What do you mean it’s already December? We can’t believe that such an eventful year—musically (Kendrick! Björk! Grimes! Sleater-Kinney!) and academically (Emma and Andrew here are finishing their first semester of college!)—is almost behind us. Mostly because we’re just too busy getting half-assed but full-hearted projects uploaded to Canvas minutes before the deadline to process it right now. At a point in the semester where time is as scarce a commodity as our collective sanity, we found some in-between scattered papers and recently cracked-open textbooks to talk about what soundtracked our year. –WCPR ReWrite Staff
“West Coast” by FIDLAR
Familiar memories of basement punk shows flood my mind the second this enters my eardrums. Reminiscing on great times is exactly the feel FIDLAR goes for with their energetic timbre and fun-loving lyrics. “Too” arrived in my life at the perfect time, as my friends and I enjoyed our last days of summer vacation and headed off to college. New journeys awaited us, as rebellious teenagers going into an unknown future. No longer were we in the comfort and safety of our close friend group since kindergarten. My brothers and I were forced out into the real world where we must meet new people, try new things, and have as much fun as humanly possible. This is a song about going out on adventures and making stories, whether by yourself or with friends old or new. The song’s happy and carefree attitude generates nostalgia of fun times I had and will continue to have. Randomly coming across this song was one of the best mistakes I ever made, and, without even knowing it at the time, I realized I found my anthem. –Andrew Chrepta
“Bad Art & Weirdo Ideas” by Beach Slang
The words set the scene for a dream I’ve had. The kind of dream that feels so real that your conscious memories bleed into it. The memories with all the details packed in so tightly it’s amazing you can recall them. You remember when the night got so loud you couldn’t hear anything, or when the silence grew so large that’s all you could hear. You remember what you were fixated on. The “it” was more of a “who” — the only “who” that you can wrap your head around. In the memory your tongue is glued inside your mouth. The thought of moving it just puts you on overdrive. So you don’t say a word.
But in the dream, you say everything: “The hum of your lungs is my favorite thing and the air you shove out into mouth / I’ve always felt stuck, alone or ashamed… I’m tracing the lines on your handsome face, the scars on your arms, the shape of your veins / We are not alone / We are not mistakes / Don’t whisper now / We’re allowed to be loud.”
This song is more than a love song I wanted, this is the love song I needed. –Emma Murphy
“Art School Wannabe” by Sorority Noise
It’s easy to blame yourself. It’s so easy to hate yourself for everything bad that has happened. “Art School Wannabe” is about recovering from all of that blame and hate. This song is the point when you are the only one still keeping yourself from happiness. It’s about recognizing that you are you, and regardless of your choices “[you] might not be as dark as [you] think.” It’s about being okay with yourself, which is sometimes the hardest thing to ask yourself to do. It’s about the hope that things will get better once you forgive and accept yourself. After wishing I was different and wishing I made different decisions for the better half of the year, this song has helped me see that “I am not the person that I never wanted to be.” –Tori Davis
“Cool Party” by Mal Blum
There are so many tunes from 2015 that I’ve fallen for; it was tough picking one to gush over like I do for the other columns. I wanted something that summed up a hectic year of haphazard personal growth, mirroring all the mental states I’ve visited, all the familial ties I’ve had to restring, and all the social cues I had to reshape — I was never that good at pool. Life feels like a cool party that I’m just getting the hang of. For Mal Blum, that party seems to be as much an amplification of their insecurities as it is taking unabashed pride in them. Unsure of their intentions and what they can give in self-aware restraint, Blum fakes it, pale-faced and prodding all the way through. By the time you think it’s all winding down, the polite melodies that invited you are kicked out for pit-ready riffs to disrupt that fake notion of coolness you were so worked up about, enforced by all those cliques crowding your friend’s place. It can be hard to get out of your head when you’ve been living in it for so long; flipping out is as freeing a coping mechanism if any. You still have one month to go in 2015. Party’s not over yet. –Andy Waldron
Be sure to check out these songs and more picks to cope with deadlines over at WCPR’s official Spotify page.
