10 September Songs to Fall In Love With
Updated: Mar. 20, 2019
The leaves are falling and the weather is getting cooler so warm up with these cozy September songs.
1. Goldfrapp
Tales of Us
The British pair’s follow-up to 2010’s Head First is a dreamy fantasia of gossamer synths, ambient percussion and crystalline vocals.
2. The Roots & Elvis Costello
Wise Up Ghost
Since 2009, Philadelphia hip-hop/jazz ensemble The Roots has backed up late-night host Jimmy Fallon. Now the group brings its irresistible groove to this album of dynamic funk, a collaboration with veteran cool guy Costello.
3. Franz Ferdinand
Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action
Swagger and charm flood the fourth studio album from Glasgow’s pride and joy. This collection of post-punk is so boisterous that even the contemplative ballads are buoyed by guitars and drums.
4. Rosanne Cash
September When It Comes
Prepare for waterworks: this warm reflection on mortality and memory by the alt-country troubadour features the gravelly vocals of her dad, Johnny Cash. The song’s a tear-jerker on its own, but the real heart wallop comes when you realize it came out in March 2003, just six months before the Man in Black passed away.
5. Earth, Wind & Fire
September
Without this gently funky track, wedding DJs would be at a loss, American Idol contestants would panic on disco night, bar mitzvahs would be deprived of some of their most transcendent moments, soft-rock radio stations would have a massive hole in their playlists, and countless corporations would have to update their hold music.
6. James Taylor
September Grass
Most folks are familiar with Taylor’s early-career classics, but his contemporary tunes are on par with those old-school hits. People who came of age with “Sweet Baby James” will find special resonance in this guitar-driven, percussive mid-tempo number about enduring romance and deep nostalgia.
7. Ryan Adams
September
These days, Americana ace Adams has found love (with Mandy Moore) and spends more of his time pulling goofy stunts (his metal album) than wallowing in the depths of despair. But not so long ago – in 2005, when he released his Jacksonville City Lights disc – he was a reigning king of the saddest music in the world.
8. Sarah Vaughan
September Song
There’s no better symbol for the shift from the carefree days of summer to shorter days and cooler nights than the image of trees moving from vibrant green to wistful gold, orange and ochre. Vaughan’s aching delivery of this stately tuen captures that feeling: “When the autumn weather/ Turns the leaves to flame / One hasn’t got time / For the waiting game.”
9. Nina Simone
One September Day
Another gorgeous nostalgic reverie by an incomparable talent. The cinematic strings in this composition carry Simone’s vocals as she reflects on the dissolution of a great affair, one that began and ended not in May or December, or June or November, but “one September day.”
10. Mirah
Oh! September
An instance of a typographic symbol speaking volumes, this breezy doo-wop jam by San Francisco-based singer Mirah is as breathless, wide-eyed and dynamic as the ecstatic exclamation mark suggests.
