We may not have autumn’s amber leaves or chill in the air, but these albums bring its cozy, wistful spirit home to the tropics.
Fall is a wonderful season; we don’t experience it in the Philippines, but those who’ve travelled to places that do welcome autumn can attest it has a certain je nais c’est quois to it. Cold (but not biting the way winter is) and golden-brown-hued from the falling leaves that signal incoming renewal, it’s both wistful and cozy in atmosphere. While we can’t change our weather, we can still bring the best of the season to our homes with music that evokes its beloved qualities. There are enough Christmas music collections out there—it’s time for something different. We’ve curated a list of albums that will have you bringing out your favorite hot drink and comforter to watch the leaves fall (not exactlty in the autumn way, but close enough).
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evermore by Taylor Swift
While Taylor Swift hasn’t necessarily been on a creative high with her recent releases (depending on who you ask), the acclaim surrounding her sister albums folklore and evermore—born during the pandemic’s long months indoors—cements them as her finest recent works.
Her 2020 album evermore could not be more autumnal in spirit. Its cover features Swift in a plaid jacket and braids, standing before bare trees in a leaf-strewn forest. With its light strings, twinkling piano keys, and reverberating, vocal-forward tracks, the album builds a soundscape that feels like heartbreak tinged with darkness in a quiet rural town.
Unreal Unearth by Hozier
It isn’t easy choosing just one Hozier album for the fall, since most of the Irish singer-songwriter’s work carries an inexplicably autumn-coded, heady longing that feels like both the beginning and end of something larger than we can comprehend. But if we had to pick, 2024’s Unreal Unearth—heavily inspired by Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy—is quintessentially autumnal in that transitory way, tracing the stages of life, death, and rebirth in a project that echoes the journey through hell, purgatory, and heaven in its literary source. Equal parts melancholic and hopeful, it’s the kind of album you play when you want to unearth (pun intended) the full spectrum of human emotion on a November afternoon.
And, on a lighter and slightly more literal note, the man quite literally buried himself underground for the album cover—imagery that couldn’t belong to any other season but fall.
Everybody Scream by Florence + The Machine
Like Hozier, Florence + The Machine—led by English singer-songwriter Florence Welch—is another artist inextricably linked to the woodsy, ancient atmosphere often associated with autumn. Her latest release, Everybody Scream, earns a spot on this list for several reasons. For one, it was deliberately released on Halloween, making it a natural fall choice. Beyond that, its visuals and sounds see Welch fully embracing the primal, witchy sensibilities that define her work, blending folkloric and mystical imagery with a contemporary folk-rock sound that captures the season’s windswept ruggedness.
As its name suggests, Everybody Scream is as much an album of rage and grief as it is of catharsis, shaped by the artist’s recent brushes with death and sorrow. Yet the album’s sentiments are more centered on release than resignation. Whether it’s the cheeky vitriol of “One of the Greats” or the otherworldly “Sympathy Magic,” listening to the album feels like standing on a cliffside, a gust of cold fall air pushing your hair back as you shout into the wilderness.
Rumors by Fleetwood Mac
We can’t not include the iconic Rumors album by Fleetwood Mac—it would be a disservice to days spent both dancing to and contemplating the nuanced genius of the album. Granted, it’s an every-season kind of masterpiece that doesn’t necessarily come attached with autumn imagery, yet its transcendental, almost spellbinding vibe is something you can’t help but crave in the quiet -ber months before the holiday rush. From upbeat bops like “Don’t Stop” and “You Make Loving Fun” to the amber-coated sounds of “Dreams” and “Gold Dust Woman,” the album is the companion for melodramatic, windy drives across the city and beyond.
Bury Me At Makeout Creek by Mitski
Mitski may be every performative man’s darling, but cultural trends and jokes aside, her distinct voice and unabashedly raw sound remain striking forces of nature. Of all her work, her 2014 album Bury Me at Makeout Creek feels the most autumnal, its very title conjuring a morbidly romantic image that could only unfold beneath the spindly branches of a forest by a cool creek. The indie rock tracks, shifting from rough to tender, embody the cold yet comforting feeling of the season, with Mitski—like many bards before her—singing of love in its changing stages, shedding its forms like a tree its leaves.
When Harry Met Sally Original Motion Picture Soundtrack with Harry Connick, Jr.
It’s Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan in cozy knit sweaters, coats, and wool scarves, paired with Harry Connick, Jr.’s butter-smooth vocals—need we say more? But seriously, it’s only natural to include this album on the list: its 1989 movie is a fall-to-Christmas must-watch for all the hopeless romantics out there. Jazz itself already comes off as an autumnal genre, so there’s that, too. Connick’s cover of “It Had to Be You” is like a warm cup of coffee on a crisp fall day in your favorite café. And, if we’re being literal, most of the movie actually takes place during autumn—if the piano piece titled “Autumn in New York” didn’t make it obvious enough.
Nicole by NIKI
Indonesian singer-songwriter NIKI’s hit album Nicole doesn’t shy away from the yearning and ache that often accompany the fall season, one of its tracks even titled “Autumn.” Yet beyond that single, the rest of the collection flows with muted synths and strings that feel like a tribute to the season, spotlighting NIKI’s confessional voice in a way that’s like listening to a friend reflect on the year’s first chapters with refreshing candor under fluffy blankets. Even the peppiest tracks, like “High School in Jakarta” and “Keeping Tabs,” sound like scenes from a breezy -ber month movie montage.
Photos courtesy of Genius.
