Curate the Perfect Sad Girl Autumn Playlist

By Kayla Harper

It’s officially autumn, which means it’s officially the time of the year for warm pumpkin spice chai lattes on chilly mornings; knee socks, sweaters and tights; baking with endless amounts of cinnamon; and most importantly, sad girl music.

For many music listeners, different genres and styles of music often correspond to specific memories, people or times of year. For me, autumn has always sounded like acoustic folksy or sultry ballads, wrapped up in raw, bluntly depressing, but poetically honest lyrics. In other words, the kind of songs that sound like they were created in isolation; in a small log-cabin-like studio in the middle of a forest.

Most of my autumn schedule is filled with activities such as baking, studying, writing poetry/lyrics, reading, and going for walks in cute fall outfits to enjoy the beautiful fall colours. Over the years I have curated the perfect Sad Girl Autumn playlist to be the soundtrack to these events. In order to live your sad girl autumn to the absolute fullest and saddest, I have put together this article as a guide to creating the perfect Sad Girl Autumn playlist, including a carefully curated master sad girl autumn playlist which you can listen to, or draw inspiration from to create your own.

Sad Girl Autumn Essentials

First and foremost, it’s important to ensure you have the sad girl autumn essentials: cheap white wine, candles, comfy fall sweaters, Doc Martens, baking supplies (lots of pumpkin, chai and cinnamon is recommended), and most importantly: ensure you have never fully gotten over anything (you need to be in your feels). This step may require reviewing old text messages, letters, photos etc.

Note: these “essentials” are not required, but strongly recommended.

2. Curate the Playlist!

Once you’ve got the essentials listed above (or don’t, but you should), you can curate the ideal sad girl autumn playlist that is equal parts devastating and beautiful to act as the soundtrack to your fall festivities.

As stated previously, the first thing that comes to mind when I think of what fall sounds like is acoustic guitars. This steers me in the direction of indie-folk and alternative as my main genres. However, after using this as the base, it’s fun to venture into other genres such as metal, hard rock, rap, pop, etc. and find songs that sonically fit the rest, but still bring some variation.

The Foundation

I believe there’s certain staple artists that should be on every playlist with “Autumn” in the title: Bon Iver, Noah Kahan, Gracie Abrams etc. The common theme amongst these artists and others alike is their tendency to have stripped back, primarily acoustic albums with devastatingly depressing lyrics.

Kahan’s latest record, Stick Season, sonically, thematically and lyrically screams autumn. Abrams and Bon Iver oftentimes share Aaron Dessner as their main producer and the majority of their discographies fit perfectly into the autumn aesthetic. Some personal favourites of mine include Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago and his self titled, and Abram’s Good Riddance (but really I am absolutely obsessed with all of her albums).

Along with the basics which form the foundation of the playlist are specific songs that often pop up in most fall playlists, rightfully so. Some of these are Girl In Red’s “We Fell In Love In October”, Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well” (especially the 10 minute version), Bon Iver and St. Vincent’s “Rosyln” and Lord Huron’s “The Night We Met” amongst others.

The Framework

Once the foundation is set with all the acoustic guitars and folksy autumn vibes, I like to add depth by pulling songs from other artists or albums with a general melancholic vibe that are outside of the indie-folk/pop/alternative genre that’s made up the playlist so far. Some of my favourites are Arctic Monkeys, Lana Del Rey, Cigarettes After Sex, Fleetwood Mac, Lorde, Jewel etc. These artists are only a few amongst many who manage to achieve a melancholic theme that is sonically different, but still cohesive with the rest of the list.

Most of their albums fit the autumn aesthetic for me, however, my personal favourites are Arctic Monkeys’ Humbug and Suck It And See; Del Rey’s Ultraviolence, Chemtrails Over The Country Club and Blue Banisters; etc.

Time to Decorate!

When you’re content with the foundation and framework of your playlist (the acoustic guitars, indie-folk vibes, and depressing lyrics), you can spice up the playlist by drawing similar vibes from other, unexpected genres. This is where I’ll throw in a couple songs from my favourite hard rock or metal bands, to bring something different to the table, while still maintaining a sonically cohesive vibe throughout the playlist.

For example, one of my go-to’s is Slipknot’s “Vermillion pt.2”, “Snuff” or “Circles”; Stone Sour’s “Through Glass”, “Zzyzx Rd.” or “Bother”; Sevendust’s “Denial” (the acoustic version); Shinedown’s iconic cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “45”, “Lost In The Crowd”, or “What A Shame”, etc.

If you’ve read this far, you should now be able to craft the perfect sad girl autumn playlist to accompany all of your fall festivities!