Far Out 40: The 40 songs to capture mid-November bliss
With the daylight retreating earlier and faster, we are left to reckon with the gloominess of the chilly outdoors as we nest in our sanctuaries inside. Maybe I just gravitate most towards the more gothic autumn months, but there is a comfort in November’s darkness: it is not abrasive, but rather welcoming and therefore, the most blissful of them all.
Writer Nina MacLaughlin dedicated a column in The Paris Review to the concept of ‘Novemberance’, where in one essay, she opens with, “November is a hinge in the year, and the door gets opened to ghosts”, while in another, she asserts, “The dark feels different in November”.
As she alludes to, November is a doorway between autumn and winter, where we have communed with the dead on Halloween and anticipate a rebirth in the new year, producing a feeling unlike any other month; indeed, the dark really does feel different before the festivities of December close out yet another turn around the sun.
As an American, I have Thanksgiving, the most irrelevant holiday, as the unofficial final mark of fall, before the overwhelm of Christmas cheer dominates the world around me. As such, I will do everything I can to grasp onto the last gasp of my favourite season, and combating seasonal gloom requires careful curation, whether that be watching films that give you November’s ideal balance of scare and comfort, or by curating the perfect playlist to capture the month’s haunting warmth. Thankfully, I have done the latter, compiling 40 songs that ease the transition into the colder months while remaining unafraid of its shadow.
There is perhaps no one who mirrors this intermediary energy better than Stevie Nicks. As the reigning supreme of autumn, Nicks’ spirit possesses her listeners, enrapturing them with her mystic realm. Intentionally or not, she’s initiated a coven of artists who shared her knack for lyricism that borders on magical realism, with the likes of Hope Sandoval of Mazzy Star and Fiona Apple following in her footsteps, all harnessing November’s mystique, with an embrace of the dim light as a space for conjuring. Tom Waits falls into this category, with his eerie croons being the perfect soundtrack to the months’ stillness. In tandem, grunge also becomes synonymous with rain-soaked Seattle, evoking some of the most sombre storytelling from Nirvana, Alice in Chains and Soundgarden, while down in California, Stone Temple Pilots heard Scott Weiland personify autumn’s doom.
One of the best things about November is its possibility for surprise. Not all is tinged with sadness in the dark, and in contrast, trip hop of the same era, soundtracked by Portishead and Sneaker Pimps, harnessed autumn’s spirited side, leaning into the shadowiness that the 11th month of the year amplifies with an energetic twist. Metal has a similar vitality, too, and fits comfortably within the twilight of November, offering the necessary balance of aggression and sensitivity needed to survive, heard best in the voices of Black Sabbath, Deftones and Slipknot.
The change from autumn to winter is daunting, often uncomfortable and easy to disregard as a way of coping. In the blink of an eye, we’ll be back to the unbearable heat of summer (my own worst nightmare), and so, these songs will be sure to soundtrack autumn’s final days, in all of its cool, slightly dreary comfort.
Far Out’s 40 songs to best harness mid-November bliss:
- Stevie Nicks – ‘Crystal’
- Tom Waits – ‘I Hope That I Don’t Fall in Love With You’
- Portishead – ‘Glory Box’
- Jeff Buckley – ‘So Real’
- Deftones – ‘Rosemary’
- Sneaker Pimps – ‘6 Underground’
- Superheaven – ‘Youngest Daughter’
- Dax Riggs – ‘You Were Born to Be My Gallows’
- Basement – ‘Covet’
- Silverchair – ‘Faultline’
- Slowdive – ‘Skin in the Game’
- Black Sabbath – ‘Black Sabbath’
- Flyleaf – ‘I’m So Sick’
- Alice In Chains – ‘Rotten Apple’
- The Smiths – ‘Unloveable’
- Fiona Apple – ‘Get Gone’
- The Smashing Pumpkins – ‘Luna’
- Mazzy Star – ‘Roseblood’
- Nirvana – ‘Marigold’
- Iceage – ‘Forever’
- Lana Del Rey – ‘Dealer’
- The Lemonheads – ‘Into Your Arms’
- Stone Temple Pilots – ‘Plush (Acoustic)’
- Chris Cornell – ‘Seasons’
- The Sundays – ‘Here’s Where The Story Ends’
- Slipknot – ‘Prelude 3.0’
- The White Stripes – ‘One More Cup of Coffee’
- Crowbar –’REPULSIVE IN ITS SPLENDID BEAUTY’
- Echo & the Bunnymen – ‘Killing Moon’
- Fleetwood Mac – ‘Gold Dust Woman’
- AFI – ‘Fall Children’
- The Brian Jonestown Massacre – ‘It Girl’
- Alice In Chains – ‘Grind’
- Crossing i’s Dotting t’s – ‘November Cold’
- Hole – ‘Violet’
- Soundgarden – ‘Outshined’
- kent – ‘Revolt III’
- Laura Veirs – ‘Songs for L Cohen’
- Radiohead – ‘My Iron Lung’
- Angel Olsen – ‘Big Time’
