Fire's Chill Pick - June 2026

 Hi guys!! It’s Fire here with the monthly Chill Pick article, and today, I wanna highlight a song that was one of my favorites of 2021 and is also on track to be one of my most listened to songs of 2026!! I’ve been eagerly waiting for the summer to cover this song, so I hope you enjoy it!!

Nina Nesbitt - Summer Fling

Release: July 9, 2021

Genres: Synthpop, Contemporary R&B

I first discovered this song from a Pulse Madness tournament in 2021 and I instantly fell in love with it. And revisiting it on a whim earlier this year caused me to become utterly obsessed with it. Let me start with the fact that this genuinely sounds fantastic—the synth chords sound euphoric and hazy and the shimmering keyboard line sounds like the auditory equivalent of the sun setting over a glistening lake, where the colors reflect off the water to create a gorgeous sight. Nina Nesbitt sounds so dreamy here, especially with her falsetto adlibs. I went to San Diego for my older cousin’s college graduation this month, and on that trip we went to the La Jolla cove. The sunsets looked utterly breathtaking and this song fit the vibe impeccably. Lyrically, this song entails a summer fling, as you’d expect. Nina Nesbitt adds in tons of details to truly paint the scene—moonlight, cigarettes, card machines, skinny dipping, sunsets on a rosé sky, left hand in between her thighs, could they make it into September, and so much more. But let’s zoom out wider—if you completely remove the music and context and take these details just as words, it seems like a laundry list of things you want in your dream summer. It’s highly unlikely that these will all happen within the timeframe of one summer. I made a passing mention of it in my 2025 worst list, but I wrote a song last year. It was to an old beat I had made back in high school and...I’ll let you read it:

[Verse 1]

The sun is shinin’ brightly

We throw a party nightly

Come join me if you want in

We’ll be like “yo, how you been?”

Might sign “HAGS” in your yearbook

I think she gave me a look

[Interlude]

Guys, you think I have a chance? Go for it dude, you got it!!)

[Pre-Chorus]

I made my move and she said

[Chorus]

Moments like this feel magical with you

Make mem’ries, just us two

Let’s ride off into the lights

That’s just how we do on summer nights

[Verse 2]

The summer passes and we

Go stargaze out on the beach

We share our very first kiss

Hearts racing, it felt like bliss

Best friends are cheering me on

All the way up until dawn

She asked “do you feel it too?”

And oh man that’s when I knew

[Pre-Chorus 2]

She was the one for me, yeah the one for me

[Chorus] x2

[Bridge (Me, girl, audience)]

(Dance-off!!)

Hey can you keep up

Bet you can’t keep up

You, can YOU keep up?

Don’t think you’re able (oh wait and see)

impressive (woooooooo!)

woooooooo!

Alright, are you guys enjoying yourselves?!

wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Alright, one more time!!

[Chorus] x2

[Outro]

Well, see y’all next summer!

It remains to be seen if I ever get the proper resources to record and release the song haha. But anyways, it’s not all that poetic or anything, but purely looking at the text of what I had written, I’m basically doing the exact same thing as Nina Nesbitt is in this song—creating a pretty unrealistic dream summer (I actually did write this song about the summer I wish I had). The timeline is kinda wonky (as much as I did try to have some connective tissue lol)—going from a backyard summer party to meeting a girl at said party and hooking up with said girl for that summer, and the dance-off bridge—I had written all of that based on a fantasy escape to my dream summer. Earlier this year, I noticed that Spotify was beta-testing an “About the song” feature. While listening to this song one day, I decided to read a bit of it, and I found out that Nina Nesbitt wrote this song during the lockdowns and channeled the nostalgia she was feeling into this song to create a fantasy escape to a stress-free world. And that kinda makes sense—this isn’t about an actual summer fling, it’s Nina Nesbitt’s blueprint for what she wants out of a summer fling. And note the lyric “Love me like a summer fling”. Summer flings are fleeting, you know they won’t last beyond that summer. So what I hear in that lyric is “love me like this experience is ephemeral” or “Cherish this experience like it will never happen again”. Based on what Nina Nesbitt has said about channeling the nostalgia she felt during COVID into this song, I’m left to believe that the “summer fling” central to this song is a metaphor for memories. Think about it—your happiest memories, if it’s been a considerable amount of time since those memories happened, you might think to yourself “I wish I could experience that again”. That experience was ephemeral—it wasn’t gonna last forever. And yeah, once I started looking at this song from that angle, I couldn’t help but think of the times in 2021 when I’d go on long sunset walks with my best friends or even just go on a bike ride when I was bored—I didn’t even listen to this song during those activities, and yet the song is powerful enough to soundtrack all my memories!! “Summer Fling” by Nina Nesbitt is a reminder to cherish the great times while you can, because there will come a time when you wish you could relive them again months or years down the line. And it does all this with the imagery of a fantasy summer fling painted so intricately that it doesn’t feel like a cliche message! So in other words, masterful production, beautiful and highly detailed imagery in the lyrics, and dreamy vocal delivery—I give this a 10/10, highly recommended if you need a song to soundtrack your summer sunset drives!