Stick season is the best time to discover new music. Our critics have some helpful suggestions for songs to keep you warm. Plus:
When the days are shorter and colder, something in the air sends us searching for comfort in music. Our writers have selected their favorite songs of this season. We hope they provide some cozy listening for the final weeks of fall.
Amanda Petrusich recommends:
- “Husbands,” by Geese. Currently my favorite track on what’s possibly my favorite record of 2025. Cameron Winter’s voice is extraordinary (savage, untamed, weird, gorgeous), but I really love the jerky, skittering percussion here. When the vocals layer up at the end? I’m toast!
“Loser,” by Tame Impala. This addictive, loping track is one of the best and strangest songs from the artist’s fifth album.
“The Way Love Goes,” by Wednesday. This heartsick tune was inspired by the Merle Haggard song of nearly the same name; both are tender meditations on how fragile we become in the face of love. The singer Karly Hartzman described it—perfectly, in my opinion—as “poking roadkill with a stick. Making it twitch.”
Hua Hsu recommends:
- “sour diesel,” by They Are Gutting a Body of Water. Like a hardcore band lazing through My Bloody Valentine covers; I had no idea I’d been waiting my whole life to hear someone make music like this.
“Hypersoft Lovejinx Junkdream,” by james K. Until NewJeans, the wildly popular K-pop group, is freed from their record-label purgatory, I am happy to swaddle myself in james K’s skittering, dreamy, weightless dance pop.
“Me and Those Dreamin’ Eyes of Mine (live at the Jazz Cafe, London),” by D’Angelo. An early live gem from one of the best to ever do it. An irresistible, holy spectacle.
Brady Brickner-Wood recommends:
- “Jean,” by Hovvdy. The Austin duo’s sepia-toned indie rock is the perfect soundtrack for a quiet, nostalgia-heavy autumn.
“Special,” by dexter in the newsagent. One of the year’s finest songs feels both timeless and fresh, a patient and yearning ode to young love from one of London’s most promising young pop singers.
“Buzzkill,” by Ness Lalonde. If ever a song had a broken heart! “Buzzkill” is a cutting and feral cry for help; I can’t stop listening to it.
Rachel Syme recommends:
- “Mercury,” by Kathleen Edwards. I always seem to return to “Failer,” the 2003 album by Edwards, around this time of year, as it has just the right amount of melancholic twang to match the cooling air. This song, about getting stoned in the parking lot of one’s old high school, sounds like leather-jacket season to me.
“Blues Run the Game,” by Jackson C. Frank. The earlier it gets dark, the more I put this song into rotation. A classic anthem for seasonal affective disorder.
“Guess Who I Saw Today,” by Samara Joy. This cover of the jazz standard moves as slowly and sweetly as honey; it’s ideal for crunching through leafy streets.
Editor’s Pick
Photograph by Nathan Howard / Reuters
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