The 15 Best Autumnal Songs

Autumn is a feeling as much as it is a season, with conflicting emotions all bubbling up at once. There’s a sense of anticipation in the air, a holdover from our school days, all while the natural world is decaying, reminding us of our unavoidable mortality. We’re getting ready to hunker down for the long, freezing winter nights, but hurrying indoors and packing into snug spaces comes with opportunities for unexpected connections. And then there’s perhaps the most autumnal emotion of all: yearning. Yearning for brighter days, yearning for lost loves to return, yearning for the years to stop relentlessly marching forward.

I came up with a couple rules for this list, because if we were just going off autumnal vibes, I’d be here all day long. Tracks were only considered for this list if they explicitly mention fall, autumn months or the changing of the season (expect lots of dying leaves). And I’m so sorry if you came here looking for “California Dreamin’” by the Mamas & the Papas, because that takes place on “such a winter’s day.” Apologies to Gilmore Girls fans, too—Carole King may follow where you lead, but she does not mention my favorite season in her lyrics. Also, beyond the quality of the song, tunes rank higher if they manage to capture those contradictory, crackling, cozy autumnal vibes.

Nestle into a comfy seat, fix yourself a cup of tea and check out our list of the best autumnal songs, in ascending order…

15. Green Day: “Wake Me Up When September Ends” (2005)

Getting older is daunting for anyone, but it must especially throw punk rockers like Green Day into an existential tailspin. After all, when your persona is wrapped up in the cool, bratty, and carefree, how are you meant to maintain a sense of self as your old habits become more and more unsustainable? Billie Joe Armstrong was 33 when this track was released—by no means over-the-hill in the music business, but by then he was a father of two and the band were a decade out from their breakout album Dookie. In short, times were changing, and you can hear Armstrong reckoning with this over unfussy acoustic guitar. Nostalgia seeps out as he laments: “Summer has come and passed / The innocent can never last / Wake me up when September ends.” Buzzing electric guitar and bells chime in halfway through the song, kicking the catharsis up a notch.

14. girl in red: “We Fell in Love in October” (2018)

Norwegian indie rocker Marie Ulven, better known as girl in red, wears her heart on her sleeve in most of her songs, but especially on her potent, yearning hit “We Fell in Love in October.” The racing synths on the song’s opening gives the listener that autumnal feeling of time passing you by. The lyrics’ shifting tenses—Ulven sings that “We fell in love in October / That’s why I love fall” before insisting “You will be my girl”—lend the song a strange temporal quality, as if Ulven is writing a love story before it even begins. And it seems this may be a relationship that’s doomed from the start; the object of Ulven’s affections appears more trepidatious than the artist, who insists, “Don’t bother looking down / We’re not going that way / At least I know, I am here to stay.” In fact, we know how it ends, with the follow-up single “October Passed Me By” documenting love’s disintegration. And yet, the relentless hope of “We Fell in Love in October” endures.

13. Earth, Wind & Fire: “September” (1978)

C’mon, we had to include this one. The classic Earth, Wind & Fire banger is played at every wedding for a reason, and it’s not just any tune that could’ve spurred comedian Demi Adejuyigbe to record his iconic “September” videos. While it doesn’t necessarily feel that autumnal, this list would be incomplete without “September.” Taken from The Best of Earth, Wind & Fire, Vol. 1, this track showcases a band at the peak of their songwriting prowess. The ticking away of the funky bass and percussion at the start immediately gets your toes tapping, until the horns blast in, daring you not to dance. The brass propels “September” into the stratosphere, right up there with the vocalists’ falsetto.

12. The Kinks: “Autumn Almanac” (1967)

The Kinks frontman Ray Davies doesn’t seem to love fall, but that doesn’t stop “Autumn Almanac” from being a rollicking good time. Jaunty guitar and their signature lithe harmonies radiate warmth, balancing out Davies’ complaints about “my poor rheumatic back” and how “tea and toasted, buttered currant buns / can’t compensate for lack of sun.” You can practically see fallen leaves skidding across the sidewalk as groups of people hurry into pubs or cozy living rooms. There’s also an inherent mischievousness to The Kinks’ performance as the group poke fun at people from back home who are so set in their ways: “I like my football on a Saturday / Roast beef on Sundays, all right / I go to Blackpool for my holidays.” The playground, sing-song nature of “Autumn Almanac” makes its barbed moments all the more entertaining.

11. Fiona Apple: “Pale September” (1996)

Maybe it’s just her name, but Fiona Apple’s music is made for atmospheric fall days, walking through the rain ruminating on your latest love affair. “Pale September,” the penultimate track from her iconic debut album Tidal, is tied together by a jazzy, hypnotic piano melody. Apple’s lyrics are at her most effortlessly poetic here: “Pale September, I wore the time like a dress that year / The autumn days swung soft around me, like cotton on my skin.” Her warm, silky voice unfurls lazily as she recalls being disarmed by an unexpected love, her “armor falling down in a pile at my feet.” As the song comes to a close, dreamy synth and percussion combine with the piano, holding us close just as she does her new paramor.

