Summer Goth Radio

This playlist originally appeared on Patreon.

Growing up, 60s pop and rock colored my summer vacations. I was an oldies station girlie as a kid — windows down, warm air, something bright and jangling on the radio.

To this day, that decade of music has an almost Pavlovian summery feel to me. Hear the right song and I'm instantly ten years old again, sticky with popsicle and completely unconcerned with anything.

But the last few years, something has shifted. As we enter the brightest months of the year, I find myself drawn to darker sounds. Maybe it's the contrast — all that heat and light outside making the shadowy stuff feel even more like a refuge. Maybe I've just fully committed to the bit. Either way, deep dives into classic goth have become my summer ritual, and I've stopped apologizing for it.

So to celebrate that, I've pulled together 50 tracks from some of the greats — Sisters of Mercy, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Clan of Xymox, Bauhaus, Fields of the Nephilim, and more — into one long, atmospheric playlist made for exactly this time of year.

Call it your gothic summer soundtrack. Call it a mood. Call it whatever you want, just turn it up. 🤘

HOW TO USE THIS PLAYLIST

Working from home or studying: Put it on shuffle and let the atmosphere do the heavy lifting. Sisters of Mercy at a low volume is basically a productivity hack.
Cooking a dinner party spread: Play it in order, start to finish. By the time you hit track 11 — Bauhaus's She's in Parties — something should be simmering nicely.
Solo golden hour in the garden: Start around track 39 with Lycia's The Rain and let it carry you through to the end. Iced drink optional but encouraged.
Driving at night with nowhere urgent to be: Shuffle the Sisters of Mercy tracks specifically and just go. Windows down. No destination required.
Rainy Saturday, blanket, no obligations: Start at the beginning and don't stop. You want Flood I, you want Cascade, you want the full experience. This is what the playlist was built for.