50 Songs To Get You Through Finals Season
By Lance Pauker
Finals is as much a memorable aesthetic as it is a series of tests. Nowadays, it’s pretty much mandatory to spend the majority of those late nights recapturing the year that was — reliving all the highs and lows while turning your attention to what’s to come. Thoughts like “isn’t it crazy that 3 weeks from now, I’ll be interning in San Francisco?!?” or “I wonder if Tammy and Chris are finally gonna break up” should be rather pervasive as you sit there for 5 hours, trying to decipher your terrible notes from early February.
As we all know, the only thing more important than a properly timed 3 down, 2 to go finals status is a well crafted “study” playlist. Something that does an admirable job getting you through all those late nights hunkering down on your Wikipedia wormhole prowess, and talking to your stoner friend about his movie idea inspired by some traumatic, but duly revelatory childhood experience.
Here are 50 songs, and their accompanying “phases” — each phase is intended to represent a specific mood that comes with the finals studying experience (for example, the first few songs are all string and piano covers of popular songs, representing the “I’m a serious scholar who has interesting study music” phase). Enjoy, and don’t forget to pretend to study:
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Phase 1: No, I’m Actually Gonna Study
1. Sweet Disposition – Vitamin String Quartet
2. Your Hand In Mine – Explosions In The Sky
3. Scary Monsters & Nice Sprites – Piano Tribute Players
4. Dark Horse – Piano Tribute Players
5. Viva La Vida – Piano Tribute Players
6. Perpetuum Mobile – Penguin Cafe Orchestra
7. Fade Into Darkness (Instrumental) – Avicii
Phase 2: Heightened Focus (Kevin Sells Adderall If You Need)
8. Good Morning – Chamillionaire
10. Closer To The Sun – Slightly Stoopid
12. You (Ha Ha Ha) – Charli XCX
13. The Geeks Get The Girls – American HiFi
14. Narcolepsy – Third Eye Blind
18. The Show Goes On – Lupe Fiasco
Phase 3 – Hookup Regrets, Missed Opportunities (Daydreaming)
20. Too Little, Too Late – Lorde
21. If You’re Not The One – Daniel Beddingfield
25. Let It Go (Frozen Soundtrack) – Demi Lovato
26. What’s My Age Again – Vitamin String Quartet
Phase 4: Sorta Refocused
28. Game Of Thrones – Dominik Hauser
29. Pacific Rim – Ramin Djawadi, Tom Morello
31. Watching Movies – Mac Miller
32. Kryptonite – Big Boi, Rock D The Legend, Killer Mike, Blackowned C-Bone
33. All Of Me (Tiesto Remix) – John Legend
Phase 5: Kinda Drunk?
34. 23 – Mike Will Made It, Miley Cyrus, Wiz Khalifa, Juicy J
35. #Selfie – The Chainsmokers
36. Lights (Bassnectar Remix) – Ellie Goulding
37. Helena – My Chemical Romance
Phase 6: High School Parking Lot Memories
40. The First Single – The Format
41. All You Wanted – Michelle Branch
42. Body Language – Jesse McCartney ft. T Pain
Phase 7: Probably Should Just Move To Barcelona Or Something
46. We Are One (Ole Ola) – Pitbull, Jennifer Lopez
Phase 8: Finishing Out Strong
47. Eye Of The Tiger – Survivor
49. Cum On Feel The Noize – Quiet Riot
50. Faithfully – Piano Tribute Players