I can not think of a better time for the release of Such Things. Saintseneca’s new album, which came out last Friday, is the perfect soundtrack for crystalline fall light, leaves that are almost—but not quite—red, and that feeling of I must spend as much time outside as possible. While the music itself is melodic and sanguine, the lyrics hint at something deeper, darker, and a little less certain.

“I defy the stars above to bash our milky heads in.” From these first words of the title track, Such Things is a declaration. The lyrics, nuanced and dreamy, manage to both sound like a mission statement and convey a sense of listlessness. They evoke a sense of being caught between places. “The record… is about consciousness, memory, perception, experience, [and] philosophy,” founding member and songwriter Zac Little said in an interview with Stereogum. “All that stuff.” Above all, Saintseneca’s verse articulates a desire for certainty in just about everything. “Make me a believe, make me a believe, make me a believer,” they croon in “Necker Cube.”

When taken by themselves, the lyrics can call forth a dark and heady state of mind. However, the feeling elicited by Saintseneca’s music is as much, if not more so, a product of the music as it is of the words being sung. Though Saintseneca is marketed as folk rock or alternative, they employ an incredibly wide assortment of instruments, including, but not limited to, the balalaika, the dulcimer, and synthesizers. The songs on Such Things are songs you can dance to, songs you might listen to as you zoom down the highway. They are catchy, riddled with riffs that reel you in. They’re what make Such Things the perfect album for autumn: upbeat in one sense and probing in another, like celebrating something ephemeral.