This fall offers a bounty of new music, with killer releases from NOLA and Nashville legends, explosive rock bands (including a new Southern supergroup), memorable folky twang, and an unlikely but winsome pairing of a screamo Oklahoma metal band and an ambient guitarist. Check out the ten songs in our Fall Music playlist, and read more about the tracks below. Happy listening.
“My Cologne”
Howl Owl Howl
This new supergroup—featuring Darius Rucker, R.E.M. bassist Mike Mills, and Black Crowes drummer Steve Gorman—channels Life’s Rich Pageant–era R.E.M. on the band’s just-released debut single, a cheeky track with slashing guitars and propulsive drums. And when Mills takes the lead vocal on the second verse, the warm wash of nostalgia is a sugar-high unlike any other.
“The Middle”
Kaitlin Butts
The Oklahoma budding star’s version of the Jimmy Eat World ’90s alt-rock classic is the cover you didn’t know you needed. Butts takes the original’s fist-in-the-air exuberance and dials it down to a slow-crawling, reassuring stunner, wringing every bit of emotion out of each note.
“A Tear for Lucas”
Chat Pile and Hayden Pedigo
Also bringing fresh sounds from the Sooner State, two of Oklahoma City’s finest—one an excellent metal band, the other an avant-garde guitarist—meet up for a dusty, lonesome-sounding collection with In the Earth Again, a collaborative album that sheds the screams and shredding for quiet vulnerability. The acoustic “A Tear for Lucas” is a heartbreaking but profoundly gorgeous requiem to a lost friend.
“Seagulls”
St. Paul & the Broken Bones
A highlight from the band’s self-titled sixth album, “Seagulls” is a return to form for the soulful Alabama-based group. Recorded at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, the song is coated with a thick-as-mud groove, frontman Paul Janeway’s wild vocals, and a rousing solo trumpet part for the finale.
“Hot Chicken Condos”
Jonny Fritz
One of music’s most unsung storytellers sends up Nashville’s explosive gentrification, skewering bachelorette parties, homophobic frat bros, and “billionaires from Airbnb” over a loping, finger-snapping melody.
“The Way Love Goes”
Wednesday
Lead singer Karly Hartzman is an absolute dynamo, equally adept at shrieking vocals over crunchy feedback-soaked guitars or crooning sweet ballads. “The Way Love Goes”—from Wednesday’s latest album, Bleeds—falls into the latter category, a gentle, twangy nod to her Southern roots with lyrics partially cribbed from Lefty Frizzell.
“Making a Livin’ (Not a Killin’)”
Leon Majcen
This gifted Nashville troubadour is a wicked storyteller in the tradition of John Prine, and on “Making a Livin’ (Not a Killin’)” he pairs his tales from the road with a rollicking outlaw country gallop.
“Night After Night”
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
The Americana legends brought in dobro great Jerry Douglas to produce Night After Night, a six-song EP and the band’s first original music since 2009. The songs veer from Tom Petty–style rockers, such as the chugging title track, to stark, melancholic numbers (“Nashville Skyline” and “Peace and Quiet”), each replete with the group’s trademark hooks.
“Holy Shuffle”
Big Freedia
The New Orleans Queen of Bounce trades the raunch for Pressing Onward, a rousing, redemptive Gospel album. No matter what religion you might be, it’s impossible not to throw your hands in the air and shake your hips to Freedia’s new-school anthems like “Let It Rain on Me” and “Holy Shuffle,” which features fellow LGBTQ icon Billy Porter.
“Carolyn”
The Nude Party
This Brooklyn-via-North Carolina septet comes out swinging with garage rocker “Carolyn.” A track from the band’s forthcoming album, it blends a simple Rolling Stones–esque riff with pop-off lines like “She said I just wanna roll my dice/down the lanes of paradise with you, baby” before a two-minute rave-up that offers a glimpse of the Nude Party’s reputation for electrifying live shows.
