Music has the power to completely transform your mood from gloomy to glad with just a few taps on your streaming account. So in the spirit of songs as stress-relievers, every week star contributor Callie Ahlgrim will be back with a playlist of tracks you need to add to your playlists according to a theme. This week, Callie’s bottling up that feeling you get when you watch the first two minutes of a really good movie with an “Opening Credits” themed playlist. As she describes it, “The sort of songs that would play in the background of a film’s opening montage. This playlist is perfect for when you strut down the sidewalk as if a video camera is following, pretending to be the flawed yet lovable protagonist in an indie drama.”

  1. “It’s a Trip!” – Joywave. For such a groovy, lustrous melody, there’s a jarring cynicism in Joywave’s lyrics. “There’s nothing left to want” sounds positive, like the singer has achieved all his aspirations, but when paired with lines like “You don’t know what to want / Just tell me what to want,” an entire lifetime of existentialism and self-doubt is revealed within a single refrain. This tension, this kaleidoscope vision of purpose and desire, is precisely what makes art — music, movies, life itself — a riveting, worthwhile pursuit.
  2. “Future People” – Alabama Shakes. When Alabama Shakes headlined the Boston Calling music festival, a blood moon hovered behind their stage as Brittany Howard sang, “Some things could be seen from above / Thread of design.” While her piercing vocals mingled with the deep red color of the rock floating in the sky, the crowd was silent. It was one of those moments when time feels suspended and music gives mundane moments the surreal, hallucinatory quality of a dream. The beauty of this song is that it forges that fleeting feeling as soon as those first few notes hit the air, regardless of when and where it’s played.
  3. “FACE” – BROCKHAMPTON. The confidence that radiates from BROCKHAMPTON’s debut SATURATION — confidence that exists in bright colors, blue face paint, and all caps — seems to disintegrate in this standout track. “FACE” is ultimately about longing and vulnerability. But its robust beat and seamless weaving of each person’s voice, perspective, and insecurities lend themselves to the vibrant landscape that BROCKHAMPTON paints in each song. The group allows its listeners to become voyeurs as the boys animate their emotions for our pleasure. All we need is excessively buttered popcorn.
  4. “&Run” – Sir Sly. “I don’t know what I don’t know, so I’ll kick my shoes off and run” could serve as the official policy for any coming-of-age story, real or imaginary. In my experience, when it comes to growing up and growing old, just two things remain consistent: uncertainty and change. Sir Sly offers a bouncy, luminescent antidote to self-doubt. “&Run” transforms restlessness, confusion, and heartache into an invitation to explore life itself, an indestructible belief system that starts and ends with “no time for ‘what if’s and ‘what if not’s.”
  5. “Lost” – Frank Ocean. I rarely say this about Frank Ocean, one of music’s most gifted lyricists and storytellers, but you’re safe to ignore the actual plot within this song — unless you want to channel the energy of a drug dealer who loses his girlfriend to the allure of a high-risk, high-reward, jet-setting lifestyle. If so, do you. I’m not here to judge. I’m just here to tell you that “Lost” has an infectious, Las-Vegas-casino vibe that’ll give you the sort of sneaking, defiant confidence that (I assume) only drug dealers and bank robbers feel.
  6. “My Number” – Foals. This energetic kiss-off bills itself as an ending — but it feels more like an introduction, a telescope view into someone’s fidgety musings. It’s easy to imagine yourself in a theatre watching a spunky, headstrong girl flounce around her unrealistically large, succulent-filled Brooklyn apartment to the rhythm of this song. It evokes a sort of careless joy with its bubbly production and constant reaffirmation of “I feel alive” — all while still conveying a sense of urgent, essential independence.
  7. “The Less I Know The Better” – Tame Impala. This standout track from Currents revels in the sound of “dorky, white disco funk,” as described by Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker, but its disregard for coolness and embracing of pure groove is exactly what makes it so appealing. It would be right at home in a Wes Anderson-esque movie that follows the adventures of a social outcast — attractive and charming with an inexplicable lack of friends — who charms the girl out of her relationship with the misogynistic jock. This is not a breakup song or the sound of triumph, but rather an anthem for transition and change.
  8. “Bad Liar” – Selena Gomez. Selena Gomez’s embrace of a Petra Collins-type, Dazed & Confused aesthetic has been her best look yet — and this campy, quixotic quality has bled beautifully into her music. The incorporation of a classic Talking Heads bassline, the playful lyrics, and Gomez’s coaxing vocals all blend together to create her best single to date. The music video is like a mini movie, embracing the cinematic quality of the song and throwing its listeners into the cloying, curious, insular mindset of an emotive girl with a not-so-secret love. 
  9. “Youth” – Glass Animal. The title and cover art for this album, How to Be a Human Being, perfectly captures Glass Animal’s manifesto on “Youth.” The song — presumably written from the perspective of a mother addressing her son — feels immediately sensitive, intimate, and suffused with empathy. Although it literally references just one parent-child relationship, the lyrics’ universality allows the song to fluidly occupy all manners of growth, diversity, and uniqueness that are associated with youth. As you listen, you can practically see your own childhood memories crystallize into movie scenes.
  10. “Glitter” – Charly Bliss. The final track is a bit of an outlier, but its bubblegum-punk vibes were too irresistible not to include on this pseudo-movie soundtrack. “Glitter” combines the vibes of a cheesy, feel-good beach drama with the style of a 90s teen comedy. Think: Mary Kate and Ashley in Holiday in the Sun meet Cher Horowitz in Clueless. This song would be perfectly superimposed onto a classic makeover scene, wherein the sassy, rebellious main character joins a hoard of high schoolers who are all impossibly well-dressed.