Last night, between a very annoying Mets loss and a session of bug-searching, I took some time to listen to a side of the Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour while sitting on (well, leaning up against, really) a bean bag, a cold beer in my hand. And I did nothing else. It was nice! It was also the first time in a long time that I’d just spent listening to a record and staring into space and not doing anything else–not even a crossword puzzle. And today is a beautiful spring day in New York City, one that’s perfect for engaging in similar activities (while being outside). Three records that I need to really pull out and just chill out to sometime soon before I go crazy, after the jump. Feel free to share yours!
Broadcast, The Noise Made By People. Given that the climate in the Northeast is slowly (so slowly) edging away from the winter chill, the clock may be ticking on this album’s seasonal appropriateness. But Trish Keenan’s vocals–icy, precise, removed–are, paradoxically, like warm milk.
George Michael, Ladies And Gentlemen The Best Of George Michael: For The Heart. Yes, there’s a lot of emotion, but there’s also a lot of room to just sink in to the music. Scott MacIntyre, your future is in helping stressed-out hausfraus make it through.
Wye Oak, If Children. The aural equivalent of a fifty-foot featherbed and an endless rainy afternoon. Their new album is going to come just in time.
Just a note: It was way too hard for me to come up with just three of these albums. Can I blame the Information Age?
I like this one (and I am male):
MEIKO – self-titled LP – Goes well with either a heavy Amber ale or some green tea – whichever you prefer
This may seem contrary to the idea here, and I can’t explain why it works, but Hüsker Dü’s Warehouse: Songs And Stories often puts me in such a relaxed state I can even drift in and out of sleep. I learned the hard way not to listen to it while driving on I-65.
Sam Cooke, Portraits of a Legend. Its what i call porch music – music that makes you want to sit on a porch, in the summer, with a cocktail and a sunset and nothing to do. It’s good whether you are broken hearted or in love, its just the best.
I have a perverse desire to listen to E=MC2 at a waterpark, in its entirety.
My “folksy” playlist, containing, among other artists: Billy Bragg, Bob Dylan, Josh Ritter, Beirut, Panic at the D, Alela Diane, Elvis Perkins, Phil Ochs, and Neko Case.
Sparklehorse’s “It’s A Wonderful Life” is one I can just sit and listen to. It reminds me of living at the coast and walking alone while there’s actual snow falling on the beach. I have no idea why it reminds me of that, but it does.
I can chill out to basically any Morrissey record. The lyrics are so brilliant that I just have to sit and do nothing else while I listen.
Royskopp – Melody A.M.
Air albums are too chill; they’ll generally put me to sleep, rather than chill me out.
Yoko Kanno & The Seatbelts – Cowboy Bebop
Talk Talk – Laughing Stock
Stereolab – Emperor Tomato Ketchup
Tunng – Good Arrows
Gorky’s Zyotic Mynci – Barafundle
Air – Pocket Symphony
Badly Drawn Boy – The Hour of Bewilderbeast
Wilco – Sky Blue Sky
Tom Petty – Wildflowers
Thom Yorke – The Eraser
Pink Floyd – Darkside…
Sipo – Year Of The White Rose (just heard it…)
…dub / King Tubby / …and (forever) Bob!!!!!!
The Beach Boys – Friends
Harry Nilsson – Nilsson Sings Newman
Judee Sill – either of her albums
Johnny Rivers – Slim Slo Slider
Bjork Gudmudsdottir (baby Bjork singing “Fool On The Hill” in icelandic and sitars)
Brian Eno’s pop albums (although it took a few listens to train myself that the synths were not my phone ringing)
Oh, and I should add Luiz Bonfa’s Solo in Rio 1959, and last year’s compilation of Pierre Barouh’s mid-1960s recordings (he’s best known for writing the songs on the soundtrack to Un homme et une femme).
Listening to Vangelis, Blade Runner before/while falling asleep is amazing. The clips of dialogue give the music an especially dreamlike quality.
Cowboy Junkies – The Trinity Sessions
Van Morrison – Astral Weeks
This is what I use Spoon for.
Jump, Little Children’s [i]Between the Dim & the Dark[/i] is something I’ve been putting on at the end of hard weeks for years now. (It sounds exactly like a Saturday to me.)
Jimmy Scott – Falling in Love Is Wonderful
Howard Hello – s/t
Mazzy Star – She Hangs Brightly
This Mortal Coil – It’ll End In Tears
Emily Rodgers – Bright Day
Al Green – “Jesus Is Waiting”
Long-term Chill Favorites:
Depeche Mode – Violator
Herbie Hancock – Headhunters
Massive Attack – 100th Window (Don’t judge me!)
Lately:
Earth – The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull
On the Talk Talk tip:
Mark Hollis – s/t
And for reasons I can’t explain, my brain just responds to it in a positive, cool way:
Miles Davis – Dark Magus
Nightsongs – The Stars
ESCM – BT
Ocean Songs – The Dirty Three
Delusions of Grandeur – Hardkiss Brothers
Dummy – Portishead
Auburn Lull – Alone I Admire
Slowdive – Catch the Breeze
Gas – Pop
@GuyontheWindscreen Glad to see Auburn Lull on here!
For me:
Low–I Could Live In Hope
Eno–Another Green World
Bark Psychosis–Hex
Lots of good picks above. I second The Beach Boys’ Friends. Great record.
as far as new records are concerned, i’ve been chilling out to the new Mountains, Southeast Engine, and Speck Mountain records.
Generally, I default to Mezzanine/Protection era Massive Attack for chilling.
There are some interesting picks on here. Thom Yorke’s The Eraser? (Love it, but it makes me feel itchy and paranoid.) Spoon? (Is it all that empty space in the songs?)
Anyway, my picks are pretty much anything by Flying Lotus, last year’s Bon Iver album, and Johnny Cash’s gospel recordings. Also, whoever mentioned Judee Sill was spot-on.
Fennesz – Black Sea / Endless Summer / Venice
R.E.M. – Reckoning
Boris with Michio Kurihara – Rainbow (or anything by Michio)
also anything by Burial
@tomjonjon: I love Rainbow, but that somehow became an album I would listen to while going running, not chilling out. Odd how it works sometimes, no?