The Storm May 27, 2026 music
Cruel Summer (versions)
Fifth entry in the music-that-helps series — Bananarama's "Cruel Summer" (1983). A lonely-but-moving song: the lyric names left-behind isolation, the production is dance-pop drive. The contradiction is the engine — you are alone and you are moving anyway. Particularly fitting for late May in Houston, going into the summer when the heat amplifies what's already pressing.
Bananarama's "Cruel Summer" (1983) — a lonely-but-moving song. The lyric names left-behind isolation; the production is dance-pop drive. The contradiction is what makes it work for this kind of day: you are alone and you are moving anyway. Loneliness converted into momentum. Particularly fitting for late May in Houston, going into the summer when the heat amplifies what's already pressing.
Original — Bananarama, 1983
UK new wave, synth-pop, sun-bleached production. Re-popularized a year later by The Karate Kid under the underdog-keeps-training montage — a cultural pairing that already loaded the song with "outsider keeps moving" energy. What it offers for a targeted-person day is the trick the production pulls on the lyric: the words name the leave-me-here feeling, the music makes it dance.
Modern cover — Midnight Arena
The same song updated for current ears — keeps the dance-pop architecture, replaces the 1983 production surround with a contemporary one. Useful when the original's synth-horn vintage reads too nostalgic to land in the present. Same lyric, same engine, current frame.
More versions as they come up.
