Playlist One: Falling
I have a hard time with summer. I live in a place that reaches over 100 degrees months out of the year. Something about a strong sun and humid heat shoots through me every year. A finally, it is October--a month that commences weeks of sensory freedom.
The following playlist contains songs that flow with the fall. It begins with “October Love Song” is by Chris & Cosey the founding members of Throbbing Gristle. For the past decade I have listened to this song on the first day of October. The lyrics capture the narcotic feeling of a small breeze between your hands and “nights of silent love.” Days of October beat together forever.
Next comes “Autumn Sweater” by Palehound, a musician who succeeded in covering an already perfect song by Yo La Tengo. I have been a Yo La Tengo fan since I was thirteen years old when I heard their 2000 album And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out. “Autumn Sweater” is from their following album I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One. While ATNTIISO includes songs for sole summer nights, “Autumn Sweater” is for shy moments we feel as we meet another’s eyes and “the waves looked like they'd pour right out of them.” Palehound released her cover 20 years later, bringing a new sound while honoring its original feeling. “October Love Song” and “Autumn Sweater” are light songs. Not in their lyrical content, but in the way their sounds feel like they float.
The next track on this fall playlist is “Dark Matter” by Big Little League. They are a band my partner showed me months back. The lead singer has a Courtney Love sound in her voice while remaining natural and un-forced. I think this song helps ground the first two, so we don’t float off.
“All for the Best” by Miracle Legion brings in the first male voice of this playlist. This song was released in 1987. To be honest, I am not too familiar band.
Next is one of my favorite songs ever. “The Western” is a small song by Woo, a band that makes primarily instrumental songs. The reverb, its echoes, the use of texture—everything comes together and surrounds me like a dream. How can a song be so expansive yet only 2 minutes? I first heard this song when I was in inpatient treatment for drug addiction and mental health issues. The only time I had to myself was before bedtime. After hours of intensive therapy, I would come back to the house I shared with several women and take a bath in the retro square bathtub. I put my phone next to my head on the ledge of the tub and closed my eyes and dreamt of what my life would look like outside of treatment. This song brought me solace and hope while I dove into the darkest memories of my life.
Here comes another cover song! The more playlists I make the more you’ll see just how much I love (good) cover songs. Playlists are good vehicles to present old songs with new perspective. This song is a cover of “Age of Consent” by New Order. I listened to New Order’s version on repeat on my eighteenth birthday.
Diane Cluck is an underrated folk artist I discovered as a teenage girl riding in the back of the bus with my best friend. Our favorite song was “Easy to be Around”. It was fall, and we rode across from one another with the bus windows down and our feet on the backs of the seats in front of us. We made mixes for each other and played them on cheap portable CD players that we shook when they stopped working or went blew “huuuh” onto the backs of the CDs to fog them up and wipe them down. We have now been friends for over 15 years, and I know our friendship first became solidified over our need to find our next favorite song.
The Pastels are largely known for being a big inspiration on Kurt Cobain. If “Crawl Babies” was an object it would be a truck traveling down a western plane while the driver fights between their desire and their better judgement about the girl they love.
If that song is a lover in a truck, “She’s an Easy Rider” is the woman they are thinking about, riding on a motorcycle across the very same plane. As Tucker Zimmerman sings, “she’s an easy rider, she only needs a motorcycle and an open road.”
The next song, funnily enough, is yet another cover. This version of “Don’t Let Me Down” is by Gene Clark and Doug Dillard. Clark was a founding member of The Byrds. I love twangy guitar, I am a total sucker for it. This song complements the previous two. I have many people in my life I worry will let me down, but know if they do I will survive, especially with songs like this to listen to.
Alex G is a musician I would have obsessed over in high school. I graduated in 2010, way before he released music. His songs are driven by millennial nostalgia, at least to me. Especially his song “Glue.” Maybe I’m just biased. His songs would have been in my ears on those bus rides with my best friend.
Lastly, the song “Feels” by Black Marble. It is a gorgeous, melancholy song. “I used to have a radio show” randomly pops into my head several times a week. I had my own radio show in 2014 on my university’s radio. I never spoke into the microphone; I was so nervous. I only have one photograph of me in the studio. I’m in the armchair, spinning around and smiling with my feet up. I was so young but felt so old. I was going through a friend break-up, a separation that was by far the most painful break up I had ever felt.
Playlists are the superior medium in conveying a feeling to another person. Artists create the words, but we form the story. I have songs spanning several decades and genres because they help tell you a story. This playlist is made with love and care by me, Emma, to you. This playlist is perfect to play while you lay on a blanket in the yard or drive home from work on a weekday.
Happy Fall!
