This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Wells chapter.
If you’re anything like me, sometimes you find yourself in a musical slump. The kind where none of your music seems to please you for extended periods of time. I’m about a month into my current slump, so this is my attempt to assemble a playlist with adequate vibes for this Fall. I refuse to let the slump make my favorite music unenjoyable! To listen to the full playlist on Spotify, go here.
- Absinthe, I DONT KNOW HOW BUT THEY FIND ME – To make this playlist enjoyable for me to listen to, I figured I should start with one of my favorite bands. All of IDKHBTFM’s music fits a very vintage, Fall vibe in my mind, but this song in particular has the perfect ratio of catchy, bouncy background music and almost crunchy vocals. It makes me want to do illegal shit in the woods and be badass.
- Hayloft, Mother Mother – I’m not usually a fan of Mother Mother, but this song goes so hard. This song makes me feel like I got caught trespassing in someone’s barn in the woods and uncovered a decades-old crime scene and now the guy who owns the barn is chasing me through the woods. It felt like the natural transition from a song that makes me feel like doing illegal shit in the woods.
- Jolene, Dolly Parton – I’m not going to lie, this song would fit perfectly in a playlist devoted to any season. But for the sake of making listening to music fun again, I thought future me would be thankful for a song I can act out dramatically while listening to it.
- Visitation of the Ghost, The Brobecks – This song is, unfortunately, not really about ghostly encounters, but it takes the dark, sinister vibes and runs with them. As far as songs that feel like someone broke off a chunk of Halloween and captured in music, this one is second only to The Monster Mash. It was also the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen performed live.
- Razzmatazz, I DONT KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME – Fun fact about me, I have something called synesthesia, which means I see colors when I hear sounds. When I listen to this song I see lots of oranges, creams, and browns. That’s a pretty autumnal color palette as it is, but I also usually listen to this song when I’m driving home past cornfields and colored leaves and cute houses with pumpkins on the front step.
- Baby You’re a Haunted House, Gerard Way – This one feels self-explanatory. You can’t have Fall without haunted houses, that’s just wrong.
- Achilles Come Down, Gang of Youths – Whenever I’m feeling like I want to fit into the Dark Academia aesthetic, this is the song I play. And whenever I think about Dark Academia my mind goes to sweaters and wool skirts or trousers and muted colors, which are also things I associate with Fall.
- Little Miss Why So, The Amazing Devil – While the melody sounds a little more lighthearted than the rest of the songs on this list, the message is what makes me think of Fall. This song tells the story of a woman suffering from depression and her partner not understanding the changes in her behavior or why she’s so sad all the time. I personally suffer from depression that went untreated for most of my life because my parents didn’t understand how I could be depressed. My depression always intensifies as Fall gets cold and makes its way towards winter, so this really just checks all the relevant boxes for me.
- In A Week, Hozier (ft Karen Cowley) – Similar to the last song, this is one that sounds lighthearted but contains a message that’s more disturbing than the lilting guitar initially lets on. This is one of my favorite songs of Hozier’s and I feel that it really encapsulates the decay of life that I see around Thanksgiving, as the weather teeters back and forth between chilly Fall air and wintery snowy days.
- Before You Go, Lewis Capaldi – In my experience, Fall tends to bring either the strengthening or the ruin of relationships. This one is for the relationships that I’m seeing start to crumble. While the song is technically about a breakup, I find it most applicable to the people in my life who are struggling with their mental health right now and start to isolate themselves from friends.
- All Too Well, Taylor Swift – This is a song for the romantic bumps in the road. For me, I play this song when I need to work through some of my personal relationship traumas. But whether you’re in a very happy relationship or no relationship, I think everyone should listen to this song because it’s a masterpiece. Plus, Taylor’s version of the song will be released on November 19th and I can’t wait to see the anti-Jake Gyllenhaal tweets roll in. Fuck straight men with J names.
- Jenny Was A Friend of Mine, The Killers – Usually this is a song I throw onto my summer playlists, but I’m feeling it for Fall too. Mostly because I had a pretty bad mental breakdown to this song on a trip for marching band, like, 3 years ago this week. I still vibe with the song though!
- Young, Wild & Free, Snoop Dogg (ft Wiz Khalifa & Bruno Mars) – Another song that could easily fit into a playlist for any season. But this song makes me think of Fall traditions and trips to Walmart with my friends where we were freezing cold, but kept the windows rolled all the way down for the vibes.
- Fair, The Amazing Devil – I threw some breakup songs on the list for relationships that aren’t faring so well, but it didn’t feel right without one for the relationships that get better than ever in the Fall. Listening to this song now makes me think of the glimmer in my partner’s eyes as he laughs unguarded, the quirk of my best friend’s bottom lip as we burst out laughing, the cold mornings where I wake up to find my cat burrowed under the covers with me for snuggles. It’s a good song if you want to think about the goodness and innocence and intimacy of being close to someone.