20 Best Summer Songs of 2016, Ranked

14 – Something Wild – Lindsey Stirling ft. Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness

If you are content with whatever the car radio puts in front of you, you may be unfamiliar with Lindsey Stirling’s fiddling perfection. I love her for her fabulous renditions of video game tunes. I have nothing to say about Pete’s Dragon one way or the other, but this summer song itself is the childlike adventure piece this summer needed for young adults to jam to as they drive off to new college experiences. My heart melts just imagining it.

I can never get over how talented Stirling is. She can sing (though she doesn’t here). Stirling fiddles better than the devil in Charlie Daniels’ folktale. She can do all this while dancing spiritedly in the middle of a grass meadow. Listening to “Something Wild” brings to mind dragons even without knowledge of the movie. It uses a subtle Celtic influence in the string part that Stirling effortlessly glides over to emphasize that magic. Thanks, Stirling and McMahon. I feel as though I could conquer dragons now, too.

Next: 13 - Autumn Leaves - Leslie Odom Jr.