10. Bob Dylan: “Autumn Leaves” (2015)

Jazz pianist Philippe Baudoin dubbed “Autumn Leaves”—composed by Joseph Kosma in 1945 with original French lyrics by Jacques Prévert and English lyrics by Johnny Mercer—“the most important non-American standard,” and the numbers speak for themselves. It’s been recorded over a thousand times by musicians including Nat King Cole, Doris Day, Édith Piaf, Vince Guaraldi, John Coltrane and more. Bob Dylan released his version of “Autumn Leaves” 70 years after it was first written, on his 2015 album Shadows in the Night, featuring standards that Frank Sinatra had once sung. There’s a quavering, almost drunken quality to the soundscape here. You can just imagine a sorrowful Dylan in the back of some dimly lit bar, mourning the loss of “summer kisses” as he watches “the falling leaves / drift by the window.”

9. The White Stripes: “We’re Going to Be Friends” (2002)

While this White Stripes tune is probably best known for playing over the opening credits for Napoleon Dynamite, it’s also a sincere throwback to the simplicity of early school days. Written from a child’s perspective, “We’re Going to Be Friends” charmingly captures the excitement of making a new pal. Jack White’s folk-inflected guitar is as straightforward and effective here as a bright crayon. The duo pack the song with details that are at once colorful yet universal, like “Teacher marks our height against the wall,” or, “There’s dirt on our uniforms / From chasing all the ants and worms.” The new friend, Suzy Lee, is a recurring character in The White Stripes universe, having been the subject of a love song on their debut album. Her twee name is emblematic of cultural Americana that’s woven into “We’re Going to Be Friends,” plucked from a simpler time when kids could walk to school “all by ourselves.”

8. The Flaming Lips: “My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion” (2006)

Hopeful autumn songs are often wrapped up in romance, so The Flaming Lips’ effervescent track “My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion,” off their Grammy Award-winning album At War with the Mystics, is a welcome change of pace. Frontman Wayne Coyne implores us to ignore the naysayers who insist that “Autumn’s a coming and soon everything around us will die,” reminding us that the narrow-minded “see the sun go down but they don’t see it rise.” Birdsong is intertwined with chirping synths, soaring against a sunny, ethereal soundscape. The sonic choices bring to life Coyne’s lyrics about one bird who stays in spite of the growing cold, including the layered vocals reminding us that we’re not alone. Fuzzy, triumphant guitar breaks out, giving weight to the song’s more ephemeral elements. Synth crashes in, and the digital and analog collide in a glorious cacophony, bringing to mind Grandaddy’s 1997 masterpiece “A.M. 180.”

7. Tom Waits: “November” (1993)

With his gravely voice and timeless observations, Tom Waits is an innately autumnal figure; there was good reason for Francis Ford Coppola to cast him as Renfield in the director’s sumptuous adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. “November” was originally written for the German folklore-inspired musical The Black Rider: The Casting of the Magic Bullets, and it certainly sounds like something from a fucked-up fable. The song opens up with a quavering, haunting sound that at first listen could be a theremin, but is actually (and perhaps more appropriately) a bone saw. “November” has the air of a broken down carnival, as droll piano and accordion accompanying Waits, the ever-wayward troubadour. “No shadow / No stars / No moon / No care / November,” he half-sings, half-speaks in his salty growl. Waits’ lyrics are as evocative as ever, edging on Poe territory: “November’s cold chain / Made of wet boots and rain / And shiny black ravens / On chimney smoke lanes.” The song gets more insistent and arch as it continues, and you can just imagine Waits singing this with a pipe in his mouth as he walks down an alley, enveloped in a chilly wind.

6. Nation of Language: “September Again” (2020)

I would argue that most of Nation of Language songs are imbued with wistful longing; it’s just the New Wave in them. Still, rarely is that quality more palpable than on the Brooklyn trio’s track “September Again,” in which lead vocalist Ian Devaney sings about aging and trying to accept the myriad changes that come with it. Waves of luminous synths wash in and out, then the drums emphatically kick in—the indie pop version of a beat drop that still gets me every time. Devaney gives it his all on the chorus, just begging for you to join in: “And it’s September again / I don’t mind / I don’t mind.” The lyrics here are especially gorgeous, with the protagonist finally giving themselves over to the relentless wheel of time: “You move in cascading light / Oncoming autumn / You can’t remember the last time / A life so long / And you fade / And it’s fine.”

