The soundtrack that captures the mood of a fading summer

Songs for a summer ending and a return to routine

September arrives, and with it the return to books, taking down the living-room pool and thinking about the cold when riding a motorbike. That is the mood running through a 51-reply discussion, open for 58 days, in which participants have been leaving the song that betrays their state of mind. The result is a mosaic ranging from summery optimism to political disenchantment, with stops at Renaissance music and Spanish rock.

From the euphoria of the heat to the September slump

The start is bright. One participant sums up the summer as "the best", with the idea that the hotter it got, the more it was enjoyed. But the tone changes quickly: "Summer is ending!", they warn, and list the tasks ahead: back to the books, removing the pool from the living room, setting up another desk and thinking about the cold when riding a motorbike. The song that betrays that mood is not a lament, but a mix of resignation and humour.

The music playing in the thread is not only contemporary. A Renaissance Tourdion appears, "Quand je bois du vin clairet", with its invitation to sing and drink to forget one's sorrows, linked to the Spanish tradition of "Hoy comamos y bebamos", which ends with "tomorrow we shall fast". It is a cultured wink that contrasts with the immediacy of the rest of the messages.

Politics sneaks in between chords

Not everything is music. Amid the songs, one message denounces that any minimally free political discussion is hijacked by bots, paid accounts and police informants, summing it up with "They call it democracy". It is the sour note of a thread that, in theory, was about moods.

Another participant takes the chance to deliver their "September speech": besides the return to routine, they claim that Vox is "an apology for third-worldism", an assertion they do not develop and which remains just another boutade. Politics, in any case, is not the focus: it appears and goes away.

Exhaustion and the search for conflict

One of the longest messages describes a mood of exhaustion: "I'm coming out of a dream of tiredness since Saturday night", they say, and observe that "everyone is pro-actively seeking conflict". The feeling conveyed is that of a sped-up tune, the soundtrack of the amount of work and things to do.

That same participant cites a song about young people demanding and proclaiming "the Lie with a capital L", and concludes that nothing good will come of it. The conversation drifts towards disappointment, but without losing the soundtrack: the song is the vehicle, not the subject.

An open ending and an unanswered question

The thread fades out with a mention of a concert —"did you go to the Ciutat de València to see them?"— and a stray remark about tastes: "They say Spanish women like foreigners". There is no conclusion. The collective mood is captured in songs ranging from optimism to disenchantment, with no one closing the circle. The underlying question —whether music betrays or merely disguises— remains unanswered.