Editors’ Picks

This song had me in the trenches from the second I heard, “While I’m on Sunset, are you on the subway?” Being from Southern California — and experiencing my one and only heartbreak there — I was terrified I’d be stuck there, abandoned in a memory and wondering if they still thought about me. These days, the song radiates nostalgia: highways at sunset, outdoor malls at golden hour, piers at night. For extra damage, listen to the acoustic version.

A stripped-down sad bop about drunkenly pining for your ex at 3 a.m., “Just My Luck” hits different for anyone who’s missing a special somebody late at night. Ray and Kehlani’s bitingly sweet vocals mask the desperation and regret that reveal themselves in lyrics like “Now I’m yelling at the phone in the middle of a bar begging for your kisses” and “It’s just my luck / I won’t remember this in the morning.” Plus, there’s a Mandarin Chinese version for those who wish to learn heartbreak in two tongues.

I have screamed the lyric “I could waste all of my time in between the lines” countless times while driving around my hometown, angsty about graduating from high school and having to actually become an adult. EASHA’s self-confident, quasi-manic pixie dream girl vibes are cathartic, and even now, a year later, the song is like a good punch to the gut.

“Yellow” carried me kicking and screaming through tough times in high school, like an afternoon spent crying after sixth period outside our school theater. Those days, I had a hard time doing a lot of things: quitting what made me sad, making decisions that hurt then but were better in the long run. 幸福 ( xìng fú ) — happiness — was the first thing Ho sung that I knew the meaning of. It’ll come, sooner or later, for all of us.

Last summer, I struggled to enjoy my time with my closest friends, knowing each day that passed was a day closer to leaving one another — some indefinitely. On the drive home from one of our last beach days together, “Ew” entered the queue. As I listened and stared into the forested Santa Cruz mountains along Highway 17, I came to a realization: As the song goes, people “teach you to love just to let you go,” and that’s part of the complicated yet beautiful nature of friendship and growth.