Summer is here, and with it comes bucket lists, sunsoaked activities and great music. Over this past year, many albums and singles have topped charts and earned spots in people’s daily playlists, including Charli XCX's “Brat,” Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” and Maggie Rogers’ “Don’t Forget Me.”
With this in mind, The State News created an 89-song Spotify playlist that consolidates music from the past 60 years and encapsulates that perfect summer feeling.
We added songs you can listen to while driving, at the beach, in your bedroom or pretty much anywhere.
The list includes summer classics like “Hot Stuff” by Donna Summer and “Waterfalls” by TLC, as well as newer hits like “Consideration” by Rihanna and SZA and “Free Yourself” by Jessie Ware.
If you’re somehow not already sold on this playlist, follow along on a journey through some of the songs.
The girl, so confusing version with lorde by Charli XCX and Lorde
“Let’s work it out on the remix.”
Yes, everyone will be “bumpin’ that” song this summer by the highly anticipated collaboration between Charli XCX and Lorde. After Charli XCX dropped her latest album, “Brat,” in early June 2024, which included a song titled, “Girl, so confusing,” many speculated it was about New Zealand singer-songwriter Lorde. In their decade-long careers, the two have been compared and mistaken for each other by interviewees and fans.
In this song, Lorde follows the same stream-of-consciousness flow that Charli XCX does in the original version of the song and the two sing about each other, bringing up past experiences and relationship history.
The remix is a remarkable song released just in time for the summer.
Blueberries for Breakfast by The Mamas & The Papas
“Butterflies in my trousers / Under the August moon.”
This song exudes happiness and the freeing feeling you might have on a relaxed Sunday morning. Blueberries for breakfast and butterflies flying around— who wouldn’t want that? The song is sung on a pretty laid-back, carefree and whimsical beat that is best explained as walking in a park with a significant other.
Though it’s a perfectly complex track about relationships’ benefits and struggles, it’s sung in a way that feels like a dream, making it perfect for listening while eating breakfast.
Good Luck, Babe! by Chappell Roan
“With her arms out like an angel through the car sunroof.”
In recent months, singer-songwriter Chappell Roan has completely taken over radio stations and music festivals; her fame increased after she opened for Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts World Tour and performed an NPR Tiny Desk Concert. Since April, she has gained roughly 10 million more Spotify monthly listeners and now has just under 25 million listeners. She released her latest album, “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess,” in September 2023, and even though the 14-song album has gained popularity, another song of hers that has taken over the world.
Roan’s newest single “Good Luck, Babe!” was released on April 5, 2024, and already has 225 million streams, becoming her most-streamed song.
The song, Roan said in an interview with Rolling Stone, is about Roan dating a girl who doesn’t accept that she’s queer and refuses to digest the relationship the two have, while Roan walks away from the relationship knowing the girl is trying to deny her true feelings.
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Both lyrically and sonically, the song is a masterpiece. The bridge lures you into feeling Roan’s anger and makes you really believe you’re in the bed sitting next to her. “Good Luck, Babe!” is only gaining popularity and definitely one of the top songs of the summer.
Click here for the full playlist.
