If you know me or even if you just follow me on social media, you know that music is something that is very important to me. I feel music so deeply and personally and have it playing constantly. All my best memories have music involved so my music experience is both emotional and nostalgic. I will talk to anyone and everyone about the music they like and take any chance I get to show off the music I love. Surprisingly though, when exec came up with this idea to create a “Top 10 Playlist” I fell into a cold sweat. My personal “Favs” playlist on Spotify has over 500 songs and I know every single one of them by heart. It took me a week to come up with this list and two days to put that list into the perfect order. I feel like I am publishing a piece of my soul, but I think that I have come up with the perfect list for me. I am excited for the opportunity to explain myself a little more, I apologize for the length, but I felt these descriptions were necessary to understand why I chose these 10.
1. Paris by The 1975
The 1975 is my favorite band and Paris is my favorite song by them so it only makes sense this would be first on my list. It is soft and a beautiful love story about two people who planned to go to Paris together their entire lives before addiction ended their relationship too soon. I love the metaphors The 1975 use in all their songs. It’s my go to when I am happy or sad and definitely the first song listed by friends when they think of me. It inspired my love for Paris and the lyrics (which are my favorite lyrics of all time) “Hey kids, we’re all just the same, what a shame” will one day be tattooed on my body (when I am no longer financially dependent on my parents of course!).
2. Don’t Take the Money by The Bleachers
There is nothing I love more than sunny day drives and this song is perfect for that. I always say I love a song when it feels like I am listening to magic. Magic is exactly what I felt the first time I heard this song. It tells the story of a real, raw relationship. Essentially saying that where there is love there will be fights and that you don’t always have to run away. I am a sucker for a song with a deep meaning that has a happy, catchy tune.
3. I Melt With You-Recorded by Modern English
Another sunny day song and a throwback that everyone loves! I truly believe this is one of those songs that will continue last through the ages. I first fell in love with this song when Bowling for Soup did a cover of it for the iconic movie Sky High all the way back in 2005. I think I like the rerecorded version of it better because it sounds more closely to the Bowling for Soup version.
4. Twenty Something by Nightly
Warning! Listening to this song might inspire you to drop out of school, leave your family and move to Los Angeles. The entire summer after I first heard this song a few years ago I contemplated it. Throughout the song the singer is telling his girlfriend that she should go ahead and move to LA because that is what you’re supposed to do when you’re young. So yeah, we should all do that right?! I actually first heard this song from my dad. We were driving and listening to HIS playlist. We have very similar music tastes-always sending each other songs and artists-so it is no surprise that I immediately added it to my playlist and listened to it non-stop for a month straight. I just thought it was important to tell you guys I do have a cool dad who listens to cool music (; ….or expose myself for having the music taste of a 40 year old man…I’ll let you guys decide.
5. Cecilia and the Satellite by Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness
This song. This was another one mentioned by all my friends when I went to them stressed about picking my Top 10. It was written about Andrew McMahon’s daughter Cecilia and is the closest thing that I have (aside from being a mom to a very spoiled dog) to understand what it is like to love a child. My friends, family and boyfriend all know that the name Cecilia will be the name of one of my future daughters and that is non-negotiable. I have the lyrics “for all the places I have been I’m no place without you” hanging on my wall, a gift given to me by my boyfriend because he knows what this song means to me. After years of loving this song I finally got to see it live at Lollapalooza a few years ago and I sobbed like a baby the whole time. One of the best memories in my 21 years.
6. Stella by All Time Low
This song has more memories associated with it than any other song on this list. I added it to the middle because the Pop Punk genre it falls into is most definitely an outlier to the sounds in the rest of this playlist but really is should be at number 2. This song represents an entire friendship with my longest and best friend Jensen, and I couldn’t begin to explain what it means to me. We found All Time Low at the mere age of 12 and this song has always been our favorite together. Since we were only in 6th grade we naively assumed it was about a girl named Stella-as the years passed and we got older we now realize it is in fact about the beer…Stella Artois. Nevertheless, Stella will be the name of my other future daughter. Another non-negotiable name. I got to see this song live back in December WITH Jensen for the 10-year anniversary of the album it was on and it was another great memory.
7. I Dare You by The Regrettes
Claire if you are reading this hey girl! My friend Claire showed me this song a few summers ago and it became another staple in my sunny day drives. To me this represents one of the best summers of my life as Claire and I would play in every day in the van we drove for a summer camp we worked at. Catchy, fun and a story about teenage romance? What’s not to love?
8. Chapstick-Demo by Hippo Campus
Hey again Claire! Another one I found from Claire and of course it’s also perfect for sunny day drives! It’s short but sweet with a beautiful guitar ending. This one HAD to go after I Dare You because that’s how it is in my personal playlist and it didn’t sound right not coming after it.
9. Picking Up Speed by Augustine
This is a new addition to my Favs playlist that I just found in May. I’m sure you’ve noticed a pattern by now-it’s perfect for sunny day drives. BUT this one is extra perfect. Not only does the song have the most amazing, ~magic~ sound I mentioned earlier, but it literally has the lyrics “Darling, we’re picking up speed” repeated over and over. Be careful driving on the highway to this one-you might look down and notice you’re accidently going 90 mph. I may or may not be speaking from experience. If you’re my parents- I am NOT speaking from experience of course!
10. You by The 1975 (with bonus song MILK at the end)
Another favorite by my favorite band. When I first saw it live at Lollapalooza like 6 years ago, I had an out of body experience. The guitar and synthesizer in this song literally bring life to my body when I feel drained. The message of the singer saying it takes more than just the girl being herself-even when it’s bad-to make him want to leave, gives me hope in my relationship. I have a lot of faults y’all. I need that reminder every now and then. This song is extra special too because there’s a BONUS SONG at the end! After the “You” ends there’s approximately 5 minutes and 2 seconds of silence…or so you thought! If you skip ahead to 7:36 another one of my favorite songs by The 1975 called “MILK” will begin playing! It was the perfect closer for this reason.
I could go on and on about all these songs, but I promise I tried to keep it short. If you made it to this point… THANK YOU! These songs mean the world to me and it was harder than I thought to expose my feelings like this. Now that I’ve done it though, I am really excited about it and hope that at least someone took the time to read it. I would love to hear from you if any of these songs are favorites of yours or if you found a new song you are going to add to your playlist!
Happy listening friends
~Kelsey Cour
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