Sounds of the Month October ’21: The Autumn-Ready Playlist

 

We’ve made it to the fourth quarter and it’s this final stretch of the year when the leave change color, the days are shorter and the nights grow longer that we reach for the items that keep up cozy and comfortable: hot beverages, warm meals and layers of woolly knits.

In a similar way, this seasonal transition calls for a tonal change, where we swap the deep bass and fast beats of the songs of summer for gentle and smooth tracks that signal the winding down of the year. With this in mind, our playlist for October is a considered curation of R&B melodies and R&B-tinged Afro-pop tracks that befit the laid-back season of autumn.

We kick off with Kenyan teenage sensation Nikita Kering’s “Ex”, a classic R&B song about feelings and relationships from her A Side Of Me EP. This is followed by more tracks contemplating love and breakups courtesy of Snoh Aalegra’s “On My Mind” and “Messy Love” by British singer Nao. 

After a breakout couple of years that have seen her feature on the hit song “Essence” with Wizkid and Drake’s latest studio album Certified Lover Boy, Nigerian singer-songwriter Tems is grabbing the spotlight in her own right with her recently released EP If Orange Was A Place. Three of her songs appear on our playlist, including “Vibe Out”, which the singer has described as being inspired by “the setting of the sun and getting prepared to move. It is what I call the ‘ginger’ and the burst of dance… The sunset dance.” In our books, it is perfectly apt for the end of the summer season.

For those that are not quite ready to let go yet, we have bass-heavy yet chill Afrobeats songs that will keep your spirits up through the cold-weather months from the likes of Fireboy DML (“Peru”) and Cheque (“Dangerous”) as well as the bouncy alté sound of Wavy the Creator, who recently spoke to The Folklore about her newly released EP.

Want to know what else we’re listening to? Follow The Folklore on Spotify and check out our other playlists.