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A Few Quick Additions for your Summer Playlist!

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By Caitlin Easter

With summer quickly approaching, it’s time to update your playlists, and here at the Women’s Center we have you covered! Here are some new MUST ADDS for your “Summer Evenings 2019” playlists! However, this isn’t your typical playlist. Instead of picking the anthems we already love, I decided that I would show some love to female artists with their unique sounds. While this may not be your idea of a windows-down-music-up playlist, these are songs that embody women’s strength, and will be what I am blasting this summer (yes, with my windows rolled down).

Let’s begin with Billie Eilish’s “you should see me in a crown” from her new album “WHEN WE FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?”. Billie is an artist with a different sound than what you would expect to see appear on one of these lists, but if you’re down for an odd, but iconic, vibe then this could very well be your summer anthem. The specific lyric I’m liking right now is: “You say/ Come over baby/ I think you’re pretty/ I’m okay/ I’m not your baby/ If you think I’m pretty/ You should see me in a crown.” Interested yet? Now go listen to it with the all the production!

Kehlani at the minor stage during Stavernfestivalen in Stavern on 09. July 2016. Lineup: Kehlani Parrish (vocal)

Next up is a personal favorite artist of mine, Kehlani. If you haven’t heard her new song “Nunya” from her 2019 album, “While We Wait,” then I’ll patiently wait for you to go listen. Okay, I’ll apologize for the pun (does that count as a pun?), but a song about not needing a man? We’re in. The line to look out for in this one is: “You put on a show/ ‘Cause you don’t want the world to know/ That you lost a girl who got it on her own/ It’d be good for you to let it go, let it go, let it go/ Ain’t nunya business (Nunya).”

Slowing down a bit for this one, “Warrior” by Avril Lavigne is such a different sound than I think of when I hear ‘Avril.’ Nevertheless, this song from her new album “Head Above Water” is such a refreshing piece! And let’s just say that the rain pouring in the background is surprisingly well placed for such an encouraging tune. I had trouble summarizing this song into a couple of well-spoken lyrics, if I’m honest, but I doubted that pasting the whole song would be appropriate (or legal). So instead you get to hear my commentary! My favorite lines: “Oh, you can’t shoot me down/ You can’t stop me now/ I got a whole…army/ Oh, they tried to break me down/ They tried to take me out/ You can’t cut a scar on me.”

But, it’s the song “Dynamite,” off of the album “Sucker Punch” by Sigrid that is really the underappreciated song of 2019. This great song to get you in your feels, and yet manages to be strangely empowering. And while you’re at it, don’t forget to give the acoustic version a listen as well! The lyrics to appreciate in this song are: “I miss you, but I’ve got things to do…/ I’m the same, but I’m bolder…/ You’re as safe as a mountain/ But know that I am dynamite.” While on the topic of Sigrid, I thought I would throw another good one off her album into the mix. “Don’t Kill My Vibe” is probably the most upbeat song on this list, and it’s also the one that gives me the strongest urge to tweet #YouThought! Embodying empowerment, the line I chose for this song is: “You shut me down, you like the control/ You speak to me like I’m a child/ Try to hold it down, I know the answer/ I can shake it off and you feel threatened by me/ I tried to play it nice but/ Don’t kill my vibe/ Don’t break my stride/ You think you’re so important to me, don’t you?”

To end this list, I’ve decided to take a song that was dropped in 2018 in order to get some #GirlGroup representation on this list! “Women’s World” as it appeared on Little Mix’s fifth studio album “LM5” is

social advocacy set to music. The lyrics speak for themselves, and the artistry in the song itself is stunning. Let’s end this blog with what are objectively the best lyrics of all: “Every day she tells her daughter/ “Baby, you’re not just a pretty face”/ She says “you gotta work much harder/ Than every single man, that’s just the way”/ But she goes to the same job everyday/ She’s overworked and underpaid/ Just ’cause the way her body’s made/ Ain’t that insane?/ If you never been told how you gotta be/ What you gotta wear, how you gotta speak/ If you never shouted to be heard/ You ain’t lived in a woman’s world.”