Summertime and the living is, well, complex, and dark, and also bright and joyous. So why not spin two new LPs to match the many moods of the season?

“Good Together,” Lake Street Dive

Yacht rock is made by earnest artists who can do sophisticated, jazzy rock but would rather make sunny, summery, buoyant pop in the vein of Motown, the Brill Building, and the pre-1966 Beatles. Lake Street Dive isn’t yacht rock, but the band plays with those same elements: sincere songwriting made by musicians with jazz chops and a delicious pop bounce.

The difference — and you can hear this all over new album “Good Together” — is that Lake Street Dive aren’t falsely sunny. The quintet’s sunshine is earned by climbing over pain, chaos, and our maddening modern moment.

The ex-Boston band hasn’t lost a step since lineup shuffles brought singer-songwriter-keyboardist Akie Bermiss in 2017 and guitarist James Cornelison into the fold. In many ways, the group is tighter: see a title track that could be the Jackson 5 at its “I Want You Back” best. Actually, the whole first side bumps with soulful, funky, stomping Top 40, even when the lyrics are more introspective than triumphant.

The flip side bumps too, but Lake Street Dive shows its depth as it slows down. In “Seats at the Bar,” the band has written the world’s first great love song about skipping sitting at a two top. “Twenty Five” presents a lost relationship not as tragedy but as happy memory.

The album closes with its one grand song, maybe just to prove this band can do it all: “Set Sail (Prometheus & Eros)” is an epic duet like something that could end an arty blockbuster musical, or end any dark and bright summer.

“Born in the USA,” Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen crashed the summer of ’84 40 years ago with an album that split the difference between America’s deep anxieties and its simple pleasures. Like Stevie Wonder’s “Songs in the Key of Life” and Bob Marley’s “Exodus” before it, “Born in the USA” runs through a staggering range of electric emotions and big ideas that, when totaled, document a time and place.

The recently reissued LP is bookended by the chronically misunderstood title track about Vietnam vets abandoned by their country and “My Hometown,” about a town with a legacy of racial violence and a future of dying economic prospects. Between the anger and gloom, Springsteen presents narrators burning for love — one desperate to reclaim a relationship that ain’t coming back (“Downbound Train”), another looking for a respite from pain through sexual salvation (“I’m on Fire”).

But along with disappointment and desperation, these small-town (and so often, small-time) men often come with gleeful-if-misplaced optimism. In the goofy, hooky, endless fun of “Darlington County,” there’s “me and Wayne on the Fourth of July” looking to use $200 and promises that their dad owns the World Trade Center to score dates. No song has lyrics that scream middle-aged angst with music that shouts louder that life is a blast like “Glory Days.” And “Dancing in the Dark” is such a perfect pop song it put a 35-year-old into the charts next to 20-somethings like Madonna and Prince.

“Born in the USA” is the sound of the summer for those who can dance even as they admit their lives and their country is a mess.

Needham native Suni Williams should have been home from the International Space Station by now, but despite still being in orbit, the NASA astronaut made an early call to the Esplanade for the Fourth.

“Hi, everybody! I’m so happy to be here,” Williams said in a call with Boston Pops conductor Keith Lockhart. “The Fourth of July in Boston is the best place to be. It’s where it all started.”

The call came in around 12:45 p.m., less than an hour after gates opened for the 50th Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular.

Thousands of people from near and far – decked out in America’s colors – trickled in throughout the day, packing the oval in front of the Hatch Shell and banks of the Charles River hours before the patriotic concert and display.

Williams called Lockhart alongside her five crewmates – all Americans – on the ISS. And even above the atmosphere, the Fourth of July provided a special meaning for the astronauts.

“We are having a lot of fun, being able to sleep in a little because it’s a holiday. We’re all Americans so …,” Williams said before the crew sang America the Beautiful.

Williams and crewmate Butch Wilmore on Tuesday climbed into Starliner at the ISS and worked with flight controllers and engineers during a power-up of the spacecraft, according to Boeing.

This week marks the fourth that Wiliams and Wilmore have been in orbit. The pair took off on a test drive of Boeing’s new capsule on June 5, and at the time, they expected to head home from the ISS in a week or so.

