When you're feeling lousy, or maybe just had a tough day, what one LP, CD, tape, etc. do you play to make you feel better? In my case it's Cowboy Junkies CD "The Caution Horses". Margo Timmins voice is at once soft and soothing, but also haunting and immediate. This is music that I can get lost in. What music do others use on occasions like this?
Portishead - Dummy; once aptly described on a "best of the 90's" list as 'the musical sound of one heart breaking'.
Nick Cave - The Boatman's Call; finally picking this album up off of Ebay. I know several songs already, so it's already a favorite. It's arguably Nick's best work and much of it was inspired from his bad break-up with PJ Harvey a few years back.
Waterboys - 'This is the Sea' was a good choice too, as were many others previously mentioned.. now, if we started listing individual songs, this site would need a whole new server!
Somebody with too much time on their hands needs to compile all these suggestions to a printer-friendly list. Any volunteers?? :P
Talking Heads "Speaking in Tongues" , Little Feat "Feats Dont Fail me Now", Cibo Mato "Stereo Type A" ,Early Eek A Mouse puts me in better frame of mind every time
Dionne Warwick singing thoese Hal David, Burt Bachrach penned tunes from the 60s when Dionne's voice was so so so precious. Also the soundtrack music from the 'RED VIOLIN' and any Lightnin' Hopkins or Sigur Ros lp. In blue times they all help keep me together.
I like to match my blue mood and gradually goto something brighter and happier. I start with a slow section of a symphony like Mahler or Bruckner, and end with Mozart to cheer me up.
I just can't believe noone has mentioned (unles I missed it, then I apologize)....
Frank Zappa: Sheik Yerbouti
His satire of the LA scene (though a bit childish at times) can always provoke a smile. How he got all those talented guitarists to play this stuff for him, I'll never know.
Nothing like Joy Division to cheer one up. You feel better cuz here's someone proving that he's worse off than you. Can't stand cheerful music when feeling down, yuck!
Also someone mentioned Nick Cave "The Boatman's Call", it's one I use too.
Chris REA ... Auberge or Dancing Down a Stoney Road Lyle LOVETT...Pontiac Pink FLOYD...Dark Side of the Moon Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen...Hot Licks Cold Steel and Truckers Favourites All of the above will help to put a positive spin on a negative day....(for myself anyway)
Don Shirley trio lp- the first track- waterboy or Beethoven's Pastrol symphony (I have sevral preformances of this on cd and lp. It's a wonderful world is also good. Shostakovich tends to exagurate such feelings, but I still lister to his work, and injoy it, even under such curmstances. Chousson's Poem is also wondeful.
Tindersticks when you want to find beauty in your misery,when you want to go deeper to your depresion listen any DEATH IN JUNE or CURRENT 93/you'v been warned!!!!
A few months ago my "tought times" music was Radiohead's OK Computer. The first 5 or 6 tracks have a lonely sound, if that makes sense, and it really helps. I also love listening to Dave Gilmour's guitar when I'm depressed. He captures that sadness with his tone on 'Comfortably Numb' and that lonely feeling on some acoustic songs like 'Is There Anybody Out There?'...not to mention DSOTM which takes you through the entire spectrum of feelings. The self-entitled album 'Sublime' is nice sometimes. The fast ska sound gives me that I can take on the world feeling. The Strokes sound completely different, but I get the same effect from 'Is This It?'. It seems I've sayed the best for last: Abraxas of course. 'Samba Pa Ti' is great to listen to when you've had a bad day and just want to focus on that feeling without going into the specifics of your day. The rest of the album is fairly upbeat and is full of emotion.
Great threat, glad to know some of us are on the same boat in this sometimes stormy and churning sea of human emotions. I think he's been mentioned, but I would second Louis Armstrong's recordings. He sings and plays with such honesty, trength, and humor that many today (in the jazz genre) are easily put to shame in comparison. Listening to his records have never failed to put a smile on my face. To take a que from the man himself, sometimes, it's best to just blow rasperies at your troubles.
By the way, Thebeave250, thanks for the Sigur Ros' recommendation! I sampled it online, and ordered it. Have you ever listened to Mercury Rev... in fact, "Deserter's Song" is another great choice for this list.
Great thread, and great responses!!! This thread's been going for 2 years!!! Sreno, I was wondering when someone would mention Tom! Besides the ones already mentioned (I listen to many of them myself), I'd like to add Peter Gabriel, old David Bowie, Tori Amos, Portishead and Radiohead.
One of the best mood albums has to be Sigur Ros' "(_)". For those of you who dont know them, theyre a group from Iceland who play some very emotional and relaxing music and its a decent recording too. Highly recommended!
I am among those that favor more laid back, as opposed to upbeat, music during down moods. The wallowing results in liberation, I guess. One that might not otherwise be mentioned is the LP Laid Back by Gregg Allman, cut just after the passing of brother Duane. Other than the ubiquitous Midnight Rider all songs are pretty introspective and very moody.
Joe Louis Walker's latest CD "In The Morning" If it is only one song it would be his rendition of "Uh" on the CD "The Preacher And The President". If that won't pick you up, you gotta be DEAD. He is a excellent Blues Man.
Judit -- which version do you recommend for the Duet? My nominations for... ...music to jump off a bridge: Mahler's Songs of the Earth with Ferrier. ...music to keep you off the bridge: "Never Get Out of These Blues Alive" JL Hooker
music to jump off a bridge by - the cure sinatras old blue eyes is back, a close second the studio side of the moody blues caught live + 5 the song goodbye, by elton john off the madman lp
I think "the Flower duet" by Leo Delibes is the most beautiful thing ever written for the female voice. I cannot hear it often enough. If this doesn't take you closer to heaven than you've ever been, then you must be wandering the world in chains with Jacob Marley.
The Caution Horses! Garfish, you and I are exactly alike. Nothing like listening to Margo's voice quiver on "You Will Be Loved Again." (check out Mary Margaret O'Hara's original) I also like the Trash Can Sinatras- "A Happy Pocket" and the Cranberries "No Need to Argue."
If I want to smile my way out of the doldrums I put on Jorge Aragao 'Live". Nothing lifts my spirit more than great samba. Truly music that reaches the heart, soul and feet simultaneously.
Disintergration by The Cure. Painful by Yo La Tengo Mutations by Beck. Hal Wilner presents Weird Nightmare meditations on Mingus. The Replacements. Rum sodomy and the lash by The Pogues. God bless the child by Billie Holiday and What a wonderful world by the late Joey Ramone. ;)R
Supersession, with Mike Bloomfield, Al Kooper, and Stephen Stills. A couple of the cuts truely suck (Kooper gets self-indulgent on the organ), but the rest are as good as electric blues gets.
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