These songs describe the feelings that are uniquely tied to these past four years and the tangle of emotions that looming graduation brings. It’s folk with a little pop mixed in. It’s happiness and nostalgia and panic.
1. Jacqueline Taieb: “7 Heures du Matin”
It sounds like the scramble of getting up for class on a Thursday after going out the night before. The song is chaotic and retro, romanticising youth. French!
2. Kurt Vile and John Prine: “How Lucky”
The soft guitar and gentle vocals underscore one last reflective stroll through campus. “Today I walk down the street I used to wander.” To me, it’s a message from your senior self to your freshman self. A reminder to notice and appreciate your surroundings while you’re still in them.
3. Peach Pit: “Look Out!”
Dreamy vocals and acoustic guitar. It sounds like a barbecue with friends during the first week of warm weather in Ithaca. Also, graduation is coming. Look out!
4. Shawn Colvin: “Sunny Came Home”
This song reminds me of settling into the routine of travelling between college and home.
5. Harry Styles: “Canyon Moon”
The upbeat, layered vocals, guitars and whistles sound like spring in Ithaca: it always eventually comes, even when it’s mid-April and you think it never will. The song sounds like wanting to be in two places at once. It’s telling you to enjoy where you are now, but there’s an undertone of eagerness for what comes next.
6. Willie Nelson: “Funny How Time Slips Away”
It calls up the feeling of being old while you’re still young. It’s a moment of recognition for the past. It’s a conversation with an old friend. Bittersweetness in a three and a half minute nutshell. Oh, Willie.
7. Phoebe Bridgers: “I Know the End”
This song scratches my itch to be melodramatic. It builds from light vocals and soft electric guitar into horns, drums and Phoebe’s screams. It’s leaving when you don’t feel ready, but you know that it’s probably time.
8. Nicki Minaj: “The Night is Still Young”
This song is fun and familiar. Listen in the car with the windows down. Let it remind you not to mourn anything before it’s over. The figurative night is still young!
9. Beyonce and Miley Cyrus: “II Most Wanted”
Nostalgia for something that isn’t over yet. A friendship ballad. I’ll always think of my best friend, Francesca, when I hear this song. She made my college experience wonderful and I was in her passenger seat constantly.
10. Big Thief: “Certainty”
The credits to a coming-of-age movie about college would roll during this song. To me, it’s a reminder to have faith that I’ll see my friends again, even if I’m not sure when the next time will be.
https://open.spotify.com/playl...
Rachel Cannata is a senior in the Hotel School. She can be reached at rcannata@cornellsun.com
‘Solar Flare’ is a weekly playlist column where Sun contributors spotlight a slice of musical taste with the campus community. It runs every Monday.
