Obama just released two summer vacation playlists on Spotify – here’s what’s

The separate summer day and summer night playlists stay true to to their themes by offering more upbeat, celebratory songs in the day section while the night one features more soft-spoken, relaxing tracks.

You can check out both playlists below. They span from novels to nonfiction books about climate change and race relations in the United States. How else do you explain his selection of Okkervil River, an Austin, Texas based indie rock band that takes its name from a short story by Russian author Tatyana Tolstaya?

Check out President Obama’s full playlist here.

President Barack Obama is partly through a golf, beach and family time vacation on Martha’s Vineyard and the White House says he brought along a parcel of summer reading. And if we’re talking about music, make sure that your playlist has plenty of classic songs, plus a few inoffensive Top 40 hits.

Obama even had members of his staff comb the hard copy (???) of the playlists ahead of time, presumably to prevent an embarrassing mistake like this one. That’s where Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, and The Temptations come in.

In fact, Obama referenced the lyrics of Jay-Z’s version of the tune-without crediting the rapper-during his remarks at the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery marches earlier this year.

He also picked a song by pop star Justin Timberlake, who is rarely political but has himself been associated with Obama. “He grabbed a pen and paper and drafted up not one, but two separate summer playlists”, Deputy Director of Digital Strategy Kori Schulman said on a White House blog.