With the start of fall here, it seems appropriate to have a fall (or autumnal if you’d like to be fancy) playlist. Fall seems to be the most teenage stage of the year, the youthful exuberance and carefree attitude of the summer months come to a close, while winter, in all its self-seriousness with its shortened days and barren foliage, looms. And in the middle is adolescent autumn, awkward in that, depending on where you live, you never quite know when it’s going to “feel like fall” even if all the signs are there (pumpkin spice, Halloween decorations, football), but also beautiful in its uncertainty with changing colors and cooler temperatures. The American poet John Howard Bryant called autumn the “year’s last, loveliest smile”. So here are some songs to celebrate this season, some explicitly tied to the season, some more based on “vibes”, and one purely anecdotal.
American Football - The Summer Ends
American Football (who, as luck would have it, I’m seeing on the day that fall officially starts, September 22) may very well be the musical equivalent of what fall feels like. One, they’re named after the sport that occupies many Americans’ weekends during the fall months, and two, their music makes you want a flannel, a beanie, and some decent headphones.
Explosions in the Sky - Your Hand in Mine
Almost a cliche now as the soundtrack that accompanies dramatic moments in sports movies or TV shows, “Your Hand in Mine” by Austin-based post-rock band Explosions in the Sky was expertly used for such a moment in the 2004 film Friday Night Lights. And as someone who grew up in Texas, very little feels more fall than high school football, and because of that film (and then the TV show which used a very similar sounding song as its theme), this song is nearly synonymous with that experience.
Pool Kids - Conscious Uncoupling
There don’t seem to be many movies about Thanksgiving, especially compared to Halloween and Christmas (although if Planes, Trains, and Automobiles is going to be your main representative, that’s a pretty good one to have), and the same could be said about songs written about it. But this opening song of Pool Kids’ self-titled mentions throwing away HOA notices on the night of Thanksgiving, so here it is.
Fall Out Boy - Grand Theft Autumn/Where is Your Boy
Two very different songs, one very autumnal title.
One of my favorite albums of the year has been Tigers Jaw’s Lost on You and one of its central themes, much like autumn, is time. Not only lyrically but also because 5 years had passed since Tigers Jaw last put out an album. And “Ghost” taps into how disorienting it can be to try to reconcile the present with the inevitable future. It opens “I saw a ghost from the porch of my parents' house/And there's so many things that I just can't be sure about/But you went along with it, you didn't question a thing”. He could also be writing about the one neighbor who has their Halloween decorations up super early, hard to say.
As mentioned before, fall feels like time passing by, whether it’s the changing of the colors and the weather, or the new school year starting. And Brian Fallon is acutely aware of this feeling when he sings “I hate the way that time goes crashin' over like a steamroller/I wish I could do my life over, I'd be young better now”. He’s also acutely aware of the standard fall outfit for many of his listeners when he sings about “black jeans in autumn”.
AFI’s entire All Hallows EP could be included on this list, especially this song and their cover of The Misfit’s “Halloween.” And beyond that, AFI has always given off spooky, gothic, Halloween vibes (Davey Havok’s current Jim-Croce-with-blacked-out-arms look notwithstanding).
My Chemical Romance - Vampires Will Never Hurt You
Much like AFI has generally kept a Halloween-ish aesthetic, My Chemical Romance has presented a gothic, spooky vibe both in their music and in their presentation (which should be in full display this Halloween weekend as they play two special sold-out shows at the Hollywood Bowl after wrapping up their “The Black Parade 2026 Tour”) since their debut, which includes this song about someone turning into a vampire.
Although set in winter/spring, Twilight, especially the movie, feels like fall. Could be the Pacific Northwest setting, could be that it was released in theaters in November of 2008, or could be the vampires (it’s probably the vampires). And maybe besides Muse’s “Supermassive Black Hole” used in the iconic vampire baseball scene, Paramore’s “Decode” is the song most associated with the movie, even though it was just in the end credits.
Manchester Orchestra - The Gold
Similar to American Football sounding like fall, much of Manchester Orchestra’s music also feels like the autumn months. Thematically, Andy Hull also writes a lot about change and eventual loss, a very fall feeling, and this song off A Black Mile to the Surface is a great example of that, recounting a relationship that has fallen apart over time as life has continued to move forward.
The inclusion of a song from The Used’s debut is primarily anecdotal although they often incorporate dark themes into their music and imagery (and will be joining My Chemical Romance for their “Devil’s Night” show in LA on Halloween weekend). In the fall of 2002, I was in college in central Texas, and we would often tailgate before the football games, and then not go to the football game because our team was awful. But I had just picked up The Used’s self-titled album on CD (from, I think, a Wherehouse Music) and that quickly became the soundtrack to our tailgates for that entire fall. Subsequently, many of us went down to Austin the following January to see The Used and Taking Back Sunday on their co-headlining tour both supporting their debut albums, and that was a moment.
Justin Boddie is interning with NAPNET for real life college credit. This leads us to believe that NAPNET is now THE voice of journalistic integrity and higher learning in the music scene. Either that or Justin hoodwinked a professor and we are more thank okay exploiting his labor. One or the other.
From Dallas, now in Denver, Justin has loved emo and emo-adjacent music since hearing Sunny Day Real Estate on the Batman Forever soundtrack in 1995. When he's not attending concerts, annoying his 3 kids with expertly crafted dad jokes, or refusing to play Wonderwall as part of a 90's alternative cover band, he spends a lot of his days "circling back" and "putting pins in it" in a university's admission office.