Albums to Autumn To
As I’m sure you’re all aware of by now, despite my birthday falling in September, October is my favorite month of the year. I’m a Spooky Season Supporter. An Autumn Enjoyer. A Fall Fan. And although my initial urge is to spend this month writing about everything except for music, today I think it would be appropriate to share with you all my favorite music to listen to during this most wonderful time of the year.
There’s lots of non-music media that I also look forward to binging— I will never run out of horror movies to watch and/or rewatch, Deanna and I are finishing up our Angel rewatch just in time to transition into finishing our Buffy the Vampire Slayer journey from last year, Over the Garden Wall is set to become an annual tradition, and I’m looking forward to listening to my audiobook of Nick Cutter’s The Breach alongside podcasts like Video Palace— but music is such a huge part of my day-to-day life that to ignore it this year would seem a little bit disingenuous (not to mention it’s the thing that most of you subscribe to my newsletter for). And besides, nothing really sets a mood quite like music does, and being able to spend a month luxuriating in autumnal vibes requires nothing but the finest of tunes.
There’s going to be some obvious stuff here, of course, but hopefully I’ll be able to turn some of you on to something new as well. This is gonna be a real simple newsletter, full of old favorites and recent discoveries, but the one thing all of these albums have in common is that they perfectly complement those times when you’re outside and you just start to notice a nip in the air amidst the heat, when you start to feel like breaking out the classic Cronenberg cuts, and you want to sit in a park and read Something Wicked This Way Comes. These are Albums to Autumn To.
THE BIG DOGS
AFI- Black Sails In the Sunset (1999), All Hallow’s EP (1999), and The Art of Drowning (2000). Need I say more?
My Chemical Romance- I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love (2002). While many might reach for the more polished follow-ups, to me, there’s nothing that screams October more than this record’s warm, dry production and Gerard Way’s vomitous vocal inflections. “Early Sunsets Over Monroeville,” in particular, pairs nicely with that ancient VHS copy of Dawn of the Dead.
Ink & Dagger- Drive This Seven-Inch Wooden Stake Through My Philadelphia Heart (1997) and The Fine Art of Original Sin (1998). While arguably their entire discography would qualify, these are the two that I always find myself turning on for their infectious mix of innovative, spiky guitar work, bursts of inspired electronica, and Sean McCabe’s ineffable magnetism.
Type O Negative- Bloody Kisses (1993) and October Rust (1996). Again, another band whose entire discography is worth revisiting, but these are the two peaks. They’re probably the most basic-bitch band in this entire lineup (the amount of jokes I’ve seen about hardcore kids on Twitter changing their handle to “Type HOE Negative” is absurd), but I feel like time has caused people to somewhat forget just how funny Pete Steele’s lyrics could be even at his most dickish. Never has there been a more accurate description of having a goth GF than “You wanna go out cuz it’s raining and blowing/You can’t go out cuz your roots are showing.”
Christian Death- Only Theatre of Pain (1982). Probably the ur-example of hardcore kids pivoting into worship of early The Cure and Siouxsie & the Banshees. The guitar work on this record is absolutely phenomenal. Also, hey, problematic lyrics, if you care about that sort of thing.
Nine Inch Nails- Pretty Hate Machine (1989), Broken (1992), The Downward Spiral (1994), and The Fragile (1999). I recently wrote a novel-length newsletter about these records, so I won’t talk too much about them here, but they’re every bit “essential October listening” as Type O Negative in my opinion.
HEAVY SHIT
Discordance Axis- The Inalienable Dreamless (2000). One of the only grindcore albums ever made that could also be described as “melancholy” and “achingly melodic.” Jon Chang’s vocals are obviously on a whole other level, but Dave Witte is one of the best drummers of all time and the guitar work is just fucking ridiculous. The vast, empty blue of the album cover always makes me think of how, growing up in the desert, you’d often have those cool fall days with a bright, nearly-cloudless sky.
