Over a month into the spring semester, I couldn’t help but wonder…how can one describe the current vibes for this semester? This semester is wildly turning out to be freshly exciting compared to last semester, which felt sadly straining in my personal opinion. I could be calling it too early that this Spring 2025 semester is currently superior to the Fall 2024 semester but I would like to declare that to the world. To show my devoted love to this semester, I’ve gone through current songs I listened to from the past and now that personally have defined the spring semester for me so far.
Starting with a bang, “Butterflies” by TV Girl and George Clanton featuring Jordana feels like a retro throwback turned new. Its millennium dance club-esque composition evokes a feeling of new beginnings. A chance to start over from the wildness of last semester. It’s fitting that I decided to start with this song first because this was one of the songs that was on my shuffled Spotify playlist on the train back here for this new semester. A cinematic opening track, one may say.
Continuing with that feeling of new beginnings, another defining track for me is “Next Level Charli” by Charli XCX from her 2019 self-titled album. Her 2019 self-titled album is such a hidden gem, overshadowed by the releases of “Crash” and “Brat.” This song feels like walking home and seeing the sunrise after a long night out-a good long night out. It’s an album opener of a track that is filled with references from her past releases like “Vroom Vroom” and “Pink and Blue” — yet it is its own track. This song has been an anthem for me this semester: to go wild and let go of my past mistakes last semester and embrace them for how they got me to this point. It’s an old new me.
Speaking of things that once seemed old but are new again, we’re in politically uncertain times again. It’s like a repeat of my middle school years all over again. Yet with uncertainty, there’s hope. A hope that is consistently on the edge but hopes for better times. In comes “Love it if We Made It” by The 1975, a signature track from their 2018 album, “A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships.” The lyrics, “Jesus save us! Modernity has failed us” echo a sentiment that I feel many of us in our youth feel, a time where we are seeing a decline of our political systems and modern society. The bridge captivates all of the issues of this modern society on the internet. Even with all of the problems of this world you can’t help but think that you’d “love it if we made it.”
Last semester was a wild one for me, for all the wrong reasons. Despite the numerous worrying issues that I, an existential sophomore in college, am thinking about, I feel good vibes for this semester. Vibes through my music taste that should be shared of course with you, the WVAU community.
Feature image by Noah Wahlers