Campus in the fall boasts many moments of beauty. As the trees change colors, students start to break out their favorite sweaters and gather inside coffee shops to sip pumpkin-flavored drinks. The Butler-Tarkington neighborhood lights up with its spookiest decorations as Halloween approaches. It is the time to romanticize studying, watch “Practical Magic” and visit a pumpkin patch. To complement autumnal scenes, the Culture section has gathered their greatest fall hits to soundtrack walks to class, study time and more.
ABBY KIDWELL | CULTURE CO-EDITOR | arkidwell@butler.edu
“Gone” by The Sundays
Despite its slate as the last track on The Sundays’ “Summertime” EP, “Gone” is the perfect fall song to accompany contemplative strolls along the canal. The ethereal vocals evoke imagery of crisp leaves, cozy movie nights and driving home through tunnels of colorful fall foliage. Like many songs in The Sundays’ discography, “Gone” is painfully nostalgic and will make listeners yearn for the autumn of their younger years, making it the perfect escapist anthem.
ANA DOLLARD | CULTURE CO-EDITOR | adollard@butler.edu
“Fall on Me” by R.E.M.
Despite being a song about oppression, “Fall on Me” by R.E.M. sounds like a gray, cloudy fall day as the sun begins to peek out and touch the leaves. The mellow harmonies suggest a moment of hope in the middle of darkness. Listening to this piece while undergoing the moodiness of fall seems to complement the many critiques of capitalism present in the lyrics. Lines like “Buy the sky and sell the sky,” are a moment of reckoning with commodification of the natural world. The song was released on July 28, 1986, a stark contrast to the fall of 2026, but its vibe seems to fit throughout all the seasons.
HARRISON PRYOR | STAFF REPORTER | hrpryor@butler.edu
“Dead Man’s Lament” by Dear Lincoln
It is easy to fall back on reliable fall classics like “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and its soundtrack. After all, it has everything from the earworm of “This is Halloween” to the solemn “Sally’s Song”. For those not quite ready to switch it up but still craving something new, “Dead Man’s Lament” by Dear Lincoln is the perfect song. Inspired by “Jack’s Lament” — even borrowing its motifs and some lyrics — this song creates a new, existential origin for Jack Skellington. It also begs the question: when stuck between life and death, what is one to do but pray?
RACHEL JOYCE | STAFF REPORTER | rljoyce@butler.edu
“Silk” by Wolf Alice
Built around a simmering sense of heartache, “Silk” by Wolf Alice creeps up the spine with a gothic sort of restraint. With the song’s slow-burning dreaminess and punk, melancholic texturing, anyone can feel touched by the soul of its muse: Edie Sedgwick, a 1960s American socialite — and Andy Warhol’s “It Girl”. The vocals dance between an anthem and a whisper, reflecting the layers to Sedgwick’s mental health struggles that ultimately led to her tragic death. Ellie Rowsell revives the painful theatrics of living through Sedgwick’s eyes to reach the ears of every haunted dreamer. If this fall has left anyone feeling like “some half-human creature thing”, Wolf Alice offers a soundtrack with some company in the darkening days of fall.
SAMUEL DEMIS | STAFF REPORTER | sademis@butler.edu
“Psycho Killer” by Talking Heads
When one thinks of autumn, Halloween comes to mind, and Halloween is often associated with fairly dark subject matter. With that said, songs that are specifically written with Halloween in mind typically use the same few tropes: ghosts, hauntings, various monsters dancing. Even Michael Jackson was guilty of relying on cliche imagery of werewolves and zombies. While not an explicitly Halloween-themed song, “Psycho Killer” by Talking Heads evokes the same feelings of unease through the dichotomy between dark subject matter and a funky new wave instrumental. The use of French lyrics gives the bridge a unique sound compared to the rest of the band’s music, and something about the chord progression gives off the feeling of an orange twilight.
OLLIE FITZGERALD | NEWS EDITOR | ofitzgerald@butler.edu
“Erica Western Teleport” by Emperor X
Crisp autumn air and crunchy leaves bring more melancholy and grungy songs to the front of seasonal playlists. “Erica Western Teleport” combines entrancing melodies with heartbreaking lyrics to perfectly soundtrack a nostalgic fall montage. The album that the track headlines had garnered the indie-folk and lo-fi project — Emperor X — an online cult-following, and this fall, a recent resurgence of the song. The lyrics, encouraging the listener not to think about “her” doing all different mundane tasks, only spur the listener to long for her more, ending with the cathartic line of “always think of her.”