Nothing is better than walking around on campus in a warm sweater and a pair of headphones blaring in your ears. For each season of the year, my friend and I have meticulously crafted a playlist that perfectly encapsulates the time of the year associated with it. And to no one’s surprise, our favorite is the fall playlist. At six hours and forty-seven minutes (a length that is subject to change — we’re adding to it constantly), it is the quintessential playlist for all the usual fall activities. Here are our favorites:
- Beautiful Child by Fleetwood Mac
Although this may not be the most popular opinion, I am a firm believer that Tusk is the best album from Fleetwood Mac. “Beautiful Child”, with Stevie Nicks’ crooning about unrequited love, is the song that will accompany you when you are walking alone from class to an empty house.
- Summer’s End by John Prine, Covered by Phoebe Bridgers
The title speaks for itself — need I say more? Originally performed by John Prine, “Summer’s End” seems to encapsulate exactly how it feels to be on the cusp of childhood and adulthood. Somehow, Phoebe Bridgers makes the song even more heart-wrenching than it already is with the addition of a voicemail from her father at the beginning. She peers into the mind of every college student when she croons, “you never know how far from home you’re feeling.”
- I’d Like to Walk Around in Your Mind by Vashti Bunyan
Combined with the folky plucking of some string instrument (I can’t tell what it is — a guitar? Some sort of banjo?), Vashti Bunyan’s echoey lyricism brings comfort to me in the same way a warm drink does on one of the crisper fall days. And what is more lovely than staying inside and walking around the mind of someone you care about? Try it sometime with this song in the background—Bunyan makes it sound like one of the purest experiences.
- ceilings by Lizzy McAlpine
A stripped-down acoustic song is a non-negotiable for when the weather starts dipping, and Lizzy McAlpine’s single from her newest album, five seconds flat, fits right into this category. First released on Soundcloud in 2020, this song has made its appearance in my top five list every fall as one that plays at the maximum volume (with my windows down and heater on, of course).
- Treacherous by Taylor Swift
It would not be a fall playlist without a song from Red, and it most certainly would not be a playlist of mine without the inclusion of Taylor Swift. While the ten-minute version of All Too Well seems to be a crowd favorite from this album, I find myself incredibly drawn to not only the heart that Swift bears in her lyrics but also the melancholic yet upbeat drums that are the undercurrent of this song.
While this is seemingly the first “normal” fall that I have had in ages (see: I am attending class fully in person!), my love for making playlists that stemmed from the isolation experienced during quarantine has persisted. Besides, what better to encapsulate the changing of the seasons than a playlist of the most melancholic songs that I could pull out of my “Liked Songs”?