Music is probably one of the most universal experiences to have ever existed. Even walking from one place to another, everyone constantly has their earphones in. Many people interpret this as “tuning out the world,” but I understand that people are just adding a soundtrack to the movie of their lives. Like Rilke says in his poem, music is the “transformation into audible landscape”—music is world-building. It is what makes iconic films. 

In the same way that music elevates films, it elevates our own lived experiences; in other words, we are all the main characters of our own movies. We all fall into egocentric biases, especially when the leaves start turning and falling in the perfect places around us as we’re walking on the sidewalk. Establishing the best go-to fall playlist includes a certain indulgence in our own movies and the characters we play: what is the genre? Who is your sidekick? Is there a lead love interest? And did they chase after you in an airport? 

Whether you are walking in the park with your lover, or spending the morning baking pumpkin bread, the perfect fall playlist is necessary in your life. 

The first few songs in the playlist should be the tune that introduces the season of fall to you: this song is the background song for the intro credits as you're getting ready for the day, dressing in layers, picking out the best sweater, or making your morning coffee.

New Slang - The Shins

Open Season - High Highs

Life in the City - The Lumineers

Autumn Leaves - Nat King Cole

Duvet - bôa

Suspended From Class - Camera Obscura

M79 - Vampire Weekend

The next few songs are always the transition songs, and often the best songs on the playlist. It's the song that is playing when you’re walking to class in the morning or driving to work—the most impactful way to listen to these songs is to be outside, specifically in the cool weather, watching an idyllic fall scene. 

Leave It All Behind - Sleep Station

Please Speak Well of Me - The Weepies

Autumn Town Leaves - Iron and Wine

Bambi - Clairo

Fireweed - Patrick Watson

The Boxer - Simon and Garfunkel

If Christopher Calls - Foy Vance

Between the Bars - Elliot Smith

A Day in the Life - The Beatles 

The next songs are your antagonist’s theme. They’re the songs for any of the villains or obstacles in your life, whether that be finals quickly approaching or the person walking too slowly in front of you. These are the dramatic pieces of music. They are for whatever causes your fall grievances. 

Howl’s Moving Castle - Merry Go Round of Life - Vitamin String Quartet

Some Unholy War (Down Tempo) - Amy Winehouse

Four Out Of Five - Arctic Monkeys

Criminal - Fiona Apple

Smells Like Teen Spirit - Radio Edit - Patti Smith

This Mess We’re In - PJ Harvey, Thom Yorke

The next fews songs are softer, more somber; they’re contemplative and really beautiful. They’re the perfect songs for looking out the window on gray and rainy fall days. In the movie of your life, this would be the tune that plays after the guy loses the girl. 

Roslyn - Bon Iver, St. Vincent

The Art Teacher - Rufus Wainwright

Silver - Pixies

Gale Song - The Lumineers

To Be Alone With You - Sufjan Stevens

Sparks - Coldplay

Into Dust - Mazzy Star 

Unmade - Thom Yorke

Beach Baby - Bon Iver

Such Great Heights - Iron & Wine

The next couple songs are your montage songs! Imagine you and your friends riding the metro and cooking and going to class with these songs; they maintain the same feeling throughout the entire song and elicit one strong mood. 

Le temps de l’amour - Francoise Hardy

So Nice So Smart - Kimya Dawson

Suspended From Class - Camera Obscura

Ballad of Big Nothing - Elliot Smith

September Song - Agnes Obel

Center of Gravity - The Brazen Youth

Finally, the end credits require a sense of finality; this depends on the ending of your story. How do you want your movie to end? I prefer happy endings, but some of the best movies end on a more melancholic note. 

Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy) - John Lennon

First Day of My Life - Bright Eyes

End Run - Cloudbirds

dorothea - Taylor Swift

Half of My Heart- John Mayer

Into Giants - Patrick Watson

Where Is My Mind - Maxence Cyrin

Making a playlist is a very underrated artform; playlists allow people to write stories through songs that cross genre and decade boundaries. Playlists are therapeutic as well—it is not unlike a diary entry. Having someone put words to your feelings is remedial. Making a playlist is honing this “holy departure” that Rilke speaks of. It is giving the thing with no name a name—it is creating an animal and then naming it. The creation of a playlist is how audiences and listeners of music interpret the meanings of songs and how they relate to us. 

You can control the soundtrack to your life, the “language where all language ends.” What do you want to say? 

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3K38AvjkAvMaMtxvNdk1jz?si=-hSNc4NSSWacY0Lx6S0Onw 

November 2021