Fall in New England. There are few things finer. I’ve hand-selected 13 of my favorite fall songs to provide a soundtrack to 13 weeks of hoodies, crunching colorful leaves underfoot, and stuffing your face with pumpkin spice everything. Enjoy.
| Yo La Tengo “Autumn Sweater” |
A good playlist should come full circle. We started with “Sweater Weather,” so we’ll end with the appropriately titled “Autumn Sweater” by indie legends Yo La Tengo.
| Fleet Foxes “Helplessness Blues” |
“If I had an orchard, I’d work ’til I’m raw.” A good track for apple picking, but really, the entire 2011 album from the Seattle folk band pairs perfectly with the season.
| The Neighbourhood “Sweater Weather” |
You can keep your hoodie. Give me a nice, thick, itchy, wooly sweater. All season long.
| Matt Pond PA “So Much Trouble” |
“I don’t think I want to think about it, how the fall is coming down. The light is leaving and it’s hard to breathe, buried in a pile of leaves…”
| Band Of Horses “Laredo” |
Bright like the autumn sun, and crisp like the autumn air. Suddenly, I want to go apple picking.
| Eddie Vedder “Hard Sun” |
The Pearl Jam frontman’s 2007 ‘Into The Wild’ soundtrack is a good fit for fall, and his cover of this obscure cut from Indio is a good fit for this playlist.
| Nick Drake “Road” |
There’s no better time of the year than fall to listen to acoustic fare, in my opinion. Thus, there’s no better time of the year to listen to Nick Drake.
| Velour 100 “Stare Into Light” |
They titled their 1996 album ‘Fall Sounds’ for a reason. It’s one that I come back to each and every autumn, like visiting an old friend.
| Iron & Wine “Cinder And Smoke” |
Cinder and smoke fill the air as the sun sets and you sip an autumn brew at a backyard bonfire…
| Sun Kil Moon “Carry Me Ohio” |
Some Mark Kozelek acoustic fare for the season it sounds best in.
| Alice In Chains “Rotten Apple” |
For me, fall walks hand-in-hand with grunge: flannel shirts, dirty boots, and tall trees stripped bare, their leaves a dying carpet on the ground. The opening track from AIC’s ‘Jar Of Flies’ ep conjures all of this, as the days grow shorter and darker.
| Ben Harper “Glory And Consequence” |
This cut from Harper’s 1997 ‘The Will To Live’ sounds like the soundtrack to a mid-autumn road trip.
| My Morning Jacket “One Big Holiday” |
Close your eyes and picture this: you’re rocketing up the Kancamagus in New Hampshire or down I-89 in Vermont while the opening riff plays, windows down, cold, crisp air on your face. It’s leaf-peeping in fast-forward.