Long steamy summer nights filled with relentless possibility, occasional bonfires, and teasing cool breezes are essential when things heat up in the city. Hand Habits, who recently played our SXSW showcase on the heels of excellent debut album Wildly Idle (Before The Void), contributed to a necessary accompanying soundtrack with their new single. “Spell Song” mimics a lazy river with refreshing, wholesome acoustic guitar and lackadaisical guitar slides topped off by Meg Duffy’s light and unhurried vocals. The track is part of Amazon’s forthcoming Songs Of Summer playlist, which features 10 new recordings including EMA doing Brenda Lee’s “The Crying Game” and Foxygen covering Jessica Pratt.

Duffy explained to us how Hand Habits managed to capture summer vibes on their latest track:

“Spell Song” is the humidity in humanness that summer brings. it came from the thick, heat weight of nothingness. Recorded in east LA with Ged Gengras, listen closely for parrots, dog tags jingling, the ice cream truck’s warble. starting and stopping, like we do when seasons remind us of where we are at and where we were. A looseness. Like linens getting drenched in a mid-June downpour, the song felt like welcoming the unexpected and noticing the expectations.

Listen to “Spell Song” below.

Songs Of Summer is out 6/23 via Amazon. Check out the full tracklist here.