the fall playlist
music for the sleepytime bear
Last night I recorded a podcast with two twitter friends who have a show called Rounding Down. I had been on their show previously, in 2021, when we talked out our favorite fall songs. I was invited back for a sequel this year so I compiled a completely new list.
There’s definitely no lack of songs for fall. It’s a season that is emotional in nature; everything is changing, everything is beautiful, everything dies. The songs on my list either reflect all of that or they are just songs I heard first in autumn, so they will always be a reminder of the season. These are the songs I imagine the Sleepytime Bear would be listening to in his cozy living room on a fall evening.
Below are the songs I discussed on the podcast, and the reasons why I picked them (I will let you all know when the podcast is available, or you can keep checking the link above).
Mazzy Star - Fade Into You
The way this song sounds is the way fall feels. It’s a crash course in melancholy. There’s aching here that is reminiscent of the way one feels as fall turns into winter.
2. Queens of the Stone Age - In the Fade
Summer fades into fall, fall fades into darkness. The long shadows of autumn creep up on us and we sink into them, let them take us away. I could drown in this song.
3. Cake - It’s Coming Down
I think Cake is, in essence, a fall band. The music just invokes this time of year; bonfires and cool nights, acorns dropping on the sidewalk, crisp breezes. This is a breakup song that takes place in the pouring rain. It sets the perfect atmosphere.
4. Band of Horses - Is There a Ghost
The first time I heard this song I was driving home from work listening to the Old School show on Sirius XMU. It was October, I believe, it was turning dark as I was driving and this song came on there was an immediate light in my life. I connected with it from the first note. Sometimes you just know a song is about to become your favorite. It’s haunting and it sticks in your brain, leaves you with a feeling of having lost something but you don’t know what.
5. Daniel Johnston - Devil Town
A few years ago I put together a playlist of just covers of this song. After I listened to all seven covers, I realized that no one was going to make it sound the precise way Daniel Johnston does. It’s perfection.
6. Yo La Tengo - Our Way To Fall
This song is a big, long sigh. Never mind that the first line of it is about summer; this songs exudes autumn vibes. The whole album goes hard on those same vibes. Perfect for a rainy, chilly day that you are spending wrapped up in a blanket with a good book. Put this on in the background. You’ll feel amazing.
7. Purple Mountains - All My Happiness is Gone
This album came out in July of 2019. By August David Berman was gone from this earth. I was just getting to know his music and poetry and illustrations and I threw myself into all of it. I spent most of that fall listening to the Purple Mountains album and his Silver Jews album American Water. When I listen to this it is always late fall, when the wind has that extra bite and everything is starting to die.
8. Radiohead - Morning Bell
Amnesiac is the best Radiohead album and I will die on this hill. It’s so atmospheric, so vast and free flowing, it’s like being carried on the wind while the blurred colors of fall speed by you. This song is wistful, pleading. It levels you.
9. Bruce Springsteen - State Trooper
When I got back into Springsteen after abandoning him for a long time, Nebraska was the album I started with. It’s both stark and dense, all rotten leaves and bare trees and the earth holding its breath waiting for winter to settle in.
The National - Lit Up
You can’t have a fall songs playlist without The National, the ultimate gloom weather band. The last time we did this playlist I used “Apartment Story” because that is the ultimate fall song. I think “Lit Up” is a pretty close second. It’s a relentless song, like the rains that always seem to soak October. It’s the way I wish the National still sounded.
Below is the playlist I made so you can listen to these songs if you’ve never heard, or if you’ve heard and you just want to welcome fall in the proper way. I will most likely be adding to this list.
Do you have a song that reminds you of fall, one you listen to every September as the weather changes? Let me know!
Haven’t had time yet this year, but I’ve made an Autumn playlist for the last two years. My go-to fall albums include Shore by Fleet Foxes, Aja, Linda Ronstadt’s Simple Dreams, and Sinatra’s Where Are You. Vince Guaraldi always puts me in a fall mood, especially his work for Great Pumpkin and “Cast Your Fate to the Wind.”