Summer is over, whether the Atlanta weather gods concur or not. Monday, Sept. 22 marked the first official day of fall, ushering in the season of burgundy leaves, pumpkin spice lattes and scary movies. But while the seasons change, some things never do, and the desire to dub a “song of the summer” is among them.
This year, the hunt for a summer anthem gave way to heated debate. Was it Sabrina Carpenter’s spunky Southern hit “Manchild”? Was it newcomer Alex Warren’s sentimental ballad “Ordinary”? Did summer 2025 lack an essential track? To settle this contentious issue, the Arts & Life staff — obviously, the definitive voice on the matter — offers our songs of the summer.
‘Slipfast’ by Role Model (2024)
It is no secret that summer 2025 served as a breakthrough season for the alternative-rocker-turned-indie star, Tucker Pillsbury. During almost a decade in the industry, Role Model achieved varied success as a hip-hop artist until his 2025 release, “Kansas Anymore (The Longest Goodbye),” catapulted him into the alt-pop stratosphere alongside Gracie Abrams, Lizzy McAlpine and Djo. This year, Role Model’s track “Sally, When the Wine Runs Out” became his first No. 1 on the Billboard chart.
But while the masses were dancing to the infectious chorus of “Sally,” I was screaming to the desperate bridge of “Slipfast.” A standout track from the original release of “Kansas Anymore” (2024), “Slipfast” finds Role Model arriving at his now highly regarded artistic persona — a candid songwriter, unassuming vocalist and self-aware self-saboteur. With “Slipfast,” a fusion of folk, rock and pop, Role Model captures the moment of calm before collapse and the cognitive dissonance of life in your twenties. On the aforementioned bridge, Role Model pines, “And sometimes I hate this road that I’m taking / I could just move home, no occupation / Throw in the towel, answer to no one / Just let it all burn down.”
Although “Slipfast” lacks the common features of previous summer hits such as the clever quips of Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso” (2024), it nonetheless speaks to a relatable aspect of summertime — watching the world from the window and wondering what the next season might bring.
— Catherine Goodman, Managing Editor
‘BOOGIE’ by BROCKHAMPTON (2017)
Summer, no matter the year, will always be BROCKHAMPTON season for me. I got my driver’s license just before the summer of 2021, and through those three months, my best friend Ben and I drove around for hours on end, enjoying our newfound independence. The soundtrack to those car rides was almost exclusively BROCKHAMPTON, especially since we no longer had to worry about our parents picking the music or having to play it at an appropriate volume.
BROCKHAMPTON, the eight-man rap group who sometimes refer to themselves as the “best boy band since One Direction,” might not always make the most profound music, but you would be hard-pressed to find a group that infuses their tracks with as much unabashed fun and originality. “BOOGIE,” the intro song to the third album in the band’s “SATURATION” series, is the epitome of BROCKHAMPTON.
The song’s blaring horns, which have more in common with an ambulance than an actual instrument, are simultaneously groovy and speaker-breaking. The track also serves as a victory lap for the members of BROCKHAMPTON, who trade bars that sound like they are yelling from the zenith of the rap world. “I've been beat up my whole life / I've been shot down, kicked down twice / Ain't no stoppin' me tonight / I'ma get all the things I like,” Kevin Abstract yells in the song’s chorus. While BROCKHAMPTON’s time together did not last long, I will always associate their infectious energy with the freedom that summer brings.
—Alex Gerson, Deputy Editor
‘Just Keep Watching’ by Tate McRae
For me, the song of the summer is always one you can picture yourself playing while driving down to the beach with the windows down — it is a song that makes you crave running through ocean waves and falling in love in the heated night. In “Just Keep Watching,” which debuted on the “F1: The Movie” soundtrack, Tate McRae drives up to the listener in a racecar and promises a wild two-minute and 22-second ride that encapsulates this summer vibe.
Taking inspiration from the film this single debuted on, McRae evokes speed and physicality through percussion roars and synth pulses that gain momentum as she sings about confidence in the face of skepticism: “Just like this, here for the night / You ain't buying in? Just keep watchin’.”
McRae tells us to own scrutiny and to revel in being watched. The music video is empowering, as the singer dances to the camera with a defiant sensuality that is certain to outrage the conservative political and social climate that has defined summer 2025. There is no song better to let your hair down to, to dance it out to in front of a sunset with people who let you give “all your love.”
