It’s 2:29 p.m. Anticipating the bell, you grab your AirPods, and when the clock strikes 2:30, you walk out the school doors, greeted by the birds chirping, the melting snow, and the sun on your face. Whether you’re walking out to the parking lot, pulling down your bus windows, or hanging out for a club, the promise of a new spring season brings a much-needed warm escape from your stuffy last-period classroom. And almost instinctively, you press play. Our after-school routines might differ, but there’s something about music in the spring that keeps us all connected. So let’s put on our headphones, press play, and take a listen inside Edison’s AirPods!
With 60 tracks by 64 artists, the playlist’s top genres were dream pop and R&B, with the most frequently featured artists being Sade and SZA, heard on songs such as “By Your Side” and “Good Days,” respectively.
Featured on three songs, Sade was the most frequently featured artist on our playlist. The song “Paradise” has a laid-back tempo yet is energetic, with smooth vocals that make you want to blast it on a warm spring evening. “No Ordinary Love” won a Grammy for its lyrical depth and ethereal accompaniment. “By Your Side” tells the story of unwavering, unconditional love, reassuring a loved one.
While much of our winter playlist evoked feelings of nostalgia and the fuzzy warmth of childhood holidays, this playlist is the opposite, with many songs drawing on themes of renewal, freedom, and independence. Charli xcx’s remix of “Rewind” featuring Bladee strips back the original’s production for a glitchier, experimental sound that reflects the dizzying nature of fame and the desire to reinvent oneself. In “Bed Peace,” Jhené Aiko and Childish Gambino embrace a minimalist, breezy R&B sound, singing about the simple freedom of staying in with one’s lover to escape the demands of reality. Sabrina Carpenter’s “Good Graces” is a quintessential spring pop song; behind a girly Y2K-inspired sound, she sends a tongue-in-cheek warning that while she’s sweet, she’s quick to pull the plug on a relationship that tests her independence.
These themes of renewal aren’t limited to contemporary music— songs like “Out of Touch” by Daryl Hall & John Oates (1984) and “Smile” by Lily Allen (2006) are timeless, both sonically and lyrically. “Out of Touch” is heavy on the synths (like any 80s hit), but is surprisingly poignant as Hall and Oates comment on navigating a changing world, ultimately finding peace and freedom in reconnection with the self. Beneath its catchy, upbeat reggae-fusion, “Smile” is a biting, petty song as Allen searches for genuine happiness in finally moving on from a toxic ex.
Our top picks from the playlist are “Bubble Gum” by NewJeans and “Feels Like Summer” by Childish Gambino.
Released on the album How Sweet, the song “Bubble Gum” has a light and airy vibe, influenced by Citypop and R&B. We personally love this song because it’s different from traditional K-Pop songs with heavy accompaniments and a high-energy delivery. Instead, this song, along with many other songs released by NewJeans, has more of a retro spring-like vibe. In particular, “Bubble Gum” illustrates a bubbly and light feeling of love, with lyrics like “Oh, you make my heart melt away, you’re a softie” and “So smooth, soft like a hug,” highlighting the playful and innocent nature of love.
Though we were thinking of saving “Feels Like Summer” for a summer edition given its name, we feel it actually better encapsulates the bittersweetness of pre-summer anticipation. The song itself has a deeper meaning— in a sobering contrast to its smooth, laid-back sound, Gambino uses the lyrics to comment on climate change, environmental degradation, and resource scarcity, singing “Every day gets hotter than the one before / Running out of water, it’s about to go down.” And if you’ve forgotten the song’s iconic 2018 animated music video with references to Travis Scott, Will Smith as the Fresh Prince, and Nicki Minaj, revisit it here!
Check out the EHS spring playlist here.