'Light & Day / Reach for the Sun' by the Polyphonic Spree
The Polyphonic Spree's anthem 'Light & Day / Reach For The Sun' is a childhood favourite of mine and is always my go-to motivational song no matter where I am or what mood I'm in. After a quiet start, the song explodes into a defiant and jubilant chorus that lifts the spirits in unmistakable ways. The Polyphonic Spree are a group known for their choral harmonies and here they give me goosebumps, but the wave of strings and brass in the background when the chorus hits is still one of the most euphoric things I've ever heard in music. It always hits, it always makes me feel happy, and it all boils down to that main line: just follow the day and reach for the sun!
- Alex Paine
'Abracadabra' by Lady Gaga
As the title suggests, Lady Gaga truly did cast a spell with this song. When I hear this song, I can’t just sit still in bed. She summons me to get up, dance, and then finish my work. I played this song while writing this and I actually stopped typing at the chorus to dance along before resuming my thoughts. I feel my eyes becoming less droopy with every note. When Gaga tells me to “feel the beat under your feet, the floor’s on fire” that’s a sign for me to pick myself up and lock in; TikTok scroll time is over. If you see me in the library bopping my head back and forth and furiously typing, know that this song is playing and it's your sign to listen to it as well.
- Taylor Roth
'The Feeling' by Kygo featuring Sigrid
I love this tune for its classic Scandipop emotional euphoria. Two of Norway's best artists came together for this song and it really makes me feel like nobody could ever hurt me ever again, just for three minutes and ten seconds. Perhaps Scandipop songs are too overt and emotionally open to be popular in the UK because they don't fit the stoic and superficial British charisma. I don't care. I revel in their cheesiness. Besides, where else do you think that mysterious twenty-something transformation comes from?
'Blood Type (Группа крови)' by Kino
It's a really odd choice, not for everyone. It's not sung in English and I don't even understand the lyrics without subtitles. Why then? Because it's gritty, hard and speaks to the human cost of someone else's folly. I also happen to feel quite gritty on Monday at 9am and preoccupied with the imposed futility of doing anything at all at that ungodly hour. This song is a Soviet classic and it's perfect for when I feel like the cog in a vast Soviet utopia machine which has broken down. I don't expect anyone else to agree or like it and that's fine.
- Phillipp Andreewitch
'No One Knows' by Queens of the Stone Age
What better music to get you motivated than one of the nastiest rock riffs of this century? 'No One Knows' is Queens of the Stone Age's flagship hit, and rightly so. A razor-sharp opening groove paves the way for Dave Grohl's drumming fireworks in the chorus, which were so thunderous Grohl had to record them in two overlayed takes. Josh Homme's vocal performance is deliciously sinister and Nick Oliveri's monstrous bass tone in the theatrical finale is the stuff of rock n' roll legend. And as for that wonderfully simple, stadium-filling guitar riff: if it doesn't get you moving, you need to see a doctor.
- Bertie Kirkwood