Perhaps because she was the winner of “Song of the Summer” at the 2025 Video Music Awards, or even because she earned her third No. 1 song on Billboard’s Hot Dance/Pop Songs chart, it is not outrageous to say this single defined summer 2025. You don’t believe in McRae? Well, you will have to “Just Keep Watching,” then.
– Jacob Muscolino, News Editor
‘the 1’ by Taylor Swift (2020)
No one does summer better than Taylor Swift — especially with her Grammy award-winning Album of the Year, “folklore” (2020). On a project full of anthemic summer tracks encapsulating teenage heartbreak, love and longing, like “august” (2020) and “illicit affairs” (2020), one track never fails to inch its way onto my summer playlists: “the 1.”
While sadder and subtler in its summerness than other tracks, “the 1” encapsulates everything summer is and should be: nostalgia and acceptance, self-discovery and growth, beauty and love. Beginning with the open-minded line, “I'm doing good, I'm on some new sh*t / Been saying ‘yes’ instead of ‘no,’” Swift becomes willing to embrace change — and life — as it comes her way. To me, summer will always be about “saying ‘yes’ instead of ‘no,’” prioritizing the present moment over worrying about the future. When Swift sings, “And it's alright now,” she reminds me to breathe, slow down and live — not get swept up in chaotic worry about my post-summer life.
Throughout the bridge, Swift's vocals take a sweeter approach, where her newfound state of acceptance echoes throughout each line. Here, the singer accepts the things she cannot change, singing, “I, I, I persist and resist the temptation to ask you / If one thing had been different / Would everything be different today?” But more than anything, Swift uses her experiences to better herself, singing, “And if you never bleed, you're never gonna grow.”
Summer is a period of exploration, where responsibilities seem to fade away as the sun sets later, and Swift captures this feeling perfectly — a whirlwind of nostalgia, effervescence and peace that, when put together, becomes beautiful.
– Amelia Bush, Arts & Life Editor
‘Let Down’ by Radiohead (1997)
Nothing screams summer like vacation. While we often focus on locations we are going to and trips we have patiently waited for, it is easy to overlook the actual experience of traveling. Every day, millions of people get in planes, trains, Ubers and taxis, attempting to get from point A to point B as quickly and efficiently as possible.
For Radiohead lead singer Thom Yorke, this phenomenon is not only a spectacle but a depressing, uncontrollable part of life. In “Let Down,” York details people aimlessly boarding modes of transportation only to reach “the emptiest of feelings.” While the first lines of the song are about the misery of travel, the track details the dismal cycle of optimism, excitement and eventual letdown all throughout.
This is my song of the summer because while hearing Yorke whine about his fear of planes, I gained a greater appreciation for traveling. Whether I was looking out the window while taking the Amtrak with my college friends or accepting a cookie from the flight attendant, “Let Down” has helped me view travel as less of the journey and more as part of the destination.
— Sammy Brodsky, Sports Editor
‘Midnight Sun’ by Zara Larsson
Zara Larsson is one of pop music’s most unappreciated treasures. The 27-year-old sensation — who began her music career by winning Talang, Sweden’s “Got Talent” adaptation, at just 10 years old — can craft a pop earworm like no other. “Midnight Sun,” the title track of her upcoming album, encapsulates her radiant star power and is a shortlist for this decade’s list of pop perfection.
Instead of channeling the summer heat, Larsson pays tribute to the effervescence of nighttime in Sweden, her home country. The beauty of a late-night drive with her lover matches the beauty of a Nordic twilight: “It’s that midnight sun-kissed skin under the red sky / Layin’ on your chest like this,” Larsson sings. The chorus is miraculously polished, with a pulsing beat accompanying lyrics that paint a purple-hued picture of a night by the beach that — among the long days of far-north Swedish summertime — quite literally never ends, “Hold me like the pebbles in your hand, initials in your hand, yeah,” Larsson sings.
And at the end of the track, Larsson stuns as she executes a series of vocal flips while singing, “A never ending midnight sun,” cementing her as one of today’s most talented vocalists and “Midnight Sun” as an instant summer classic.
– Hunter Buchheit, Arts & Life Editor
‘give me a break!’ by Michael Clifford and Waterparks
No matter the season, I am listening to 5 Seconds of Summer, known colloquially as “5SOS”— I have the merchandise and Spotify Wrapped statistics to prove it. This devotion also branches out to the band members’ solo projects, since 5SOS is an amalgamation of unique energies and aesthetics. Guitarist and vocalist Michael Clifford has always brought eccentric and alternative styles, so it only felt fitting that he collaborated with Waterparks’s Awsten Knight to create “give me a break!”