But equipment problems and helium leaks popped up on their way there, calling off three potential landing dates and putting their return flight on hold.

“I want to make it very clear that Butch and Suni are not stranded in space,” NASA’s commercial crew program manager Steve Stich said last week.

Williams and Wilmore can stay docked at the ISS through the end of July, while Boeing continues to test the Starliner.

Despite what could be an uneasy situation, Williams and her crewmates were in good spirits Thursday, with the Needham native looking forward to finding out whether she could see the fireworks from space.

“This is my first Fourth of July up in space so I am excited to stay up a little bit later, take a nap … and try to see them.”

A crewmate added: “Everything looks like fireworks when you’re up here.”

Lockhart, speaking with reporters, called conducting the Boston Pops on the Fourth a “great responsibility and a great honor.” This is his 29th year leading the show.

While Lockhart said he’s looked to “keep traditions alive” such as Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, the concert sees slight alterations each year.

“Somehow we try to make it reflective of America,” he said, “which is difficult this year because America is in a very strange place. … But we are trying to keep it light and hopeful and seek commonalities which is what this day is all about.”

Lou Spelios showed up at 3 a.m., nine hours before gates opened at noon – a tradition for the Back Bay resident. After reading about and watching the annual celebration on television since his childhood, he learned showing up before the crack of dawn is required to get a close seat.

“I love this concert,” Spelios told the Herald. “I love what it stands for – choice and our ability to function independently. That’s what we celebrate, just being able to control our own destiny.”

After wet and wild weather interrupted the festivities for several hours before the skies cleared last year, Thursday featured similar muggy conditions with oppressive humidity.

Camilla Erices, a native of Chile, and her boyfriend Adam Provost, of Springfield, came out for their first Fourth at the Esplanade.

“It’s been awesome,” Erices, of Haverhill, said of living in America and celebrating the nation’s 248th birthday in Boston. “I’ve been having a great experience. I’ve been living here for the past three years, but honestly, I have nothing bad to say.”

Provost said he has been trying to visit “all of the nation’s original hotspots” for the holiday including Washington, D.C., New York City, and Philadelphia. Being in Boston, he said he felt like he was “reliving history.”

“I just feel proud,” Provost said of being an American. “I feel safe, I go home and feel safe each night, and I know a lot of people don’t get that, and I am glad I do.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report

The Boston Bruins will kick off their 2024-25 season on September 22nd with an exciting slate of seven preseason matchups against four different teams. The first of which will occur vs. one of the best teams in the NHL last season, the New York Rangers, at 5 PM on September 22nd.

While the Rangers may not bring their top players to this matchup, and there is a good chance the Bruins won’t either, the game could be a way for fans to see some of the more fringe players in action. That said, the Bruins and Rangers will meet again on September 26th in New York with a 7 PM start time, and there is a good chance that this game could feature a better preview of what to expect in a regular season that should see both teams as among the most competitive in the Eastern Conference. 

On September 24th and October 5th at 7 PM and 5 PM, respectively, the Bruins will face the Washington Capitals, with the game on the 24th occurring at home and the preseason finale on the road. We know the Capitals were that “just happy to be there” playoff team last year, but that shouldn’t be the case in 2024-25. For one of these two games, expect the Bruins to play those “new-look” Capitals best squads.

The Bruins tour against the Metropolitan Division will continue in back-to-back preseason matchups against the Philadelphia Flyers on September 28th on the road and October 1st at home, with both games taking place at 7 PM. Philadelphia nearly became that final playoff team last year, and this season, we don’t know what to expect from them, but the Bruins will likely get a good idea in one of these two matchups. 

Boston will also play the Los Angeles Kings at 7 PM on October 3rd at a neutral site, and LA is a team looking to find more consistency in 2024-25. The Kings did finish third in the Pacific last season, but it didn’t come without a coaching change and some major highs and lows last season. 

Overall, we’re mainly seeing the Bruins get a small tour of the Metropolitan Division, featuring a powerhouse team in the Rangers, an organization that made a lot of moves in the offseason in the Washington Capitals, and a potential up-and-coming organization like the Flyers.