AFI, ‘Summer Shudder’ – Depressing Summer Songs

Like most of the tunes on our list, 'Summer Shudder' doesn't sound particularly gloomy. In fact, it's quite rousing, what with its stadium-size guitars, slick synths and colossal chorus. But then you listen to the lyrics. "How can this be so miserable?" AFI frontman Davey Havok asks in the first verse, just before serving up some wonderfully over-dramatic lines about a failed seasonal romance: "Under the summer rain / I burned away / Under the summer rain / you turned away." This girl must have broken dude's heart, toppled his ice cream cone and stolen his Misfits records. "This is the fall," Havok sings in the end, declaring an early end to summer. "This is the long way down." Hey, at least these gothy California punks have Halloween to look forward to.

Listen to AFI's 'Summer Shudder'