The days are drawing in and we’ve done the annual rummage in the cupboard to locate our winter coats, meaning the weirdest summer on record is coming to an end. Now it’s the season of pumpkin spiced everything, snuggling up in oversized cardigans Ă la Taylor Swift and Halloween (even if everything going on in the world has meant the entirety of 2020 has felt like spooky season).
It also marks a shift in our listening habits. Gone are the shimmery belters perfect for a day on the beach or â in any other year â raving until 5am at a festival, and in their place are cosy, comforting records that’ll soundtrack evenings spent inside and the inevitable argument with your housemates over when to turn the heating on.
On the hunt for the perfect autumn accompaniment? We’ve got you. Here NME writers go deep on the best autumnal albums ever.
Van Morrison
âAstral Weeksâ (1968)
During the wet and windy weeks of October and November, all we really want is a bit of comfort. Step forward, âAstral Weeksâ. Stuffed with soothing blues-folk ballads and poetic ruminations on the beauty of Belfast (Van Morrisonâs hometown), this is the perfect record for lazy days spent on the sofa, tucked up in chunky knitwear with a steaming cup of tea in hand. Recorded by a crack team of jazz specialists in 1968, extended tracks like âCyprus Avenueâ and âMadam Georgeâ possess a dreamy quality that makes you feel like youâre floating down a stream on a li-lo. Anxious about work? Bills? A second lockdown? Allow Irelandâs most chilled out troubadour to croon the stress away.
Alex Flood
Listen: Spotify | Apple Music
Sandy Denny
‘The North Star Grassman And The Ravens’ (1971)
From its moody artwork â with esteemed British folkie and sometime Fairport Convention singer Sandy sat thoughtfully in a dimly lit apothecary â to the moody songs within, ‘The North Star Grassman And The Ravens’ couldn’t be more seasonal if it tried. Populated with wooded ravines and wandering streams, opening track ‘Late November’ is an autumn walk in a spooky forest come to life, while ‘Let’s Jump The Broomstick’ â a rocking tribute to pagan marriage â is the perfect prep for your next hillbilly Halloween.
Leonie Cooper
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James Blake
‘The Colour in Anything’ (2016)
Scattered with softly droning synths and moaning melodies as it dances between silence and noise, the deep melancholy that runs through ‘The Colour in Anything’ makes it a perfect companion for nights spent by the fire or strolling through fallen leaves. From the jarring manipulations of âAlwaysâ to the comforting sparseness of âI Need A Forest Fireâ, the only place you want to listen to it is under a blanket, looking out onto a slowly darkening sky.
Katy Hills
Listen: Spotify | Apple Music
Bob Dylan
‘Blood on the Tracks’ (1975)
Autumn is primed to be break-up season. Summer flings cool down and the sun cruelly pisses off â even the leaves get the heebie-jeebies and throw themselves off branches and onto the dirty ground. ‘Blood on the Tracks’, then, is a defining break-up album for those sobering months. It’s bitter (‘Idiot Wind’), contemplative (‘Tangled Up In Blue’), remorseful (‘If You See Her, Say Hello’) but holds onto the idea of reconciliation (‘Buckets of Rain’) and the belief that the sun will shine again, but first, you have to make it through the cold and the mud.
Thomas Smith
Listen: Spotify | Apple Music
Whitney
‘Light Upon The Lake’ (2016)
While we all desperately want to squeeze the last drops out of summer, as soon as the calendar flips over to September thereâs actually a cosy sense of comfort to be taken from the leaves turning brown, the nights drawing in and rediscovering your âwinter coatâ. Add âlisten to âLight Upon The Lakeââ to that list: Whitneyâs exquisite 2016 indie-folk debut is exactly the kind of autumnal audio accompaniment you want to ease you into the chilly new season. Filled with rousing brass (the horns on âNo Womanâ!), serene song structures and plenty of uplifting, warming sentiment, itâs also an absolute breeze to listen to: 10 tracks, 30 minutes. Lovely stuff.
Sam Moore
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Liz Phair
‘Exile in Guyville’ (1993)
Without a doubt, Autumn is the best time of year â besides hosting Virgo season, tis also the season for chucking crudely-made effigies onto bonfires, hacking up giant pumpkins, and throwing parties for dead spirits. Pretty metal. And when it comes to crunching angstily through a bed of decaying tree matter, I reckon that thereâs no better companion than Liz Phairâs cultish âExile in Guyvilleâ â a spiny beast of a record which undercut male-dominated rock music in the early ’90s, and gleefully basked in raunchiness. It sounds just as horny and deliciously pissed off 27 years later.
El Hunt
Listen: Spotify | Apple Music
The Twilight Sad
‘Fourteen Autumns And Fifteen Winters’ (2014)
A cult classic from Robert Smith’s favourite band, this immaculate debut from the Scottish miserablists is a towering wall of mesmeric shoegaze and pummelling post-punk, matched perfectly by frontman James Graham’s darkly romantic poetry about, well, shit falling apart. Play ‘Cold Days From The Birdhouse’, ‘Walking For Two Hours’ or ‘And She Would Darken The Memory’ and tell me this isn’t the perfect companion for crisp, chilly mornings and longer nights. Pour yourself a whiskey, wrap yourself up warm and get intimate with this perfect, autumnal masterpiece.
Andrew Trendell
Listen: Spotify | Apple Music
Bon Iver
‘For Emma, Forever Ago’ (2008)
Leaves have started to turn brown and go crunchy beneath our feet and the weather begun to chill, but listening to âFor Emma, Forever Agoâ will bring a moment of warmth in this very uncertain Autumn. Evoking feelings of loss and love, this haunting album is one of unrivalled beauty. Take tunes like ‘The Wolves (Act I and II)’ and ‘Creature Fear’; they may feel like the loneliest tracks in the universe, yet they somehow provide comfort, with Vernonâs falsetto, echoing guitar rhythms and melancholic tones acting as the ideal companion for the next few months.
Chloe Burrell
Listen: Spotify | Apple Music
Arcade Fire
‘Funeral’ (2004)
Arcade Fire‘s stellar debut ‘Funeral’ is the perfect soundtrack for the next few months. Titled ‘Funeral’ as it was written when several members of the band had lost close family members, it feels like an apt record to guide us through autumn. It’s been a horrendous year, and while we can’t know what’s going to happen next, ‘Funeral’ acts as a beacon of hope to help us through the emotional chill the dropping temperature can bring. Stuffed full of indie-rock belters, and sprinkled with moments of musical euphoria that have never been beaten (try and listen to ‘Wake Up’ and not get goosebumps, we dare you), it’s life-affirming stuff.
Hannah Mylrea
Listen: Spotify | Apple Music
Taylor Swift
‘Folklore’ (2020)
Yes, Taylor Swiftâs eighth album has only been out for two months at the time of writing. Yes, that means that it hasnât even ever existed in autumn yet. Despite this, it already feels like the archetypal autumn album. Produced by Aaron Dessner of masters of indie gloom The National, the whole of âFolkloreâ is coated in a moody, sorrowful shade, mourning the end of summer and replacing euphoria with quiet, soft contemplation. Time to dig out that cardigan and settle in.
Will Richards
Listen: Spotify | Apple Music
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