Let me say that I have found my soundtrack for the year. The Spotify playlist “The Syllabus: New Music New U” has a song for every moment. Looking for a fun karaoke one? “Feel it Still” by Portugal the Man is perfect for it. Wanting to dance? Listen to “You” by the LINES. There are so many artists on this playlist that there’s a song for everyone.
We’ve all heard of Vance Joy, he has roughly nine million monthly listeners on Spotify placing him the 157th most listened to artist in the world. His newest single “Lay It on Me”, which is featured on the playlist The Syllabus: New Music New U, is projected to go even further than his hit “Riptide”. “Lay It On Me” currently has 14 million plays and counting on Spotify since being released in July. Everyone knew the lyrics to Riptide, it blew up and with “Lay It on Me” producing similar results, I can only picture that everyone will be walking down the street with this song in their head.
Take PVRIS, they have two songs featured on the playlist with a combined total of 6,265,205 streams between the songs “Winter” and “What’s Wrong”. PVRIS is a band that is able to combine the dreaminess of electronic pop music and mix it in with heavy rock, which is not something you see often. I would definitely say that “What’s Wrong” is a song I can see myself listening to for a while.
Alvvays has three songs in the playlist “Plimsoll Punks”, “In Undertow” and “Dreams Tonite” with over three million combined views. Lights is on the playlist only twice, however they definitely claimed their spot with nearly two million plays with “Giants”. “Giants” is a youthful synthetic pop anthem, it’s fun and upbeat which I can easily see being played at a show.
Now for my personal favorite: Echosmith. They’re currently signed to Warner Bros and charted on the Top 40 in the U.S. as well as 10 other countries with their debut album Talking Dreams. I have been a longtime fan of them since 2013 when everyone had “Cool Kids” in their head 24/7. Well I have news for you, they released another song that is just as much of a hit, “Future Me”. While the new single can be written off as a pop song, the meaning of the song is much deeper and I think it can relate to every college student who took the jump from High School to College. “Right now, I’m already who I wanna be tomorrow,” this lyric resonates with me because taking the jump from Arizona to Pittsburgh has already changed my life for the better. If you are in college right now, or if you just made a life-changing decision, take a listen and see if you feel the same way about the song as I do.
This playlist is unique because you can’t put it into any one category and music shouldn’t be in just any category. There are some songs on this playlist that I normally wouldn’t even consider listening to, but after a couple of listens, I realized that it’s an art. These artists put everything into their work, their heart, their soul, their minds, and even if you don’t like the song, I think that’s beautiful. After reading this article, you just may go listen to this playlist and find your new favorite artist.
P.S We love Echosmith so much we’re giving away an Echosmith t-shirt to one lucky winner on our Facebook page! Go here to enter!