Fall in love: the 10 best songs for pumpkin spice season

The pumpkins are spicing, the air is crisping, and the leaves are crunching. Fall is all about edging renewals and gearing up for vibrant rebirths, so that means there's no better time for a musical refresh. Scroll down for all the songs that will help you bid a fond farewell to brat summer and embrace turtlenecks, leaf peeping, back-to-school, and those beautiful harvest moons.

What: "September"
Who: Earth, Wind & Fire

Earth, Wind & Fire's 1978 hit R&B-funk single "September" is the ultimate fall anthem. Listen just once and it's easy to understand the track's prominent place in pop culture (including contemporary highlights from Demi Adejuyigbe's epic video series to the song's myriad uses in the brilliant 2023 animated film Robot Dreams) because this glowing sunset of a song is a masterclass in holding onto joy with everything you've got.

What: "Urge for Going"
Who: Joni Mitchell

Joni Mitchell's aching 1966 folk tune "Urge for Going" is a strum-and-release catharsis for all the different ways we find ourselves at the end. Mitchell evokes shifting landscapes (metaphorical and literal) with a poet's love of imagery and observation. "Urge for Going" is yearning and wistful, but resists self-pity without ever sacrificing vulnerability. 

What: "Autumn in New York"
Who: Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong

This classic jazz standard from legends Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong is a duet of textures: velvety warmth and chilly caution; sparkling hope and crushed-glass reality; the glow of nostalgia and the icy familiarity of coming home to a place you love that can't quite love you back the way you need. 

What: "The Rain"
Who: k-os

Feel the water drenching k-os's soul in this bluesy torch track from his stunning 2006 album, Atlantis: Hymns for Disco (reissued in 2024 as Atlantis+). "The Rain" invites the listener inside the downpour to interrogate it all:

We keep chasing dollars
It's making me holler
I just don't know
I don't need a cheque
I need some respect
So people you know
And the war
And the babies crying
And the car
And the house
And the rings
And the things that don't mean nothing

What: "Autumn Changes"
Who: Donna Summers

Donna Summers was the queen of disco resistance, and dancing through the end of love is one of the best ways to cope with potential heartbreak. Whatever changes fall presents, this is the hype song to help persevere.  

What: "Witchy"
Who: Kaytranada feat. Childish Gambino

"Witchy" is one of the newest singles from Kaytranada's aptly titled 2024 release, Timeless, and it's a perfect example of why this Canadian super-producer is one of the country's most beloved collaborators: he knows how to share his shine. Childish Gambino sounds like he's genuinely having a great time, and the two coming together for an ode to the otherworldly magic of falling under another's spell is divine.

What: "Dead Leaves"
Who: Shred Kelly

Shred Kelly's 2020 folk-rock track is urgent and anthemic, perfectly conveying the desperation and panic of trying to delay the inevitable end of something both bigger and smaller than it seems. 

What: "Daylight Savings Time"
Who: Dizzy

Dizzy's indie pop love letter to the gentle cruelty of "falling back" and the end of "Daylight Savings Time" is the cable-knit sweater of Rory Gilmore's dreams. If this sentence doesn't make sense to you, I'm sorry, but I cannot describe it any more meaningfully than this.  

What: "Autumn Leaves"
Who: Nat King Cole

Epic, intimate, classic: there's nothing like the radiant embers of Nat King Cole's voice as he sings about bidding adieu to a summer love and the lonely embrace of fall.

What: "Harvest Moon"
Who: Neil Young

Simple, direct and heartfelt, 1992's "Harvest Moon" is a rare glimpse of Neil Young's joyful vulnerability. This sweet two-step shuffle is farmcore at its very essence: humble, strong and bountiful.