As the weather cools and the days grow shorter, fall is undoubtedly underway. You’re going to want some (potentially new!) music to listen to as you walk the leaf-lined campus.
Look no further than the list below where you may find an old favorite or a new album to fall in love with.
Now, these albums may not necessarily be about fall per se, but I’m curating this list based on an extremely accurate, totally objective metric known as “vibes” and a healthy helping of personal opinion. Dive deep into one album or sample something from each selection.
Listen along with an open heart and ears so you can properly prepare for that next hot-sad-girl-autumn walk and feel like the protagonist of the latest, angsty hit movie.
- “Disintegration” by the cure
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One of The Cure’s most famous albums, “Disintegration” is an atmospheric masterpiece that warrants repeat listens. Though The Cure started off in the mid-70s with a post-punk sound, the band underwent multiple personnel and genre changes, leading to the more gothic rock sound of “Disintegration.”
What screams fall more than gothic rock?
Try the opening track “Plainsong” to experience a shimmering soundscape or “Lullaby” for a haunting and hypnotic, well, lullaby.
- “the Black parade” by My chemical Romance
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On the topic of masterpieces, we’re starting this list off strong with another heavy-hitter: “The Black Parade.” My Chemical Romance’s magnum opus—no argument there—has continued to hit as hard as it first did when it completely uprooted the rock/emo/rock-emo-whatever scene in 2006.
If the former emo in you is hiding behind a lamppost somewhere yonder or the skeptic in you is raising an eyebrow, I ask that you leave both shame and judgement at the door and give this album a chance.
An ambitious, modern-day rock opera unlike anything else of its time, “The Black Parade” is deserving of, if nothing else, respect. The band members went through (almost literal) hell in the process of making the record and tirelessly toured it for two years, not to mention cruel snubbing at the hands of critics for years before the album and the band both got their deserved recognitions.
Theatrical aesthetic, clever lyrics, electrifying instrumentals and impressive vocals (with the occasional emo drawl seeping in) all combine into a fantastic piece of art.
Because everyone and their grandma knows “Welcome to the Black Parade,” you may want other recommendations. “The End.” and “Dead!” are a paired opening and my favorite of any album I’ve listened to, where lead singer Gerard Way howls, “When I grow up, I want to be nothing at all!” with the backdrop of a pleading chorus and heavy instrumentation.
Off-the-rails “Mama” is forever beloved and features the iconic Liza Minnelli, and “The Sharpest Lives” can satisfy the dark side in you just lingering beneath the surface.
- “The king of limbs” by radiohead
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“The King of Limbs” falls in the middle of Radiohead’s discography as it is definitely not their most popular or even their best, but it has a certain charm to it. To me, it feels like the near-ending of fall approaching winter: cloudy, dreary days and the naked branches of trees shaking in the wind, an image the title of the album perhaps evokes.
If you are ever in one of those in-between mental states of being extremely conscious of your surroundings while simultaneously being removed from them– that I often find myself in, especially as fall starts to come to a close– “The King of Limbs” is made for sonically narrating that kind of existence.
Give “Lotus Flower,” “Give Up The Ghost” and “Codex” a listen whenever you feel like you’re floating away or fading amidst a crowd of people like the sun gradually disappearing as fall continues on.
- “The Idler WHeel Is wiser than the driver of the screw and whipping cords will serve you more than ropes will ever do” By fiona apple
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Definitely more energetic and punchy then the previous album even based off title alone, “The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do” is the first Fiona Apple album I listened to years ago and remains a personal favorite.
You can listen to this album at any time, of course, but this album feels playful, yet foreboding, like a cool fall wind that can turn biting in the span of a few seconds. Apple’s witty lyricism and raw voice always feel genuine, both comforting and cutting.
Soar like the leaves coasting around on the autumn air with “Daredevil” or emulate Halloween with “Werewolf,” though the song relays a horror much more relatable and scary: an explosively incompatible relationship.
- “ants from up there” by black country, new road
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If I’m being honest, I’d never heard of this band until a few days ago when Spotify introduced me to them in what felt like a fantastic stroke of fate which was really an algorithm successfully catering to me, but where’s the magic in the latter scenario?
Something about modern folktale lyrics, scratchy voices and an array of instruments captures the essence of fall to me, and Black Country, New Road is spectacular in this arena.
“The Place Where He Inserted the Blade” is the first song Spotify showed me of theirs that got me hooked and may do the same to you, and “Bread Song” is beautiful in its lyrical simplicity.
- “Drinking songs” by Matt elliott
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This next album was on repeat for me last fall, and it served as background music for me as I wrote pieces for my creative writing class and, man, did this album facilitate the creative process. I can describe it in three words: spooky sea shanties. In what world is that not intriguing?
With reprises that weave in through the songs, “Drinking Songs” is cohesive and moves with elegance in a macabre atmosphere. “The Maid We Messed” is my favorite, but it is a whopping twenty minutes long, so “The Guilty Party” may serve as an easier introduction.
- “HEllbilly deluxe” by rob zombie
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A certified Halloween classic, “Hellbilly Deluxe” is the farthest away from any of the other albums listed and the most stereotypically fall by nature of its adherence to topics like the undead and monsters. Zombie is known for his love of horror and campy B-movies, and these interests permeate the subject matter of his albums.
If you ever wanted to know what a heavy metal, nu metal, and shock rock sound with occult theatrics looked like, “Hellbilly Deluxe” is the answer.
“Dragula” is the most popular song of Zombie’s, and rightfully so, because it’s an adrenaline shock to the system that makes you want to go monster-hunting or speeding in some ridiculous car– or both. “Demonoid Phenomenon” shreds to an almost suffocating degree.
- “Evermore” by taylor swift
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Concluding with the one I’m sure you all were waiting for when you read the words “fall” and “soundtrack,” here’s Taylor Swift’s “evermore.” The sister album to “folklore,” Taylor Swift herself proclaims “evermore” represents fall and winter. The lady doth speak the truth!
“Tolerate it” is unadulterated vulnerability, something Swift excels at, while the self-titled track “evermore” featuring Bon Iver builds and builds yet is ultimately gentle. The melancholy of “right where you left me” is poignant and powerful.
As a whole, “evermore” is an album you can easily enjoy with a sense of wistfulness as the leaves change colors.
I aimed to provide a fairly varied collection of albums that fit a certain aspect of fall in their own unique ways. The way we can attribute certain features of music to places and times is what really interests me; what are some of the albums you associate with this season?
Happy fall and happy listening!