“give me a break!” is everything that makes summer, summer: It is energetic, spontaneous and playfully tells a captivating story. Within the song, Clifford and Knight describe how the internet glorifies people they know nothing about, erasing their true identities. In the loud and staccato chorus, Clifford demands from the listener, “I don’t remember who I am, now give me a name / I don’t remember what I look like, give me a face.” In a slower and sweeter-sounding bridge, Knight bluntly tells listeners, “I’m just a phone screen, daydream, baby.” These artists are not the people we see online, so we should stop holding them to unattainable standards.
The music video for this track takes a unique approach to portraying this idea — through the lens of a teenage girl writing a fanfiction between the two, of course. The author tests different scenarios to get her characters to fall in love, but they just don’t mesh. Somehow, whatever she writes is misconstrued and Knight ends up killing Clifford, instead. But in the end, they find love unexpectedly, and they may or may not have kissed, too.
Any occasion is the perfect occasion for 5SOS. But before the lighthearted whimsy of summer 2025 passes for good, check out “give me a break!” to set the vibes right.
– Saba Faisal, Deputy Illustration Editor
‘Mystical Magical’ by Benson Boone
Summer 2025 can be summed up in two words: mystical and magical. Because honestly, what screams summer more than moonbeam ice cream, taking off your blue jeans and dancing at the movies? According to me, and to everyone’s favorite backflipping, blue-sequin-wearing 23-year-old singer with a mustache, nothing else compares to these summertime pleasures.
Benson Boone’s “Mystical Magical” took the world by storm, capturing hearts with its lyricism and soaring vocals. By interpolating Olivia Newton-John’s “Physical” (1981) — a move Doja Cat made previously in “Kiss Me More” (2021) — Boone reintroduces Newton-John’s timeless classic with a fresh take. In his familiar tone, Boone belts, “Once you know what my love’s gonna feel like / Nothing else will feel right, you can feel like.” From the Moonbeam Ice Cream Crumbl Cookie to his unforgettable Grammy performance earlier this year, Boone solidified himself as a household name with this iconic track.
So do that backflip, eat that ice cream and take off your blue jeans to put on a pair of shorts because the season of the mystical and magical is not over just because summer is. Instead, it is a lifestyle within reach of anyone willing to take a leap of faith.
– Sarah Yun, Contributing Writer
‘Kids’ by MGMT (2007)
“Kids” describes how I felt the summer after graduating high school. From its title to its lyrics to its rhythm, the record perfectly encapsulates the feeling of being young and of knowing that youth will not last forever.
An audio clip of young kids counting down introduces the song, and the listener is met with an unforgettable beat that continues for the rest of the song. The instrumental features loud synth notes that cycle rapidly, making it feel like the start of a party. The lyric, “No time to think of consequences,” further reinforces the idea that we will not be this young ever again — and we must make the most of it.
All of these elements make “Kids” the perfect song for a graduation party, a shower concert and, of course, to listen to with your headphones on during the summer. The song’s inspiring feeling makes you want to cross everything off the summer bucket list while you still have the freedom of a kid.
– Mack Young, Contributing Writer
“Golden Days” by Whitney (2016)
“Golden Days” defines the summer by exuding good vibes and pure happiness. Whitney, a duo consisting of former Smith Westerns guitarist Max Kakacek and former Unknown Mortal Orchestra drummer Julien Ehrlich, has been around for a while. Recently, while watching a Yankees game, “Golden Days” appeared as the soundtrack to a Toyota ad. While that may make readers suspicious, I first heard Vampire Weekend’s “Holiday” (2010), one of my favorite songs of all time, in a Toyota ad in the back of a cab back in 2015.
“Golden Days” has a wonderful horn section that perfectly scores summer with its positive and jubilant tone. Kakacek also shines with an incredible guitar riff that makes the listener slip into serenity. This song makes me feel nostalgic about a time that has not even happened yet. Ehrlich sings, “It’s a shame we can't get it together now / ’Cause I’m searching for those golden days.” Here, the duo shows how much they miss their golden days when they were still with their exes. I am still in my golden days, with this song making me smile while sitting on the beach or by the pool and romanticizing my life. Whitney made this song to soundtrack the “Golden Days” of our lives, and summer was pretty golden this year.
– Emmett Roth, Contributing Writer
