By Sloane Samberson
staff writer
@SloaneSamberson

As this school year comes to a close, I am finding it harder and harder to make time for my regular music binges.

Having already started a summer job, studying for Advanced Placement (AP) tests and final exams, as well as graduation parties for my beloved senior friends, I have had no time to search for new music.

If you are anything like me, you too are stuck shuffling through music you’ve been listening to for weeks.

Luckily, my old music can become new music for you. This playlist will help end your music depravity, and get you through one of the busiest times of the year.

“Giants” by Bear Hands – Bear Hands mixes teen rebellion with love in its song “Giants”. The lyrics make you think about those late summer nights, running around town, feeling invincible and free. Front man, Dylan Rau sings “I’ve been awake for days in the dusk and the dawn, and you’re loving me whether you want to or not but I want you for sure, I am loving you more.” It may just be me, but I live vicariously through “Giants”.

“Mess is Mine” by Vance Joy – When I went to Edgefest 25 in April, Vance Joy opened with “Mess is Mine”. You could say it is love at first sight. Well, in this case first strum of the guitar. “Mess is Mine” is a sweet melody where frontman James Keogh sings about his darling, taking her mess and making it their mess.

“Work Song” by Hozier – Another song I fell in love with at Edgefest 25 is “Work Song” by Hozier. The beat of “Work Song” relies greatly on synchronized claps. Front man, Andrew Hozier-Byrne’s bluesy and charmingly haunting voice is mesmerizing when he sings “Cause my baby’s sweet as can be, she give me toothaches just from kissin’ me.”

“Crystals” by Of Monsters and Men – The first single off of Of Monsters and Men new album, Beneath the Skin which will be released June 9. I have been waiting three years for OMAM’s new album, and I don’t think I’ll be disappointed since “Crystals” is that good.  Lead singers, Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir and Ragnar þórhallsson’s unique voices, along with its thundering beat and dictional lyrics (“Lost in skies of powdered gold, caught in clouds of silver ropes, showered by the empty hopes”), puts your ears through a pleasant journey.

“Ride” by Twenty One Pilots – “Ride” is Twenty One Pilots latest single for it’s album Blurryface, which came out today. Of all of Twenty One Pilots recent releases, “Ride” is my absolute favorite (“Tear in My Heart” comes in second). Its tropical-techno intro leads and locks you into Tyler Joseph’s idiosyncratic voice. And don’t worry, Joseph raps a bit in the song. It wouldn’t be a Twenty One Pilots song if he didn’t rap poetically.

“July” by Youth Lagoon – If I was in an indie/alternative movie about similarly to “Palo Alto” by Gia Coppola or “Boyhood” by Richard Linklater, I would imagine this song playing in the background. “July” is in reference to the Fourth of July, teenagers scaling ladders to sit on rooftops in admiration of all the colorful lights (“Explosions pillaging the night, from the fireworks on the fourth of July…As the neighbor lights off the small bombs we watch from the rooftop… safely, so safely”). The beat of the song starts off melancholy, building up to be energetic and free, similarly to a firework leaving the ground silently and exploding loudly in the sky.

“Cats Heaven” by Jets to Brazil – I first heard this song when my creative writing teacher (Matthew Bowden) played it off of his CD player. The song is about a dream lead singer Alexander Blake Schwarzenbach is in where everything is perfect. He sings about how “[everything we saw was beautiful and strong and I knew we belonged…Everything I saw was everything I’d want and this world had just begun to live.” This song is very relatable. I’m sure we’ve all had that dream that was perfect, there was no sadness, except when we had to wake up from it. Besides the lyrics, what made me fall in love with “Cats Heaven” is the beautiful piano melody halfway through the song. Considering the lyrics are very somber and the melody is hopeful, “Cats Heaven” is contradictory, but that is what makes the song have balance.