Every year, the battle for the song of the summer rages. Last year, the winner was Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” and/or Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines,” depending on who you ask. This summer’s anthem may not have even made itself known yet, unless Pharrell’s “Happy” uninhibited joy gives it enough staying power.

This isn’t the only unanswered music-related question about this summer. This is my last column of the semester, so what are you, the reader, going to do without it for the next four months? Who will you go to read about meals based on certain albums or why country and hardcore music isn’t as bad as you may think?

I understand how central a part of your life How I Hear It is, so I won’t leave you hanging. In fact, I’m going to give you some summer homework. Listed below are a few albums that, for various benefits and reasons, you should listen to.

You should listen to Swim Deep’s “Where The Heaven Are We” because…

…it can be the album of your summer. There is an undeniable airiness to it. It is Grade-A pop music that represents the carefree vibe of ’90s Britpop at its finest, but with modern influences. Swim Deep has much of the spirit of Oasis and The Verve in their primes, which is nothing but a huge compliment. Most every track on this well–rounded album is instantly catchy and forever summer–y. There are plenty of highlights, but if you’re not compelled to listen to “Honey” 40 times in a row — especially after watching the nostalgia-inducing video — there is no helping you.

You should listen to Lady GaGa’s “ARTPOP” because…

…there is good in pop music if you give it a chance. Sure, most pop records are singles you can’t escape surrounded by time-killers, but “ARTPOP” is legitimately a fantastic album. The problem it faced was that mainstream publications like Rolling Stone and NME didn’t particularly care for it, while GaGa is too prominent a figure for indie sites like Pitchfork to seriously consider — Pitchfork actually ignored the album completely and did not review it. “Aura,” “Venus” and “Mary Jane Holland” are superior to the record’s singles, save for “Applause,” which disproves my theory that an album’s lead single is never its actual best song.

You should listen to Capsule’s “CAPS LOCK” because…

…you miss out on a lot of great stuff by only listening domestically. America is the pop culture capital of the world, but like how Washington, D.C. is only part of the United States, American and other English-language music represents a fraction of what is out there. Capsule is a Japanese electronic duo that has been at it for a while and, from what I gather, is held in decently high esteem at home. I’ve always thought of “CAPS LOCK” as a spiritual sibling to Alt-J’s “An Awesome Wave”: They don’t sound that similar, but their structure and the impression they leave is similar in a way I’m not adequately able to explain.

You should listen to Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark’s “Dazzle Ships” because…

…it’s from before you were born, it’s one of the weirder album’s you’ll ever hear and it’s fantastic. OMD followed up a largely successful record with this bizarre half hour set that really put people off. The problem was that it was ahead of its time, as it has been retroactively hailed as an overlooked masterpiece. Listen to single “Telegraph” and you can see how it might not have been appreciated then, but the delicate synths and growling, wailing and catchy vocals make the tune an oddball earworm anybody with a penchant for the charmingly unusual will appreciate.

Those are your assignments, now get studying.