There’s something about summer and pop-punk music that goes together SO well. Maybe it’s the memory of Warped Tour. Maybe it’s the memory of biking around with friends all day and staying up late trying to find new music for my iPod. IDK. But there’s nothing better than bringing up some old playlists from summer’s past to listen to during the summer months.

I thought I’d put together a list of 10 of my favorite albums (in no particular order) to listen to during summer: perfect albums for driving around or sitting around a fire with friends. I also put together a playlist featuring songs that instantly make me think of summer. It features a little of everything: pop-punk, 90’s pop, 2010’s indie.

You can find the playlist on Spotify and Apple Music.

10. ANGELS & AIRWAVES - WE DON’T NEED TO WHISPER (2006)
This album came out at the end of my freshman year and it was life-changing. This album was on repeat for me SO much that summer. I would spend all day biking around with my best friend and then come home and listen to this album on repeat for hours. It was so unique sounding to me. I loved the space-like vibes. IDK. I still really love listening to this album during this time of year.

9. TELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS - TAKING BACK SUNDAY (2002)
I listened to this album so much towards the end of summer going into fall in 2006. I thought I was so cool listening to Taking Back Sunday, I don’t know why. But this album will always remind me of the end of summer going into fall and going into high school.

8. PARAMORE - RIOT! (2007)
This album took over my life and my friends’ lives during the summer of 2007. It was released on June 11th, so it was meant to be. We’d listen to this album nonstop and you were cool if you had a Paramore shirt. This one reminds me of garage sales and hanging out on MySpace.

7. THE ALL-AMERICAN REJECTS - THE ALL-AMERICAN REJECTS (2002)
My friend burned me a CD of this album in the summer of 2005 and it kind of became a mild obsession to listen to this album when I was playing The Sims. I would create my own custom content in the game and make so many band tees.

6. THE AUDITION - CONTROVERSY LOVES COMPANY (2005)
I randomly downloaded this album in the summer of 2007 and would listen to it nonstop while I sat watching my brother’s baseball games. I remember I lost my iPod before this summer, so I had a tiny MP3 player that could only hold 100 songs and it was a struggle to choose what songs I put on there for the week, but this whole album made it onto my playlist every week that summer.

5. SENSES FAIL - STILL SEARCHING (2006)
This album came out in fall 2006 but I didn’t really get into it until summer 2007. This was definitely an album I listened to a lot while reading celebrity gossip blogs and redoing my MySpace layout.

4. CARTEL - CHROMA (2005)
I want to say I found out about this album in the summer of 2006 from spending hours watching MTV while playing Sims. The music video for Honestly played all the time. Eventually, I checked out the album and it was another one of those albums that was on repeat. Still love listening to this album in the summer.

3. HELLOGOODBYE - ZOMBIES! ALIENS! VAMPIRES! DINOSAURS! (2006)
I want to say I found out about hellogoodbye from watching that one weird season of The Real World in Austin. When Z!A!V!D! came out in late summer 2006, I was fully obsessed. I couldn’t get enough. This album was my life and I listened to this album constantly my entire sophomore year and into the summer of 2007, as well.

2. BLINK-182 - ENEMA OF THE STATE (1999)
This album is just a classic and the perfect summer album and has been a repeat summer album since it came out. That’s all I have to say.

1. FALL OUT BOY - TAKE THIS TO YOUR GRAVE (2003)
Of course, a Fall Out Boy album would make this list, and for me, Take This To Your Grave is my ultimate summer album. So much energy. I would listen to this one after a long day of biking around town. 10/10.

Looking to relive a summer from the past? Check out my pop-punk summer throwback playlist!

Available on Apple Music and Spotify.

Enjoy!