5. Simon & Garfunkel: “Leaves That Are Green” (1966)

Paul Simon’s original recording of “Leaves That Are Green,” put out as part of his 1965 record The Paul Simon Songbook, is a simple affair, with his voice accompanied by deft acoustic guitar. The added textures of the Simon & Garfunkel version, released on their 1966 album Sounds of Silence, inject “Leaves That Are Green” with some much-needed playfulness without forgoing the wistfulness baked into a song all about the passing of time. The duo’s dulcet harmonies are accompanied by twinkling electric harpsichord as they observe: “And the leaves that are green turn to brown / And they wither with the wind / And they crumble in your hand.” Simon’s lyrics about how everything must come to an end starts with natural imagery—“I threw a pebble in a brook / And watched the ripples run away”—before he gets to the heart of the matter: “Hello, hello, hello, hello / Good-bye, good-bye, good-bye, good-bye / That’s all there is.”

4. Jens Lekmen: “Maple Leaves” (2003)

Swedish artist Jens Lekman first released “Maple Leaves” as part of his EP of the same name, and the song was later included on his debut album When I Said I Wanted to Be Your Dog. Sorrowful, layered strings ascend into the heavens before Lekman starts describing autumn in Gothenburg, the rich, melancholic timbre of his voice reminiscent of a young Morrissey. “Maple Leaves” follows a relationship rife with misunderstandings, including the signature line, “Cuz she says that it was all make-believe / But I thought she said maple leaves.” Lekman leans into the whimsy and imagination inherent to the season here, with winking references to post-punks The Fall that bring an edge of humor to the song’s bittersweetness. His careful tightrope walk of pathos and cleverness—calling to mind Magnetic Field’s 69 Love Songs—elevates “Maple Leaves” from forlorn nostalgia to something far richer.

3. Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong: “Autumn in New York” (1957)

Originally composed by Vernon Duke in 1934, this soft jazz standard has been recorded by the likes of Billie Holiday, Chet Baker, Frank Sinatra, Charlie Parker, Lena Horne and more. The Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong version stands above the rest for leaning into the inherent romance of the song by making “Autumn in New York” into a duet. Piano traipses in, eddying like a dry leaf caught in the wind, before Fitzgerald sings the praises of the city in fall. Her voice is a cashmere sweater draped around the shoulders, warm and luxurious. The lyrics remind us that the earlier sunsets and brisk chill in the air are nothing to be feared: “Autumn in New York / Why does it seem so inviting? / Autumn in New York / It spells the thrill of first-nighting.” Plants may be dying, but new love is flourishing. Armstrong comes in with his signature comforting growl, adding that “Yes, lovers that bless the dark / Oh, on the benches in Central Park.” His trumpet is our bright companion in the coming twilight.

2. Lee Hazlewood: “My Autumn’s Done Come” (1966)

Lee Hazlewood’s thoughtful, expansive track “My Autumn’s Done Come” is all about getting older and embracing the slower side of life. Soft, hazy strums of guitar hover in the background, and lavish, sweeping strings lend the song a cinematic, if somewhat tragic, quality. There’s a sweet resignation to Hazlewood’s velvety voice here. The song was released in 1966 as part of his fourth studio record The Very Special World Of Lee Hazlewood, and even though he was only 37 at the time, each line droops with world-weariness. That doesn’t mean this is all doom and gloom, though; there’s a lightness in being able to say goodbye to things you don’t care about anymore, like when Hazlewood sings: “Let those ‘I-don’t-care-days’ begin / I’m tired of holdin’ my stomach in.” The central line—“My autumn’s done come”—is a passive one. Hazlewood can’t stop time from marching onward, but he’s accepted this lack of control, ready to sink into the comfort of middle(ish) age.

1. Yo La Tengo: “Autumn Sweater” (1997)

Beginnings are both intoxicating and nerve-wracking, in part because you never quite know if something is a beginning. Is this moment a future treasured memory, or an unremarkable chapter you’ll later forget? The excitement is all in the anticipation, not knowing what exactly lies ahead. Yo La Tengo distill this feeling in their cozy yet quietly electrifying single “Autumn Sweater,” taken from their eighth studio album I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One. There’s a nervous creak in vocalist Ira Kaplan’s voice as he wonders, “Is it too late to call this off?” Whether he’s going on a first date, or to a party that the autumn sweater owner is also attending, the promise of a beginning hangs in the air, as frightening as it is tantalizing. The thwacks of kick drum are as satisfying as stepping on a particularly crunchy leaf. The rattling of the maracas and hollowness of the bongos add lush texture to “Autumn Sweater,” transforming the lyrics from mere longing to that electric moment before something happens.

Clare Martin is a cemetery enthusiast and Paste’s associate music editor. Go harass her on Twitter @theclaremartin.