Pig Destroyer- Prowler In the Yard (2001). They’d go on to make better albums, sure, but if you want to get into a genuinely spooky mood, you could do much, much worse than this concept album about the titular stalker. JR Hayes’s twisted poetry on this record is a gift.
Cult of the Lizard God- Vortex of Nightmares (compilation cassette, 1999). Perhaps “heavy” isn’t exactly the best way to describe this band, who play a poorly-recorded, peculiar, yet oddly comforting blend of black metal and post-punk, but I would say that the experience of listening to them is not unlike trick-or-treating as a little kid and walking past a spooky house that has a party going on inside and being too intimidated to knock on the door.
Swallowed- Lunarterial (2014). My good friend and colleague David Anthony described this album best when he said it sounded like literally being inside a haunted house. FFO: death/doom, feeling like reality is literally crumbling around you as you tumble into a gaping maw of nothing and everything at the same time.
Cosmovore- Into the Necrosphere (2020). This album sounds a lot like Lunarterial, but a little bit faster, and with a bit more of a “cosmic dread” sort of vibe.
Massacre- From Beyond (1991). Ex-Death members playing classic early 90s Floridian death metal, but really really catchy. I can’t say what about this exactly feels more “spooky” and “October-y” than any other death metal band of the time, but there’s this weird intense quality to the musicianship that fosters an atmosphere of unease, but in a really pleasant way. Also, obviously, it’s named after the classic Stuart Gordon/Jeffrey Combs film, itself loosely based on the HP Lovecraft story of the same name.
Monstrosity- Millennium (1996). Quite similar to above, except with more of an emphasis on technicality (there are some insane bass moments on this record) and dancefloor-justice-inducing pit riffs. Most people remember this band for being the incubator for future Cannibal Corpse vocalist Corpsegrinder, but they made this album with Jason Avery on vocals after Corpsegrinder left, and he’s perfectly competent in his role (which is mainly to provide vocals for the instrumental carnage).
An Autumn for Crippled Children- Try Not to Destroy Everything You Love (2013). Duh.
To Dream of Autumn- self-titled (2000). Also duh, but I feel like I should emphasize that rather than being metal, this is a screamo record. Classic emoviolence-type stuff in the vein of Joshua Fit for Battle or Neil Perry.
Unsane- self-titled (1991). This album has some really distasteful real gore as cover art (given to the band by a friend that worked on the case), but if you can get past that, what’s inside is some truly transcendent noise rock that is every bit as good as their peers in The Jesus Lizard or Cows, but with a subtly unnerving vibe that feels a bit more genuine and desperate.
SOFT STUFF
The Wrens- The Meadowlands (2003). If your idea of perfect autumn vibes isn’t about “scary” and rather more “sitting outside in the cool air, reading a book and hugging your cardigan closer to your body,” well, this album literally sounds exactly like that. The most upbeat, energetic song here is called “This Boy Is Exhausted.”
Low- I Could Live In Hope (1994). Outside of the more emo-adjacent artists like Carissa’s Wierd, I got into slowcore/sadcore pretty late— only about five or so years ago— but this was the album that finally sold me on the genre. This album’s solemn quietude is definitely for more pensive days— long bus rides to work or puzzling over your future— but there are some well-earned moments of catharsis here that just hit. It helps that when the distortion on the guitar hits, it sounds like an angry swarm of bees.
Codeine- Frigid Stars (1990). Where the aforementioned Low album got a lot of its ideas.
Unwound- Leaves Turn Inside You (2001). It won’t shock anyone to hear that on the whole, I generally reach more for Unwound’s earlier, noisier stuff, but this album has such a (forgive the pun) ghostly vibe that it would be a crime not to listen to it at least once this month.
Siouxsie & the Banshees- Juju (1981). Another no-brainer since this features their classic cut “Halloween,” but I feel like this record strikes a perfect chord between their riffs-as-gothic-architecture beginnings, the psychedelia they would explore on A Kiss In the Dreamhouse, and Kate Bush-esque art pop.
