Incredibly Specific Playlist #9: Warm Autumnal
Bon Iver. Sufjan Stevens. Big Thief. Happy Kait’s birthday to you.
As you receive this email, I am closing out the last few minutes of my own personal twenty-fourth rotation around the sun. It’s kind of bittersweet. I never was any age more than I was 23. A lot of new experiences. A lot of life lessons. A lot of crying in coffee shops and being kind of high.
I know hearing someone talk about their own birthday is one of the most all-time insufferable activities we may endure in this life. But I think it’s fine. Because unlike other people’s birthdays, which are mostly on such random days, my birthday is on the very satisfying first day of autumn. (March 17? November 3? Those are not real dates. Those are made up.)
(In fact, knowing this was my approximate due date, my Granny suggested that my mother name me Autumn. But my mom decided on Kaitlyn, surely knowing that if I had such a chic, less-common name, I would never need to differentiate myself from everyone else in my age group and develop a singular voice as a writer. Thanks, Mom! What intuition!)
It feels like year after year, people want it to be fall earlier. This year, pumpkin flavors were available at Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts in late August, and 12-foot-tall Home Depot skeletons began to appear in internet memes and people’s front yards shortly after. It’s probably, on a deeper level, related to climate change delaying and complicating the seasons. A lot of smarter people than me write about it and—
I’M SORRY I’M SITTING ON AN AIRPLANE NEXT TO A YOUNG MAN COUNTING HUNDRED DOLLAR BILLS. MULTIPLE. Absolutely psychopathic behavior. Okay anyway.
—and I’m gonna leave any sort of relaying of facts and information and ways to help to them. And instead I’m going to help you ring in the season full of gorgeous shades of orange and sweaters that make you feel better about your body than a t-shirt ever could.
Autumn is well-known for its signature colors and smells/tastes, but does it have a sonic palette? I think so. I think it’s darker, more acoustic and less electronic, maybe a bit slower and more even-paced. Summer’s plucky ukulele sounds replaced by the deeper tones of an electric guitar or piano. Songs that you feel from the inside out. Like how it feels in your stomach when you drink a hot apple cider (or what my college roommates referred to as a “bone apple tea.”
A couple years ago, I offered to make miniature “fall vibes” playlists for friends who replied to a tweet of mine. Three songs apiece. This playlist is a compilation of those small playlists, as well as some additional picks. It feels right to be spending the beginning of a new cozy season within a collage of the sensibilities of many people I love.
And also a new year. Because it’s my damn birthday. It felt right to remind you again.
HERE’S THE PLAYLIST: “Warm Autumnal”
LISTEN TO THIS PLAYLIST WHILE YOU:
Feel the first leaf of the year crunch under your ankle boot
Sip a hot apple cider outside in a sweatshirt you’ve had for three or more years
Already start daydreaming about your Halloween costume (which I have already done and you should too)
THE MOST “THIS PLAYLIST” SONG ON THIS PLAYLIST:
“Bloom” by the Paper Kites is an all time Pandora-recommendation Starbucks-playlist emotional-car-commercial classic. It sounds like a rust-colored sweater inside a barn. In front of a bonfire. With the smell of bourbon and smoke and salted caramel wafting through the air. In Vermont. At daybreak.
THIS DOESN’T LOOK LIKE IT BELONGS HERE BUT I PROMISE IT DOES:
I put two songs themed around water on this playlist: “Water Me Down” by Vagabon and “Now the Water by Porches.” And normally I’d be inclined to make water thematically summer. (With its beaches and its swimming pools and whatnot.) But both of these songs sound so much like a slowdown. A reflection. An accidental stepping into a cold street puddle resulting in a wet sock, but in a way that makes you grateful for the cold weather and the changing of the seasons.
THE TRUE STAR OF THIS PLAYLIST:
The soundtrack to the Twilight movies. Or the influence of the soundtrack to the Twilight movies. They reflected the state of indie music at the time, and they shaped a generation’s sensibility of indie music. And sepia color palettes. The combination of St. Vincent and Bon Iver on “Roslyn” is quintessentially autumn. (And also… bisexual culture?)
MY PERSONAL FAVORITE SONG ON THIS PLAYLIST:
So many of these songs and artists are all-timers for me. (To my core I am a Sufjan Stevens Bon Iver Big Thief gorl.) But at this very moment in time, the song on this playlist that speaks to me most is “Kind Of” by Faye Webster. This album came out on my birthday last year (!) but I didn’t properly appreciate it until the end of this summer.
Faye Webster’s voice is luxurious, and her songwriting is succinct and delightful and satisfying. On this song, she makes trying to find the words to describe a feeling of new love into a delicious honey-colored journey. It’s the perfect soundtrack to a snuggly, cozy cuffing season. Thank God for changing seasons.
Thanks, as always, for making room for me in your heart and your ears and your inbox. And hey! Want to get me a birthday present? You should
this playlist on your socials or with a friend!
And while you’re at it, go ahead and
How will I describe winter? Spring? Someone else’s birthday? You’ll have to subscribe to find out!
Happy fall, y’all. Go eat a candy corn for me.