The ultimate playlist for every back-to-school situation
By Liz Reichart, A&E Editor //
The air is crisp and Target is now carrying jersey extra long bed sheets in every hue of the rainbow- and you know what that means! School is back in session and nowhere is this truer than at High Point University. As classes begin and the stress mounts this fall, allow yourself to explore new musical horizons. Compiled below is the perfect back to school playlist to suit every occasion.
Could it Be Another Change- The Samples. There’s nothing like coming back to school and finding that every parking lot is now a reflection pool and there are four new buildings where there once was a fairytale-like forest. This is the perfect “driving onto campus for move-in” jam. It’s all about rearranging the scenery we were once content to admire and the perfect soundtrack for beginning your year afresh.
Love Club- Lorde. Not long after all of your friends arrive, the social cliques are bound to start forming. Enter new love interests and the claws come out. Lorde sums up perfectly how there’s a club of cool kids sitting on a social throne, and how there’s those clamoring to be a part of the love club. Plus, Lorde’s voice is that of an angel and anyone who says they’re not in love with her is lying.
Chandelier- Sia. Because every Friday night out on the town needs a great jam song, Chandelier makes you want to roll down the sunroof of your limousine (or in my case, the side window of a Honda CRV) and feel the wind in your hair. The song was written by Sia to chronicle the trials and tribulations of alcoholism, but don’t let that deter you from her crazy raw vocals and the accompanying music video that will most certainly make you cry (or at least run out and buy a nude leotard).
Work- Iggy Azalea. After your night of shenanigans, it’s time to get crazy…dedicated to your studies. You forgot about that Business Calculus homework due at midnight? How about that art history paper? “Work” is the perfect grind song when there’s mountains of work to do and no chance that you can drop out and move to the south of Spain.
Marianelli: Dawn- Jean-Yves Thibaudet. Even if you’re not a fan of classical music, this song will leave you at peace with nature. I hear this song in my head every time I walk to my 7:50 class and see the sun rise. The campus sparkles when the sun breaks above the School of Education, and I may be overstating it, but I feel this song is the culmination of that beauty.
Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want- The Smiths. The ideal background music for when you’re fervently refreshing Blackboard, awaiting your midterm grades with a mix of crazed fervor and nausea. Let the soothing harmonies of this British collaboration lull you to sleep (or to tears, if that Econ simulation doesn’t turn out quite the way you wanted it to).
Youth- Foxes. This is the song for nights sitting around with your closest friends you just met a couple weeks ago, talking about life’s biggest questions, as one can only do without ridicule in college. The lyrics discuss the pain of growing up and moving past adolescence. It is a refusal to accept aging, but a yearning for autonomy. I’m certain you will find it just as beautiful, if not more so, than I have depicted it.
3005- Childish Gambino. I have no reason for putting this song on the Back to School playlist other than it is an awesome song. Childish is one of the greatest rappers of our time, especially in his articulation of socio-economic issues.
Sweet Disposition- The Temper Trap. The song for when you’re free- you’ve finished your midterms and it is October break. Turn up the volume and crank the engine of your white Mercedes (or a Honda CRV with rust on the hubcaps) because you are obligation free. This song has been used in the credit sequence of 500 Days of Summer (when Joseph Gordon-Levitt is finally free from that horrible Summer girl who was no good for him in the first place, but I digress) and the season two finale of Greek. I’m fully convinced that it is impossible to listen to this song and not feel breezy and joyous.