The Sounds of Fall

We all know exactly what the season fall looks like.
Scarves, orange leaves, tiny foxes, pumpkin patches, hay piles, halloween costumes, and cozy sweaters.
We all know what it smells like.  Pumpkin pie, that fresh outdoor smell, coffee, cinnamon cookies, hay, and crisp apples.
The idea of what exactly fall sounds like has been on my mind as of late.
I've decided to sum up, for me, what my favorite season sounds like with 10 songs for you to enjoy.



10. Skinny Love - Bon Iver
We've all heard the hit song.  It's the sad, lonely hit song about loving someone so much and knowing that it's doomed.  It won't last and unfortunately there's nothing you can do about it except sit back and watch it happen.  One thing you should know about me is that I love the acoustic guitar.  Every song from here on out will probably feature an acoustic guitar, too.  It just sounds like fall to me, whatever that means.  If this song is not on your Sunday morning playlist while you're wrapped in an oversized sweater, sipping coffee, get on it. Disclaimer: you may need some tissues because this song makes you feel heart ache whether you can relate or not.

9. White Winter Hymnal - Fleet Foxes
This song features very few words. Yet somehow it just screams fall. I almost can't even explain. The second you listen you will nod your head and say "aw yes, that indeed is the sound of fall".

8. Young Volcanoes - Fall Out Boy
Fall Out Boy?! A song that reminds you of the warm feeling of fall?! Yes. One of those rare Fall Out Boy songs that features an acoustic guitar,  This song was my jam all summer long but it just feels more natural now that the leaves are changing. Is it the reference to foxes and hounds? Or is it because you feel like sitting around a campfire with all your besties singing along?

7.  Give Me Love - Ed Sheeran
Okay okay okay, so acoustic guitars may be my guilty pleasure, but acoustic guitars with violin are the key to my heart and scream fall in my ears.  Ed Sheeran is the poster child for our season of autumn. His ginger hair and ugly sweaters make everything all right.

6.  Beer/Flashlight/Maps - The Front Bottoms
These are three different songs, btw. I couldn't choose.  I pride myself on my ability to discover awesome little bands on my own.  With the Front Bottoms it was different though. I was casually listening to an old friend's radio show back in the fall/winter of 2011 and they played the song Maps. I spent the next week searching the internet up and down for a copy of the album.  The Front Bottoms are the perfect defintion of angsty men and I love my music angsty.  All three of these songs makes you want to go camping and curl up to the fire on a chilly night and pray you don't get eaten by a bear. Thanks for introducing me to this band, now I hope I introduce all of you. Enjoy.

5.  Oh Comely - Neutral Milk Hotel
I went through a phase where I wanted to listen to nothing but Neutral Milk Hotel.  This song is about 8 minutes of acoustic guitar and a raspy voice.  There's something very dark and uneasy about this song, and I believe there is also something very dark and uneasy about fall too.  Everything around us is dying and it's the beginning of the end (of the year).

4. I Won't Be Found - The Tallest Man on Earth
I can only listen to this song from September - February. There's something so completely original about it all.  His voice is unlike none you've ever heard and it's another one of those songs that I can not explain to you as to why it sounds like fall, but please do yourself a favor and type this into youtube. It will definitely make your fall fever playlist.

3.  Tiny Vessels - Death Cab For Cutie
Now we get personal.  3 years ago I spent two weeks listening to this song on repeat nonstop.  I don't think I listened to anything else.  I was so wrapped up in the song and I was trying to relate it somehow to my life and I couldn't make sense of it.  8 months later I finally got it, "you are beautiful, but you don't mean a thing to me."  Every time I hear it now I go back to that place 3 years ago and even on the hottest summer day, for the few minutes it plays it feels like fall.  It's a very sad, apathetic song and as much as I wish it was fall 365 days a year, there is something morbid about it.

2.  All Too Well - Taylor Swift
The references in the song automatically tell you the setting of the song is fall.  "Autumn leaves falling...", scarves, etc.  The thing this song doesn't tell you is that Miss Swift basically wrote this song for me.  This song basically tells the story of an old friendship of mine and that friendship reminds me of autumn time, so math says this song = fall.

1. Civil Twilight  - The Weakerthans
I discovered the Weakerthans in high school, but it wasn't until I reached college that I met people who knew who they were. I wasn't the only one on Earth completely in love with their sound.  Friends come and go and for whatever reason we all parted but everytime I hear this song I instantly go back to one day in particular.  It was October or November and we were on some mindless adventures. I don't know why this memory haunts me every time this song plays. Lyrically the song also brings images of fall to your mind with mentions of bitter cold, dusk and roads icing over, but you received number one because I can't close my eyes when the song plays or it's instantly fall 2011.