The Playlist Project: Songs for Spring

Graham Averill, Drinks Editor
Drivin’ N’ Cryin’, “Straight to Hell”
I like to kick it old-school with Drivin’ N’ Cryin’s “Straight to Hell,” which probably makes me the last person on earth to listen to Drivin’ N’ Cryin’. Either that or MIA’s “Paper Planes.”

Eric Walters, Editorial Intern
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, Let It Sway
As someone stranded in the frozen tundra known as Michigan, where we’re elated it might squeak above 25 this week, I think I’ve long forgotten what spring even is. It may never come to the Mitten, so please be kind and remind me what warmth feels like whenever you get to experience it. When the temperatures do rise to a roll-down-your-windows level, I like to crank “My Terrible Personality” or “Cardinal Rules,” or really anything from Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin’s Let It Sway.

Ryan Bort, Comedy Editor
Love, “Alone Again Or”
My go-to “warmth song” is “Summer in the City” by The Lovin’ Spoonful because it takes me back to my childhood (Die Hard with a Vengeance opening credits) and the heyday of urban heat waves (1966-1976) at the same time. This might not be appropriate for a few months, though, so I’ll go with “Alone Again Or” by Love, which is the closest music will ever come to recreating the blossoming of a flower.

Garrett Martin, Games Editor
Pavement, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
Pavement’s Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain fits every season, but I bought it in the spring and that’s what I’ve always associated it with. It was the spring-break soundtrack of 1994 and almost every year since.

Michael Burgin, Assistant Movies/TV Editor
ELO, “Mr. Blue Sky”
I still remember swinging on the playground during recess in seventh grade on a just incredibly beautiful spring day with that song playing in my head. An indeterminate number of years later, the song triggers the memory and any particularly beautiful day triggers the song. And “Mr. Blue Sky, please tell us why you had to hide away for sooo long” seems pretty perfect for this last winter.

Chelsea Conte, Editorial Intern
of Montreal, Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?
As soon as there is a glimmer of warmth in the air, my go-to album is definitely of Montreal’s Hissing Fauna Are You The Destroyer? It’s the perfect mix of upbeat, warm songs that I can blast with the windows down. Anytime I hear a cut from that record, I think of the warm days ahead.

Bonnie Stiernberg, Music/TV Editor
Fleetwood Mac, Rumours
For the record, mine’s Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours. I could lie and say it’s because the cheery harmonies on “Second Hand News” could melt even the most frigid of hearts, or that the album’s break-up theme fits with the whole springlike “new beginnings” motif, but the real reason is because when I was a camp counselor in high school, we used to take the kids to the public pool, and “Don’t Stop” would play over the PA there at least once a day for some reason. I now have this weird sensory memory attached to that song where every time I hear it, I smell chlorine and flash back to being a lazy teen lounging poolside when I was supposed to be making sure children didn’t drown.

Sean Edgar, Comics Editor
Thievery Corporation, The Mirror Conspiracy
For me, Thievery Corporation’s The Mirror Conspiracy opens a gateway to road-tripping summer oblivion. I exhausted the album on a tour throughout Southeast Asia in undergrad, and its cornucopia of reggae, chill wave and trip hop has forever seeped into the humid sunsets and sun-burnt nights of June. I automatically break a sweat whenever the synths of “Treasures” start up.

Shelley Brown, Assistant Design Editor
Kendrick Lamar, “The Recipe”
When I moved from LA to New York, I’d never really seen snow, let alone been subjected to a polar vortex. I was obviously in for a shock. I’ve learned to cope with freezing temperatures over the years, but it’s become a personal tradition to play Kendrick’s dreamy ode to California as soon as weather permits abandoning my giant puffer jacket. There is something about the discussion of palm trees and sunshine that always soothes my longing for home. Plus, Dr. Dre says he’s such a boss that he could buy the entire Pacific Ocean, and I find that inexplicably delightful.

Caroline Taylor, Editorial Intern
Oasis, “She’s Electric”
Temperatures go up, windows roll down and the mixtape with Oasis’ “She’s Electric” from (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? goes on. There’s something about the mixture of the repetitive electric guitar riffs, Liam Gallagher’s talking vocals and that janglin’ tambourine that just screams spring—not to mention the nostalgia that comes when my twin sister and I sing it at the top of our lungs, accompanied with pointing and hand motions. ”’Cause I’ll be you and you’ll be me, there’s lots and lots for us to see, there’s lots and lots for us to do, she is electric, can I be electric too?” It’s one of those songs that just feels good.

Hilary Saunders, Contributing Writer
The Beatles, “Good Day Sunshine”
Having lived in the land of eternal summer on and off for the past six years, this is almost a non-existent feeling for me. However, I distinctly remember the first not-painfully-cold day in Liverpool—when I could legitimize putting sunglasses on my face and actually remember what the sun felt like on my then-Anglofied skin. I put my earbuds in and walked around City Centre with the hometown boys singing “Good Day Sunshine” to me and everything was then magically right in my world.

Robert Ham, Contributing Writer
Pretenders, Pretenders
When the sun finally decides to creep out from behind the rain clouds here in Portland, you need a lift of the musical spirit to go with it. And for these ears, there’s no better soul leavening force than the brilliant first LP by UK/US rockers Pretenders. There’s not a false note on it, with each song finding that perfect connection between punk’s strain, new wave’s glisten and pop’s mixture of joy and agony. But if it is a quick fix I need, I point my iTunes library toward one of Belle & Sebastian’s most ebullient moments, “Another Sunny Day” from their 2006 album The Life Pursuit. Its buoyant tempo and charm are enough, but it also reminds me of the start of baseball season, hearkening back to hearing it blaring over the sound system at Safeco Field before a Mariners game, f-bomb and all.

Alright, dear readers, now we open it up to you. Tell us your picks in the comments section below.