Venetian Snares- Rossz Csillag Alatt Született (2005). Calling this “soft” music isn’t exactly accurate— I’m far from an expert on electronic music, but there’s tons of fast breakbeat-indebted stuff embedded in this album’s firmament— but its ambitious blend of electronica and classical is quite soothing to me, personally.
The Caretaker. Full disclosure— I’ve never listened to this guy, since I generally don’t really listen to ambient music, but when I asked around as to favorite autumnal listens, his name came up quite a bit. From what I understand his Everywhere at the End of Time project has become kind of a meme on TikTok, but the general premise behind his work seems spooky and dreamlike enough for me to warrant his inclusion here.
HIP-HOP
House of Krazees- Season of the Pumpkin (1994). I first really got into this album— from pre-Twiztid project House of Krazees— when I was doing Juggalo research for last year’s October Patreon post, but please don’t let that discourage you from listening. Great spooky sample choices and generally impeccable flows, with lyrics that presage a lot of horrorcore themes without ever sacrificing empathy for victims.
Three 6 Mafia- Mystic Stylez (1995). That brilliant cover art tells you all you need to know. The legacy of early Three 6 Mafia has gotten lost amid the 2010s-era wave of SoundCloud rappers biting their flows and lo-fi sample style, not to mention Three 6 Mafia themselves helping to invent crunk and ascending to pop godhood, but the genuinely oppressive eeriness and the flows on this record— aggressive lyrics that touch on themes of the occult, true crime, and parapsychology, all delivered with disconcerting casualness— have aged marvelously. It is the 90s Memphis album. Best listened to during the sweaty humidity right before it gets cold but you’re still craving those fall vibes.
Low Down da Sinista- Coming for Your Soul (1996). Okay, maybe this is the peak 90s Memphis album, especially since it was only released on cassette and didn’t achieve infamy til popping up in various blogs and Mediafire links over the years. But make no mistake— some of the rhymes on this record are evil, accentuated by the proto-crunk production and the occasional burst of out-of-the-blue eccentric absurdism (“Blah” is one of the single funniest tracks ever put to tape).
Lil Ugly Mane- Mista Thug Isolation (2012). Patient zero for the SoundCloud update on the early Three 6 Mafia sound, and still no one has done it better.
Gravediggaz- 6 Feet Deep (1994). Known as N***amortis overseas (darkly hilarious in that Gravediggaz way), as an enormous Wu-Tang simp and Prince Paul fan, you know there’s no way I could avoid mentioning this album. “1-800-SUICIDE” and “Diary of a Madman” are two of the unimpeachable classics of 90s hip-hop, blending a macabre sensibility with clever gallows humor, incredible delivery, and those classic sparse, minor-key loops to deliver an elegant and potent mixture of shock-rap and biting social commentary. Always just a cut above their peers.
Big L- “Devil’s Son” (1993). Big L’s legacy is often wrapped up in his involvement with the DITC and Children of the Corn crews, as well as his brilliant LP Lifestyles ov Da Poor & Dangerous, but while his legendary lyrical acrobatics are a huge part of his story, for me, Big L’s best song will always be this underground single from early in his career, which seemed to preternaturally sense the combination of morbid fascination and subversively dark sense of humor that Gravediggaz would make famous and multiplied it tenfold. There’s no social commentary here— just brilliantly written and delivered, hilariously mean-spirited rhymes.
Esham- KKKill The Fetus (1993). Deliriously horrific rhymes delivered over deteriorated, fucked-up Alice In Chains samples. Need I say more?
Brotha Lynch Hung- Season of da Siccness (1995). While nearly all the other rappers I’ve mentioned here have hailed from Memphis, Detroit, or New York, Brotha Lynch Hung is from Sacramento, and his production style mixes some of that indie Midwest/East Coast grit with the smoothness of SoCal G-funk and NorCal bounce to create something that is so catchy you almost forget that he’s spitting arguably the most fucked-up rhymes ever penned by any rapper not named Necro.
And that’s it for this installment. I’m sure there’s many, many albums I missed, so feel free to comment below with your favorites. October beckons.
-xoxo, Ellie
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