Songs of Summer 2012

Every summer has its own sound. Maybe because you played them so much, maybe because they were on at an important moment, maybe because they were just inescapable. Songs that bring you back here whenever you hear them.

Here are my top 10 songs of Summer 2012. What are yours?

#10 David Guetta ft. Sia – Titanium. Not only is it a gorgeous song, but while I usually hate videos, this one is great. Think “Super 8” meets “X-Men”.

#9 Carly Rae Jepsen – Call Me Maybe. If you had a pulse this summer, you did a lipdub to this song: Justin Bieber to Jimmy Fallon to Cookie Monster, Harvard baseball boys to Methodist rowing girls, President Obama to a small dog.

#8. Wynter Gordon – Dirty Talk. An inescapable workout song. Just try to remember not to sing along in public.

#7. Will.I.Am ft. Jennifer Lopez and Mick Jagger – T.H.E. (The Hardest Ever). Anybody who can reference Jesus and Liquid Schwartz AND get Mick Jagger to sing about trigonometry all in the same song deserves some kind of credit.

#6. Fun. – Some Nights. Because you need to know what it would have sounded like if Queen, Simon and Garfunkel and those kids who wrote that Abercrombie & Fitch song back in the day all got drunk and made a song together.

#5. Flo Rida – Whistle. Not what you’d call subtle, but guaranteed to get stuck in your head.

#4. AFI – Prelude 12/21. It only makes sense that I like this when I admit I heard it in a Downton Abbey teaser. Ignore the video. Close your eyes and think of Dan Stevens. (Good advice for life in general.)

#3. Skrillex – Bangarang. I know it’s noise. I love it.

#2. St. Lucia – Closer Than This. I could listen to this on repeat for hours. I have. All credit to Kim (one of the Three Content Empresses).

#1. Dominique Pruitt – To Win Your Love. This. This song. It has the pop-song-standby double clap. It’s danceable. It’s singable. It’s happy. It’s summery. It’s perfect.