92. My Degree Playlist

Hello everyone, I'm currently writing my final ever piece of coursework and revising for my last ever exams (hooray!) so started thinking about the songs that have got me through revision and assignments over the past three years and songs that reminds me of good times at university too!

1) Florence and the Machine - Spectrum. During my very first week at university, we went on a trip to Risley Moss which is a nature reserve not far from Manchester and on the way, I was listening to this song and spotted a rainbow out of the coach window which is essentially a spectrum of colours, how very apt?!

2) Adele - Skyfall. I think this was actually the first film I went to see during university and I remember seeing buses which had a photo of Daniel Craig printed on the entire bus near our campus.

3) Everything Everything - Cough Cough. I remember listening to this song a lot during my first semester, it's just so upbeat and exactly what I needed after finishing labs at 5pm on Tuesdays and during some weeks, on Fridays too. 

4) Disclosure - F for You. I listened to this a lot during the second semester of first year but one time that sticks out was the day of the fashion show that I had been working on with my mentees during the 5 month voluntary mentoring project I did during first year and I just came home and relaxed as I had been at uni/mentoring from 9am -8pm that day and this was the perfect song to unwind to. I loved mentoring and it is one of the best things I did at uni, a fab way to meet lots of new people from all walks of life. There are a few versions of this song but the original is my favourite.

5) Jake Bugg - Two Fingers. I was lucky enough to see Jake Bugg live at the Manchester Apollo in November 2013 and I couldn't get over the fact he was the same age as me but has done so well! We had so many deadlines around the time of the gig so it was exactly the break I needed. I love this song because the lyrics are so honest and there are some days when we all feel like sticking two fingers up to yesterday to get on with life. 

6) Arctic Monkeys - Do I Wanna Know? AM basically got me through my whole second year, I listened to it on repeat when I was making notes for my first semester lectures and then when I was writing my dissertation on Parkinson's Disease in second semester. I stopped listening to it as much for a few months but when I saw their set at Reading (unfortunately only on television), it reignited my love for this wonderful record. It is one of my favourite albums ever so it was very difficult to choose a single song but I went with the first track off the album because I still can't put my air guitar away whenever I hear it (unless I'm at the gym because that would be dangerous and embarrassing).

7) Clean Bandit - Rather Be. This time last year, this song was everywhere and I was lucky enough to see them at Manchester Academy last October and they were superb! This song just makes me happy, the video is great (I genuinely thought the girl in the video was singing it at first) and it was the song of summer 2014 for me.

8) Ed Sheeran- Sing. I had this and Rather Be on repeat during library sessions revising for exams last summer and they certainly got me through plant biology, evolution and immunology revision. I genuinely thought Ed was Justin Timberlake when I heard Sing for the first time. He's such a nice chap and genuinely deserves all of his success. Andy Murray is a fan too which makes him even better (can't wait for the best wedding the tennis world has seen tomorrow, I do hope they share some photos despite keeping it private). Also, I like Pharrell's new range for Adidas Originals, all the colours are beautiful.

9) Years & Years - Real. During my internship, I asked one of my fellow interns if she would like to come to see Clean Bandit with me and she said yes so then we did some investigating to see who the support act was and found out that it was these guys. For most of our internship, both of us had this on repeat, it is so catchy! Thank goodness for earphones otherwise we would have driven the other intern crazy. What makes this song even better is the fact that Ben Whishaw who stars as Q in Skyfall dances like nobody's watching in the video (not sure if 007 would approve).

10) Taylor Swift - Blank Space. Just like I listened to AM a lot whilst writing my dissertation, I listened to this, Wham and S Club 7's (don't judge, they are so motivational) greatest hits a lot when writing my literature review during the first semester of final year. I could have chosen Don't Stop Movin' or I'm Your Man but thought it would be best to keep it current and this song made me like Taylor Swift especially as she loves cats and does nice things like surprising her superfans (I'm not a Swiftie) with presents and visiting them. 

Others that failed to make it into my top 10 include Bauer's Harlem Shake, Psy's Gangnam Style and Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines for pretty obvious reasons, the amount of people who did parodies at university of the Harlem Shake was ridiculous but I do approve of Greg James' parody of Blurred Lines.

Which songs would be on your degree playlist?

Until next time, take care.
Love,
Mancunian Sheep x