What is it, exactly, that makes a song worthy of status? Instant earworm-iness? A thumping, club-ready beat? A screamable chorus? Some secret fourth thing? The criteria feel so ill-defined—and, well, —that we’ve gone a bit rogue here at and simply compiled a list of songs we can’t stop listening to this season, whatever their genre. These include, yes, singles from Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter, and a of tracks from (look, we’re only human!), but also worthy releases by The Last Dinner Party, L’Impératrice, Hovvdy, Buscabulla, Mahmood, and Peggy Gou. So we invite you to kick back, relax, and crank up your speakers.
Whether you’re shoring up a road-trip playlist, plotting a cookout, or just looking for something to jam to over the whirr of your air conditioner, have we got the song (or three) for you. Romy Mars, daughter of Sofia Coppola and Phoenix frontman Thomas Mars, released her first-ever single, “Stuck Up,” as part of a earlier this summer. Usually, I would shy away from mentioning her famous parents, but I am tickled by the fact that the song flawlessly mixes that certain of French pop perfection (as heard in Phoenix, yes, but also Air) with a high-femme cinematic language.
When “Stuck Up” begins, she is sitting at the edge of the pool, and then suddenly she is “upside down and inside out,” flailing underwater as her paramour has pulled her in (metaphorically or otherwise). It’s such a specific image—of having fun and losing control. .