Everyone needs a summer playlist, and with finals out of the way, it becomes that more urgent. Here’s a summer playlist I put together that has all the essentials: throwbacks, new music, and dance anthems.

1. "Ladylike/ WHATTA BITCH" - The Regrettes

This song starts off the playlist in a way that will get your blood flowing. After Lydia’s proclamation of what it means to be “ladylike,” the song breaks loose when Maxx slams against the drums. The fast drumbeat makes the song upbeat and adds to the feminist tone, along with the band shouting in unison “Wa-ooo-wa-wa-wa-oooOooo!”

2. "Silvertongue" - Young the Giant

Young the Giant never fails to make a song that can make you dance along to it. "Silvertongue" is a proclamation of all things strange like losing control. The song itself “drives you into a delirium.”

3. "California" - Childish Gambino

Ah Gambino, I love this man. His experimentation of sound on his most recent album, "Awaken, My Love!" has been gaining much fame lately on Twitter from the different 'interpretations' of "Redbone." However, "California" is a more summer-oriented song in that it is an ode to the west coast.

4. "YOUTH" - Troye Sivan

Troye says that this song “is the fantasy of finding half a person,” meaning that he wants to find someone to be his other half. The seemingly romantic song is also about coming of age, growing up in a time of rushing youth.

5. "Move Your Body (Alan Walker Remix)" - Sia

The reason I chose the remix, instead of the original version, is because I feel the song needed a little oomph to be a part of this playlist. “Move Your Body” is the perfect summer song to dance to, play some beer pong (and win, at that), and splash around in the pool to.

6. "Walk Like an Egyptian" - The Bangles

The Bangles have always been my guilty pleasure. My Dad gave me his copy of “Manic Monday” on vinyl and I was sold. This song highlights the band’s 'paisley underground' roots in LA, and will always have you walking like an Egyptian.

7. "Better" - Lil Yachty

Another one of my guilty pleasures, my Lil Yachty. His album “Teenage Emotions” came out this past Friday and honestly shocked me with how good it is - “Better” especially. In this song, he is singing to his love interest about how things could be better with her, and you can’t get much better than that.

8. "Hard Times" - Paramore

After finals and the end of the semester, you can really take this song to heart. Paramore deals with their hard times by going back in time for the '80s vibe we now all know and love. Like many of the songs on the album, the lyrics certainly do not match up with the peppy beat, but it’s still something you can dance to!

9. "Dirty Little Secret" - The All-American Rejects

Okay, my favorite band of all time? At one point, yes. At one point for everyone, yes. This song is my dedication to intimate doings on the low, summer romances under the stars, and kissing and never telling.

10. "Don’t Stop Me Now" - Queen

Queen’s Freddie Mercury gives me chills on almost every song the band has put out. When I think of this song, I easily see myself with the top down in my best friend’s car driving 100 miles an hour, (not likely, because of the speed limit, but still) jamming out. It’s a song that you easily know all the words to if your parents were Queen buffs like mine, or if you’re a Queen buff yourself (like me).

Cheers to summer and many plays of this awfully strange, yet intriguing playlist!