Playlist: Autumn 2

In the UK (and the northern hemisphere more generally), we have truly entered that autumnal time of year (a.k.a. fall) - the temperature has finally chilled a bit, the air seems damper and most of all, the nights are becoming way too long.

So, to help with that, we have gathered ten more songs broadly (and occasionally tenuously) about this season. It's not everyone's favourite time of year, so these songs will help ease that pain..... possibly.

1. Weezer: Undone (The Sweater Song)

Okay, this isn't much of an autumnal song beyond referring to a suitable clothing option for the season. It was actually Rivers Cuomo's attempt at doing a Velvet Underground song and opens with bassist Matt Sharp talking to band friend Karl Koch, before Koch and Mykel Allan also engage in some dialogue during the song, which the band have to randomly ad-lib when playing it live. Tom Maginis in AllMusic called it, "meticulously crafted, it's smart, quirky, poignant, and insanely catchy." but Cuomo bemoaned, "It was supposed to be a sad song, but everyone thinks it's hilarious."

Undone (The Sweater Song) (official music video)

2. Justin Hayward: Forever Autumn

This song features on Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of War of the Worlds. Perhaps unsurprisingly it was written by Jeff Wayne, along with Gary Osborne and Paul Vigrass. He had first come up with the tune for it in 1969, for a jingle he wrote for a Lego advert. For his ambitious musical interpretation of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds, Wayne wanted to include a love song, and eventually decided he should use the one he already had. He picked Justin Hayward, because he "wanted that voice from Nights In White Satin." Hayward would later recall, "I knew the music was great, but I thought, 'Who the hell's going to buy it?'" So, he decided to take a flat fee up front - a big mistake - when it finally came out, two years after he had recorded his parts, it became a big hit.

Forever Autumn (official music video, with Richard Burton's narration at the start)

3. The Flaming Lips: My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion

Keeping on with the fantastical - and never a band to go into things half heartedly, this track from the Flaming Lips eleventh LP, At War With The Mystics, has the easy off the tongue full title of My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion (The Inner Life as Blazing Shield of Defiance and Optimism as Celestial Spear of Action) - which possibly takes longer to say than the four and half minute's it plays for. It is a jolly song about defiance and optimism in the face of a seemingly bleak future.

My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion (audio only)

4. Lana Del Ray: Cinnamon Girl

This song was written by Lana Del Ray with Jack Antonoff and is about a toxic relationship, with her gently warbled lyrics set to a laid back trip-hop style track. It is most definitely not a cover of the Neil Young 1969 classic with the same name, but many critics have assumed that the title is at least a homage to him.

Cinnamon Girl (audio only)

5. Girl In Red: We Fell In Love In October

Photo: Press

Girl In Red is Norwegian singer-songwriter-producer Marie Ulvin Ringheim. The New York Times have referred to her as "one of the most astute singer-songwriters working in the world of guitar music." Coming hot on the heels of debut EP Chapter 1 (September 2018), We Fell In Love In October became a standalone single in November 2018, breaking into the US Rock Chart Top 20.

We Fell In Love In October (official music video)

6. Iron & Wine: Autumn Town Leaves

This comes from Carolina's Iron & Wine's (a.k.a. Sam Beam) 2018 Weed Garden EP. It might be me, but this tune seems to have some Simon & Garfunkel vibes going on - it was later used in the supernatural American drama show, Manifest.

Autumn Town Leaves (audio only)

7. Nick Drake: Northern Sky

Bryter Layter was produced by the legendary Joe Boyd in 1971, who was a fan and early supporter of Nick Drake's music. Boyd saw potential in the stripped down acoustic demo for Northern Sky and for the recording, brought in the Velvet Underground's John Cale to add some piano, organ and celesta arrangements. Drake was initially resistant to these additions, but was ultimately pleased with Cale's efforts. Cale later said of him, "He made music with a real sensuality - very different from English folk music." The song is, as critic Pete Paphides later said, "the most unabashedly joyful song in his canon."

Northern Sky (audio - set to clip of film Serendipity, that it features in)

8. Taylor Swift: Cardigan

What do you need when the weather turns autumnal? This is the lead single from 2020s surprise COVID release, Folklore. In it, Betty, the song's narrator, is looking back into the haze of a long lost romance. Swift also wrote and directed the video for the song, using a style that is apparently known as 'cottagecore'. It did quite well - 7.7 million streams on its first day on Spotify and went straight in as her sixth US number one.

Cardigan (official music video)

9. Bombay Bicycle Club: Autumn

A musical nerd aside first, as musical heritage is very important - is that Bombay Bicycle Club's Jamie MacColl is the son of noted musician Neill MacColl, the nephew of Kirsty MacColl (wonderful, totally underrated and taken from us way too early) and grandson of folk legends Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger. Autumn is a track from their debut record, I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose, which itself is a line from the song After Hours by A Tribe Called Quest.

Autumn (live at Glastonbury, 2010)

10. Etta James: Stormy Weather

Photo: Getty Images

This torch song was composed in 1933 by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler, first being sung by jazz and swing singer, Ethel Waters. It is a song about disappointment, with the weather being a metaphor for the singers feelings - but of course, that may be many people's view of autumn weather too. It has been covered by all the great and good of the mid twentieth century - Frank Sinatra, Duke Ellington, Lena Horne, Billie Holiday and Judy Garland to name a few. But we have gone with R&B legend Etta James's version, from her 1961 debut record, At Last!

Stormy Weather (audio only)