Turn Up the Music: Playlists for your summer of wonder

By Jasmine Jones

When I listen to Lana Del Rey’s “Lust for Life” album, I see my teenage self, strapped into my parents’ mini van’s backseat, staring out the window at a blur of Californian desert. My family was returning from a road trip to Los Angeles that summer when she released the album, and I listened to the wistful “13 Beaches” and moody “Summer Bummer” songs on my iPod touch as the sandy desert outside the van turned to red rock, turned to city, turned to golden prairie as wide as the sky. I re- member how everything felt possible as I looked out that window. Landscape could change dramatically, quickly, within a few miles, and so could I, so could my life.

Honestly, “Lust for Life” is my least favorite Lana album, but I love it because of its connection to this transformative trip taken the summer before my senior year of high school. I love it because the music outlines those memories, thoughts, fears and dreams. Those 16 songs on the album bring me back to that girl in the minivan; they help me to remember and to move forward.

This is the beauty of music. Artists create songs often inspired by their emotions and stories, but when we listen to them, we layer on our own experiences and feelings; we braid them into our life stories, song by song and day by day.

So, here are a few playlists I’ve curated for you to live your life to. They’re created with specific experiences and feelings in mind, but let them be a backdrop for your summer of wonder, whatever that may look like.

Listen alone. Or with friends. Or with everyone you’ve ever known. It’s up to you. For the best listening, take the backroads, turn up the music and roll down the windows. All of them.