Weekly Track Roundup 9/26/22: Guilty Pleasures
We all have them: the songs where you double check your headphones are plugged in before blasting at full volume. Each one of these tunes holds a place somewhere in the heart of an Aural Wes team member… they just might not be too proud of it. These songs are our guilty pleasures!
Kanye West - “On Sight”
From the ear splitting synths to Kanye’s endlessly vulgar lyrics, the opening track of Yeezus is a trip. Regardless, I’ve known this song front to back for years, and it remains one of my favorites off this crazy album.
- Emmett Favreau
Carly Rae Jepsen - “Call Me Maybe”
It’s definitely a guilty pleasure because a lot of people see it as a cheesy pop song (that a lot of ppl found annoying???) by a one-hit wonder. But Carly Rae Jepsen is actually an amazing pop writer. Not only can she put an amazing melody together but her songwriting is so good. If you read the lyrics when you listen to the song (or a lot of her other songs from EMOTIONS), you’ll see what I mean.
- Lily Lazar
Ed Sheeran - “Shape of You”
First things first, the music of this song is really good. I feel like absolutely no one asked Ed Sheeran about his sex life, but at least we got a banger out of it. I also love how much of a public menace Sheeran portrays himself as in this song. It's funny for no reason. This one's for you Cecilia <3
- Alexandra Taylor
Imagine Dragons - “It’s Time”
I love this song, especially the beginning... but it's by Imagine Dragons and that's pretty embarrassing...
- Maisie Wrubel
Doja Cat - “MOOO!”
It's so bad that it does a 180 and becomes SOOOO good. I'm sure anyone can tell this is Doja trolling, but at the same time...who else could make such a catchy song about being a cow? I personally don't feel guilt when listening to this song, but the amount of times I've been shamed for listening to it makes "MOOO!" a contender for a guilty pleasure, in my opinion.
- Nolan Lewis
Blink-182 - “Feeling This”
There's something that feels immature about Blink-182 that's hard to deny, especially when this song is called "Feeling This" and is about... you know. That will not stop me from enjoying it. Especially those vocals at the end. I like it, okay?
- Elijah Davis
Pierce The Veil - “Hell Above”
I was obsessed with this album in 8th grade when it came out and - to my surprise (and slight dismay) - when I listened to the album cover to cover about a year ago, I found myself liking it more than ever. I'm not going to say I'm proud that I'm a screamo fan, but this song in particular has such a catchy chorus, face-melting guitar parts, and a heavy breakdown that I would be lying if I said this song wasn't amazing. It's also good to work out to.
- Terry Brannigan
alt-J - “Deadcrush”
RELAXER was the first album hype cycle I ever looped myself into. i was 14. i played every song on this album to death. what a time
- Max Levin
DJ Jazzy Jeff - “The Fresh Prince of Bell-Air”
It’s not a very good song, but will smith is so incredibly charismatic on it; really gets me going
- Lukas Shvetsov
Tove Lo - “Talking Body”
I have never not had a great time when this song is playing. How it still remains such a banger since 2014 is a secret only Tove Lo may know.
- Nicole Motherway
Weyes Blood - “Something to Believe”
This song will suddenly get stuck in my head for no apparent reason, and I always indulge it by listening to the full thing. Weyes Blood makes some fantastic ballads, and even though I know I'm setting myself up to get sick of it, I can't actually bring myself to stop listening.
- Beatrix Briggs
AJR - “Come Hang Out”
I think at this point the majority of love I have for AJR comes from a sense of nostalgia for when I was a 14 year old girl and I didn't have anything better to listen to. But that is still love nonetheless, and as such they remain without question the first band I think of when asked about any sort of musical guilty pleasure. Come Hang Out is the first song I heard by them, the first song I loved by them, and hey, listening back just now, it's still pretty catchy!
- Cassandra Weigle
Ke$ha - “Take it Off”
It doesn’t matter where u r, what time it is or who ur with. When Kesha comes on it’s a party. It’s the most ridiculous example of that early 2010s party pop we all remember hearing on the radio. It’s over the top, in your face and great, not in spite of its flaws but because of them.
- Oliver Sahlman
