Canadian Idol alumni's cannily crafted, super-catchy pure pop hit, which is nearly as good as it is ubiquitous.

2. Blow Me (One Last Kiss), Pink: Would it be summer without an eyebrow-raising assault on the pop charts by Alecia Moore? The auteur behind U + Ur Hand returns with the help of Kelly Clarkson to not-so-subtly tell a sorry chump he's history.

3. All Around the World, Justin Bieber feat. Ludacris: The Canadian boy wonder with the million-dollar coif is a pop-culture space hog. And at 18, he might well be, as Jimmy Kimmel recently quipped, "too old to listen to his own music." This spin around a globe where "people just want to be loved" suggests that Bieber may still be around when he's old enough to not only vote, but also drink.

4. JUSTIN BIEBER!!!!!, Kitty Pryde: "I keep his picture on my home screen (Kitty you need a life) / I'm not kidding when I say I'm gonna be his damn wife." DIY teenage Tumblr rapper Kitty Pryde (real name: Kathryn Beckwith) vows to run over Selena Gomez, twice if need be.

5. Express Yourself, Diplo feat. Nicky Da B: The former Philadelphian DJ-producer (who plays Winnipeg on Wednesday at Shaw Park as part of Skrillex's Full Flex Express tour) is working with Usher (and Bieber), and keeps it underground on this electro-banger.

6. Mercy, Kanye West feat. Big Sean, Pusha T, and 2 Chainz. It's a toss-up between this and West's New God Flow, in which he rhymes "went from most hated to champion god flow?/I guess that's a feeling only me and LeBron know." But that track from the G.O.O.D. Music compilation Cruel Summer, due Aug. 7, isn't available on iTunes. The equally impressive Mercy is.

7. Nathan, Azealia Banks feat. Styles P: Fast-talking New York "212" MC Banks seems set to out-rhyme all competitors should her debut album ever come out. From her Fantasea mixtape, out Wednesday.

8. Night and Day, Hot Chip: English electro-geeks make a round-the-clock move on the dance floor.

9. Thinking About You, Frank Ocean: Pyramids, the 10-minute meisterwerk from this bewitchingly glitchy soul man -- who made almost Anderson Cooper-size headlines last week by coming out -- is too long to fit on this mix. Instead, I'm going with Thinking About You, also from his album Planet Orange, due out July 17.

10. La La (Means I Love You), Market East: Superbly sung cover of the 1968 William Hart-Thom Bell co-written Delfonics classic by the Philadelphia trio Market East. Comes on like a cool breeze on a sweltering afternoon.

-- The Philadelphia Inquirer

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 12, 2012 e7