A fruit basket is a simple pleasure: an assortment of fruit, gifted for any occasion. Somehow, the Edible Arrangement (a mid-2000s craze I’m amazed still exists) found a way to one-up and overcomplicate what was never broken. I’ve always preferred a classic fruit basket, for true taste and elegance are made apparent in one’s curation of it. I’d like to think the same applies to a well-curated playlist. This week, I gift you a playlist of songs named after fruits. My musical fruit basket to you.

1. Apple Orchard — Beach House (2006)

Much like apples, this track is nostalgic and sweet in the right season of life. From their 2006 self-titled debut, “Apple Orchard” predates the refined, atmospheric dream pop sound for which Beach House is best known, and yet speaks so deeply to the essence of the band that their Baltimore recording space bears its name: Apple Orchard Studios. 

2. Blackberry Song — Kurt Vile (2009)

Kurt Vile’s banjo-influenced fingerplucking style and what “Rolling Stone Magazine” calls a “Neil Young-circa-1974 sad side” complement reminiscing beautifully. This song, in particular, reminds me of picking berries in my grandparents’ backyard.

3. Oranges — Alex G (2025)

Simple and sweet, “Oranges” is all one needs to get through a hard time. While it’s a more stripped-down deviation from his usually chaotic, slacker rock style, one that fans have been slow to warm to — to me, this is Mr. G at his best: just him and his guitar. 

4. Persimmon — The Army, The Navy (2024)

While I’ve never actually eaten a persimmon, I’ve somehow acquired a taste for this one. The indie-folk duo, The Army, The Navy, is best known for their dissonant two-part harmonies, a chemistry I imagine stems from being childhood best friends; somehow, you can tell.  

5. Cranberries — Tyler Burkhart (2016)

“Cranberries” is a lo-fi dream pop track that Tyler Burkhart self-recorded at home, one of many he’s made in ten years without ever signing to a label. “The more I do it myself, the less I want to do it with anyone else,” he says — a refreshingly contrarian ethos in a world that seems to favor collaboration.

6. Tangerine — Led Zeppelin (1970)

While our fruit basket already has “Oranges,” how could we omit “Tangerine, tangerine, living reflection from a dream?” For a hard rock band, Led Zeppelin surely has a way with slower acoustic ballads — the calm before the storm, as it were. 

7. Strawberry Letter 23 — Shuggie Otis (1971)

This psychedelic love song recalls a time before iMessage and DMs, when lovers communicated through written letters. In his signature soulful, wistful style, Shuggie Otis’ “Strawberry Letter 23” is a reminder that some things were sweeter before instant replies. 

8. Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia) — Us3, Rashaan, Gerard Presencer (1993)

This hip-hop refix of Herbie Hancock’s legendary jazz funk composition, “Cantaloupe Island,” “Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)” describes itself best: “Groovy, groovy, jazzy, funky, pounce, bounce, dance.” There’s no version I’d rather hear. 

9. Mango Feedback — Four Tet (2022)

This track sounds like the taste of an underripe mango: tangy and acquired. Built around a plucked string loop that some liken to a “default iPhone alarm tone,” it’s oddly compelling for a dancefloor track — eclectic, after all, is Four Tet’s specialty.

10. Lemon Cherry Escort — Fakemink (2024)

“Lemon Cherry Escort” is as sweet as it is catchy and as sour as it is short. Since my last Fakemink report in September, the U.K. rapper has released 27 more singles. Despite his long-awaited album, “Terrified,” on the horizon, he retains his title as a single-releasing savant. 

11. TOMATO/TOMÁTO (SAME DIFFERENCE) — Swae Lee (2026)

While I find it sacrilegious to classify a tomato as a fruit, this new track off Swae Lee’s long-awaited “SAME DIFFERENCE” had to make the basket. Released April 3, it’s somehow his first solo album over a decade into his career — glad it’s finally come to fruition!

12. Blueberry Faygo — Lil Mosey (2020)

This COVID-19 lockdown anthem may elicit an initial response to cringe, but I insist it is worth revisiting. Allow a fellow listener to convince you: buried in a Reddit thread titled “Can we all agree Blueberry Faygo by Lil Mosey is one of the worst rap singles of the 2020s,” one comment reads, “it’s the antithesis of deep, but you need all types of songs to make the mosaic of music beautiful.”

13. Passionfruit — Drake (2017) 

Forever my favorite Drake song and tropical fruit, a world without “Passionfruit” is unfathomable. Producer Nana Rogues shares he was thinking of “clouds in a jungle filled full of love” when he made the beat, “But not love from a girl. Love from life.” It is otherworldly, indeed.