Staff Picks: Sounds of Fall

The sounds of fall are the sounds of new beginnings. They can bring up memories of back-to-school excitement, seeing your friends and classmates, football games, early morning marching band practice, cross country season, crunchy leaves, and backyard bonfire cookouts. Here are our picks of songs (or sounds) that bring back those warm memories of friends, family, learning, and laughter.

Megan: 

I really love fall, but I my music tastes tend to skew a little bit darker than they do in the summer. Something about the combination of dying leaves and cooling weather and school starting makes me like a lot of introspective, quiet music about changes and beginnings and endings. (I also have a rocking Halloween playlist, but that's another story.)

• "Yardwork in November" by The Actual Tigers
• "Summer Skin" by Death Cab for Cutie (don't be fooled by the title - it's about summer ending!)
• "Scattered Leaves" by The Be Good Tanyas
• "Poses" by Rufus Wainwright
• "Last Leaf" by Lisa Hannigan
• "The Once and Future Carpenter" by The Avett Brothers
• "Blue" by The Jayhawks
• "Soon We'll Be Found" by Sia
• "Fitzcarraldo" by The Frames
• "Cocoon" by The Decemberists
• "Train Song" by Feist/Ben Gibbard
• "Sky Blue Sky" by Wilco
• "Raining in Baltimore" by The Counting Crows
• "The Marble in Your Eye" by Sarah Harmer
• "Homesick" by The Kings of Convenience
• "Runaway" by The National

If you'd like to hear the playlist, minus the couple that weren't on Grooveshark, but plus whatever I added after I wrote this, you can listen here.

Paige:

My fall music tastes can also be a wee bit... depressing. When I picture fall I picture my grandmother crying over her dead tomato plants, so maybe that has something to do with it. Though I do love sweaters, pumpkins, and any excuse to eat a family size bag of candy by myself because it's "Halloween candy" and that makes it socially acceptable. But in between mouthfuls of chocolate I am listening to...  

• "Feel Like Rain" by Motion City Soundtrack
• "Colors" by Amos Lee
• "Tonight Tonight" by Smashing Pumpkins get it guys? pumpkins?! 
• "405" by Death Cab For Cutie
• "A Still Life Franchise" by Less Than Jake because I still think ska is cool ok? Sue me.
• "So Long So Long" by Dashboard Confessional
• "The Lining is Silver" by Relient K
• "El Scorcho" by Weezer I will always remember that moment when I realized my husband and I both knew all of the words to this and were destined to be weirdos together forever.

Jill: 

For so many years in my life fall meant the start of school and the start of school meant the start of my many procrastinating techniques. I am a procrastination master. In graduate school, one of my favorite delaying tactics was to make the "perfect" playlist to accompany my study periods. Of course, the playlist making time would always last much longer than the actual study time, but I got some rockin' awesome playlists out all that procrastinating- including one I made my first fall semester in grad school that I still use to usher autumn in to this day. I won't subject you to the entire thing (it just might be over 3 hours long), but here are some highlights:

• "Fields of Gold" by Sting
• "My Little Corner of the World" by Yo La Tengo
• "Yellow" by Coldplay
• "Firelight" by Snow Patrol
• "Autumn" by Carla Bruni
• "Marchin On" by OneRepublic
• "Your Hands are Cold" by Jean-Yves Thibaudet
• "Carry On" by Pat Green
• "Golden Slumbers" by Ben Folds
• "Rill Rill" by Sleigh Bells
• "Minor Swing" by Django Reinhardt

Cara:

Fall is all about school-related nostalgia for me. These songs were likely ones I listened to when driving around with high school friends (my car was constantly tuned to oldies then), or ones I put on repeat or discovered in the fall.

• September by Earth, Wind & Fire (Because of September Time at my undergrad institution)
• Sweet Child O' Mine by Guns N' Roses (Ok, I admit: this pick is totally a result of Guitar Hero...)
• Brandy Alexander by Feist
• Carry on Wayward Son by Kansas (High school orchestra...yes, I said orchestra)
• Soul Bossa Nova by Quincy Jones (Pep band...)
• Steven's Last Night in Town by Ben Folds Five
• Crystal Ball by Keane
• Shack #9 by Old Crow Medicine Show (Grad school bluegrass days...)
• Any Way You Want It by Journey
• Big Key, Little Door by Loquat (Which I discovered whilst looking up the loquat fruit to show what it looks like to a student! Great fruit & great music!)
• 100 Days, 100 Nights by Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings
• Why Georgia by John Mayer (I know... Would early college poor decision making be an okay excuse for this one?)
• One Headlight by the Wallflowers
• A Moment Like This by Kelly Clarkson (I remember this playing constantly during my work study Caf mopping days in college. I really do think I'll smell mop soap every time I hear this song...)
• Light My Fire by The Doors
• Marching Bands of Manhattan by Death Cab for Cutie

I could go on forever, but if you’d like to hear all of these tunes together, check out this playlist.

Lis: 

I like a cd by Peter Breinholt called "Live September". Maybe it's the word September that makes me think it's great for fall, and September is my birth month, so my favorite month. But I think it's actually because it's relaxing fun music. Music you listen to in the fall when things start to slow down because it's getting chilly, but life's still going strong.