I am a hardcore fan of nostalgia, and I have no apprehensions about it. Everyone who knows me knows that I like to indulge in the past more often than not. Unfortunately, people tend not to take nostalgia-freaks seriously. To many, we’re novelty caricatures of youth, stuck in our past and unable to embrace the present. I’d like to dispel this notion, at least for myself. I love the present, and am very much looking forward to the future. The passions I’m pursuing and the people I know and love make my current life more than worthwhile. I’m just not afraid to acknowledge and embrace the fact that we left things behind, some good and some bad. I’m not afraid to remember the people, places, music, substances—whatever—that changed my life, led me to new experiences and essentially formed who I am today. Recalling the past can be glorious, heartbreaking, subtle and overwhelming, all at the same time, and sometimes, I’ve found it’s best to explore your past with the people who were there alongside you.
Summer is on the horizon, which means I, and many of you reading this, will be heading home from college for our long-awaited summer vacation. We’ll all be back in our respective hometowns, and likely with the people we spent those fateful four years with, trapped inside that prison-like complex that actually fostered some of our greatest and most satisfying memories. (Hindsight is 20/20, right?) Perhaps old friendships will be rekindled, or you’ll bring some of your college drinking skills home with you and end up naked on a beer pong table with a high school sweetheart hazily smiling at you, or you’ll just have a couple of friends over, get really f*cking high and watch "The Breakfast Club." The possibilities are truly endless, and I’ve made a playlist to help guide us through the hopefully-nostalgia-tinged summer of 2016.
M83 - "Kim and Jessie"
Perfect for: speeding down the highway at night with your best friend
Relevant lyric: “Kids outside worlds / they are crazy ‘bout romance and illusion”
Carly Rae Jepsen - "Run Away With Me"
Perfect for: pretending you’re in an '80s music video, partying with old pals who appreciate good pop music
Relevant lyric: “Up in the clouds, high as a kite, over the city / we never sleep, we never try, when you are with me”
Roy Woods - "Drama" (feat. Drake)
Perfect for: talking with an old flame in a smoky basement near your high school (sexual tension necessary)
Relevant lyric: “Seventeen, nights stay out past 10 / house party ting turn up with your mans / arguments all day with your ‘rents”
Drake - "Look What You’ve Done"
Perfect for: smoking weed with friends as the sun sets after a day-swim
Relevant lyric: “I remember sneaking in your pool after school dances / damn, your house felt like the Hamptons for all of my summer romances”
Ben Khan - "Youth"
Perfect for: setting the ambiance at a pool party where “things” are bound to happen
Relevant lyric: “Your future’s tainted / darling, escape it”
M.I.A. - "Paper Planes"
Perfect for: day drinking on #tbt, bitches!
Relevant lyric: “All I wanna do is *GUNSHOT GUNSHOT GUNSHOT GUNSHOT* and *RELOAD* *CASH REGISTER NOISE* AND TAKE YA MONEY”
Beyonce - "Schoolin’ Life"
Perfect for: igniting the dance floor at a class reunion party
Relevant lyric: “This is for them 20-somethings / time really moves fast, you were just sixteen” & “At 14, they asked me what I wanna be / I said, ‘Baby 21, so I get me a drink’”
Schoolboy Q - "Man of the Year"
Perfect for: DOING COCAINE GOING H.A.M WITH YOUR BROS
Relevant lyric: “Bruh, I see girls everywhere / titties, ass, hands in the air, it’s a party over here / shake it for the man of the year”
Cocteau Twins - "Pearly-dewdrops’ Drops"
Perfect for: crying by yourself in your childhood bedroom after realizing that life is imminent and becoming overwhelmed by the fact that it’s impossible to accurately recapture how gloriously crazy adolescence made you feel
Relevant lyric: none - just listen to the song.
Kanye West - "Real Friends"
Perfect for: the post-party chill (ideally in a basement, marijuana recommended)
Relevant lyric: “To real friends, ‘til the reel end / ‘til the wheels fall off, ‘til the wheels don’t spin”
