The Western world has spent the last summer getting lucky, snoozing in Bugattis, rocking Versace and asking “would Mary Wollstonecraft be okay with this?”.

Thanks in large part to commercial radio’s bet-hedging attitude to playlisting, a select clutch of tracks have dominated barbecues and block parties over the last few months. Nothing new in that, of course, but it seems a shame that so many nascent crowdpleasers didn’t get the props or the attention they deserved.

In that spirit, we’ve drawn up 10 singalongs, jams and anthems-in-waiting that, in an honest and just world, would have been demolishing charts and testing the limits of car speakers throughout the holidays. These are the summer anthems that you – and just about everybody else – missed.

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SHARAYA J
‘Smash Up The Place’

Boom-crash-thwack jammin’ of the highest order, Sharaya J’s enormous ‘Smash Up The Place’ is bubbling over with teeth-gnashing ferocity and Minaj-indebted daftness: “You triggedy-try me / You get your liggedy-legs broken”. The Missy Elliott protege gives bloody good video, too.

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CLASSIFIED
‘Say To You’

Hey, world, why wasn’t this huge? Nothing says Summer like Todd Edwards – the breathless vocal chops, the rushing 4×4 beats, it’s pretty much the sound of a Summer fling that’s destined to end – and no one channels Todd quite like DJ Q (here under his Classified alias). Yes, it’s a tribute piece, but if another homage sounded this good this Summer then we missed it.

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KING LOUIE
‘Nice & Slow’

Chicago rapper King Louie’s Jeep Music soundtracked plenty of Summer mornings in FACT’s London office, and although to some extent it’s a mixtape that frontloads its charms, its quieter moments continue to captivate, particularly the Chase Davis-produced ‘Nice & Slow’.

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RIZZLA & BLK. ADONIS
‘Battyjack’ (Club Mix)

The #KUNQ crew paid tribute to Vybz Kartel collaborator Lisa Hyper with a 90s ragga house-styled groove that is all riddim and brashly neon synths. Accept no substitutes  – this is the summer’s best throwback.

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TINK
‘When I’m Lit’ (The GRW Rework)

In December, Tink’s ‘When I’m Lit’ quietly appeared on the appropriately-named Blunts & Ballads mixtape as a shifty, half-sung/half-rapped ode to the vagaries of teen love. While the young talent’s voice shone through on the original, it wasn’t until fellow Chicagoan James “The GTW” King laced it with So So Def-esque booty bass that it entered summer jam territory.

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DJ FETT BURGER & TELEPHONES
‘Tutti Frutti Del Mar’

Few tracks were as heavyweight as Todd Terje’s ‘Inspector Norse’ in 2012, and this summer’s disco haul – Terje’s strong but inferior ‘Strandbar’ included – has seemed somewhat diminutive by comparison. Punching above its weight, however, was this Sex Tags UFO gem from label boss DJ Fett Burger and chum Telephones. Irrepressibly cheery, endlessly danceable, and commendably heavy on the woodblocks.

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FIEND
‘California Mornings’

Summer just ain’t summer without a proper smoker’s jam, and few tracks conjure up the sun ‘n sativa fug quite as well as Fiend’s ‘California Mornings’. It should hardly come as a surprise that the track appeared on a compilation from notorious bud-lover Curren$y’s Jet Life stable, but No Limit old timer Fiend makes it his own with help from talented beatmaker Thelonius Martin. Think Madlib, Dilla and you’ll be on the right track, and with Fiend’s deep, bizarrely soothing Biggie-referencing flow, you should be right there with him in the California sun in no time at all.

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OMAR SOULEYMAN
‘Wenu Wenu’

As a wedding entertainer of great repute, Omar Souleyman is an old hand at turning a gathering into a shindig. For sure, the Kieran Hebden-assisted ‘Wenu Wenu’ doesn’t prod many of the buttons that releases like Jazeera Nights and Highway To Hassake haven’t already hammered, but, taken as Souleyman’s coming-out record, it’s a doozy. World music? There is no country, on any land mass, on any habitable planet that would label this anything other than a summertime stormer.

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CALEB JONES 
‘I’m Gone’

Caleb James’ The Jones was a low-key summer surprise; a delicious hodgepodge of 90s rap and r&b samples bolstered by a confident turn from Chicago newcomer Jones. ‘I’m Gone’ is basically producers Nez & Rio rehashing the 8-bit bounce of King Louie’s breakout smash ‘Too Cool’ but sometimes that’s all you need, and Jones gets to the point quickly throwing out wordy chants that remind (sometimes purposefully) of a young Kanye. Crack those windows and let the whip sing.

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