The noise rock and grindcore band Daughters must have had this in mind when releasing “Ocean Song” and its respective album only five days before Halloween.

One of these involves the festive playfulness we attribute to the more juvenile qualities of the holiday, a sort of jubilant exploration of the macabre the other is sheer terror. Often when thinking about Halloween and its accompanying seasonal mystique, there’s a duality of emotions at play. With the tension of an Aphex Twin beat, the witchy house tracks of Crystal Castles, the haunting of Spelling’s beautiful vocals and the chaos of a noise rock song from Daughters - what better way to get in the spooky mood than to blindly press play on a playlist curated by college writers? So in an effort to redirect our attention to October’s main attraction, with cartoon depictions of skeletons and the appropriate excuse to play dress-up once a year, the music beat presents a playlist perfect for getting anyone ready for Halloween. “Autumn in New York” is a jazz tune that lasts as long as the changing leaves do, and the coffee order switch from “iced” to “hot” becomes less a delightful mark of the oncoming brisk weather, and more of a necessity to keep the blood in our fingers circulating.Īs we welcome in week-long gray, wet storms, it’s hard to say which is more spooky: this abrupt change in weather marching slowly into Halloween and further climate anxiety, or the Michigan tendency to bring up the weather any chance we get. The annual “When Harry Met Sally” rewatch must be followed by a first-time “Rosemary’s Baby” viewing. Inevitably, after the softcore indulgences of autumn, spooky season must fall upon us.

Spooky play list