One more before summer ends — Red Velvet's 'Surfin' Boy'

Summer songs mostly belong to daylight. There is sun, there is water, and the volume is high. But play a summer song on a summer night and it sounds a little different. It becomes like looking back in the dark at something that happened in the light.

The song Red Velvet released on August 3 is a summer track worth hearing that way.

A summer album that arrives in August

The album is called 'Velvet Summer'. It is a summer mini album, out August 3 at 6 p.m.

Item	Detail
Album	Summer mini album 'Velvet Summer'
Release	August 3, 6 p.m.
Title track	'Surfin' Boy'
Tracks include	'Hot Girls Cold Vibe', 'Orchestra'

A summer album arriving in August is on the late side. Seasonal songs usually cluster between late June and early July.

Coming out later does carry the advantage of not colliding with the earlier summer releases. It steps into the space left after the early-July songs have gone around once. A quieter stretch, chosen on purpose.

But an August release also means passing through the tail of the season with it. The album is at its peak just as the weather begins to turn. That gives the songs a slightly different feeling. Not summer at its centre, but summer on its way out.

Someone riding a wave

The title track is named for a person riding a wave.

Surfing is not a sport about beating the wave. You wait for one to come, then stand on it for a moment. You cannot stop what is rolling in; how long you stay upright on it is the whole thing.

Summer has something of that too. You cannot keep it from arriving, and you cannot hold it back from leaving. Only the time spent standing on it is ours.

Turning a season into an album

This group has released several albums with a season in the name. Putting the word summer in a title is also a way of saying the season will be used as their own.

Seasonal albums come with an expiry date. A few months on, they feel awkward to play. That isn't purely a drawback. A song with an expiry runs at high density while it lasts, because it has to be now.

So a summer album is best heard through in summer. Take it out in autumn and the same songs sound different.

Tonight, try it like this

Leave one light on and open the window slightly. A little of the summer night getting in suits this song.

Then bring up one thing that happened this summer. It doesn't have to be remarkable. An afternoon on some hot day is plenty.

August has begun, so the season is about halfway through. You don't have to decide how to spend the rest of it, but it's worth knowing that it's passing. Knowing tends to keep you standing a little longer.

Time spent standing on a wave is short. Even so, that is what we call the person who stands on it: 'Surfin' Boy'.