Summer playlists are easy.

Big choruses. Dance music. Road trips. Sunshine.

Autumn requires something different.

As evenings get darker and the temperature drops, acoustic guitars, warm vocals, folk, indie and nostalgic songwriting suddenly make much more sense.

If you’re building an autumn playlist, start here.

1. Fleetwood Mac – Dreams

Few songs feel simultaneously warm and melancholy quite like “Dreams”.

2. Noah Kahan – Stick Season

The title alone makes this almost mandatory.

Kahan’s acoustic folk-pop feels built for cold mornings.

3. Bon Iver – Holocene

Quiet, spacious and reflective.

Headphones and a long walk recommended.

4. Taylor Swift – cardigan

Swift’s folklore era practically comes with autumn leaves attached.

5. The Lumineers – Ophelia

Acoustic instrumentation and a huge melody make this perfect transitional-season listening.

6. Hozier – Cherry Wine

Delicate acoustic guitar and an intimate vocal.

7. Phoebe Bridgers – Scott Street

Melancholy without becoming overwhelming.

8. Mumford & Sons – The Cave

A bigger, more energetic folk moment when your playlist needs lifting.

9. Lord Huron – The Night We Met

For when the autumn playlist becomes dangerously emotional.

10. The Paper Kites – Bloom

Soft indie-folk that sounds like it should permanently accompany woodland photography.

11. Simon & Garfunkel – The Only Living Boy in New York

Classic songwriting with a beautifully wistful atmosphere.

12. Nick Drake – Pink Moon

Perhaps the ultimate late-night autumn record.

13. The National – I Need My Girl

Low vocals, restrained instrumentation and exactly the right amount of sadness.

14. Gregory Alan Isakov – Big Black Car

Quiet folk for quiet days.

15. Zach Bryan – Something in the Orange

Even the title fits.

16. Taylor Swift – All Too Well

Autumn nostalgia turned into pop mythology.

17. Maggie Rogers – Alaska

A little more electronic energy without breaking the mood.

18. Ben Howard – Old Pine

Acoustic guitar, memories and nature.

Hard to get more autumnal.

19. The Head and the Heart – Rivers and Roads

Ideal for the point in the playlist when everybody starts thinking about people they haven’t seen for years.

20. Vance Joy – Riptide

Technically sunny enough for summer, but acoustic enough to survive autumn.

21. José González – Heartbeats

The Knife’s electronic original is brilliant.

González’s acoustic interpretation feels made for colder weather.

22. Daughter – Youth

Atmospheric indie for darker evenings.

23. Coldplay – Sparks

Early Coldplay at its quietest and most intimate.

24. Sufjan Stevens – Mystery of Love

Fragile, beautiful and cinematic.

25. The Cranberries – Linger

Nostalgia is one of autumn’s defining musical ingredients.

Few records provide it better.

26. Sam Fender – Rein Me In

A current addition to the playlist.

The piano, saxophone and emotional regret fit remarkably well beside the older singer-songwriter records here.

27. Olivia Dean – The Hardest Part

Soul-pop warmth without breaking the reflective mood.

28. Radiohead – Fake Plastic Trees

For when the weather gets properly miserable.

29. Mazzy Star – Fade Into You

Dreamy, slow and timeless.

30. Fleet Foxes – White Winter Hymnal

You may technically be drifting into winter here.

That’s fine.

The clocks are going back anyway.

What makes a song feel autumnal?

There’s no actual musical definition.

But certain ingredients recur.

Acoustic instruments.

Warm analogue production.

Folk influences.

Slower tempos.

Nostalgia.

Melancholy.

Songs about change, memory, home and relationships.

Autumn sits between the optimism of summer and the darkness of winter, and the best autumn music often does something similar emotionally.

Not completely sad.

Not completely happy.

Somewhere comfortably in between.