Comfort music

the sea and cake!

Old Eurodance and pop house: Culture Beat, 2 Unlimited, DJ Bobo, Eiffel 65, Livin' Joy, Alex Party, etc, etc. Basically, everything that was on dance radio from '94 to '99 here in Toronto. It's my "unplug my brain & enjoy" music.

Glen Campbell & Bobbie Gentry...if together, so much the better...

Metal I used to like when I was 14. Strange to find such acts as Carcass and Pantera comforting, but there you go.

depends on the comfort i'm seeking. if i want to unplug the old brain, i usually listen to hi-NRG or eurodisco stuff... if i want to bliss out, the Satwa record, or some Indian classical music, or Talk Talk. if i want to fall asleep, one of many great bill evans records never fails.

Would it be weird if I said Pink Floyd?

stevie wonder, and the posies, and the first volume of the dave godin deep soul collection, and erykah badu...

nah i don't think pink floyd is weird, actually i kindof feel the same. walking around with Animals yesterday was very comforting indeed.

Kayo Dot, the first three Soft Machine albums, the first Roches album,

nostalgia, so late 90s pop. "what's the story morning glory", various beatles albums. basically songs that i've listened to a lot in my past but that i haven't listened to recenetly.

Fleetwood Mac remind me of car trips with my family, we only had like three tapes my Dad would play in the car. Rumours was the one I liked most.

Bump. I've been trying to calibrate an article on this kind of thing for Stylus for ages, under the idea of 'default listening'.

I'm not sure what my comfort music is, but I do know it's not the stuff I was listening to when I was fourteen. No; you can't go home again.

Thinking more about it, maybe I'd say mild-mannered indiepop, like American Analog Set, or (as mentioned upthread) The Sea and Cake...

The first two Mutantes albums. Particularly the second one.

whenever i get a little fed up with the Current pile, I often end up digging out my Regular Fries records.
their stoned psy-fi post baggy extended jams always just get me back on track, and these were released when i was a lot, lot older than 14.

If I want to just listen to silly happy fun I'll put on something like the Dead Milkmen, or They Might Be Giants. For yay dancy cheer up music I'll put on Apop or Scritti Politti. For familiarity - always the Cocteaus.

Oh, and the Monks "Black Monk Time" fairly obviously.

I'm not sure what my comfort music is, but I do know it's not the stuff I was listening to when I was fourteen. No; you can't go home again.

-- Rich Smörgasbord, Tuesday, 5 June 2007 08:30 (4 hours ago) Link

i dunno, some of the stuff i was listening to when i was 14, i still consider really fucking good, like in the valid way.

and i do think in a way, however intangible, you can go home again. i kno what u mean tho. sometimes i have 1 too many cocktails and spin 1 too many comfort songs, trying to get there.

isn't that partly what comfort ____ is? stuff that takes you home? pasta, meatloaf, guitars?

any good 80s pop or early 90s dance

geto boys

I'm not sure what my comfort music is, but I do know it's not the stuff I was listening to when I was fourteen. No; you can't go home again.

-- Rich Smörgasbord, Tuesday, 5 June 2007 08:30 (4 hours ago) Link

i dunno, some of the stuff i was listening to when i was 14, i still consider really fucking good, like in the valid way.

and i do think in a way, however intangible, you can go home again. i kno what u mean tho. sometimes i have 1 too many cocktails and spin 1 too many comfort songs, trying to get there.

-- Surmounter, Tuesday, 5 June 2007 13:06 (54 minutes ago) Link

I don't think it's always necessarily about "going home again" - when I throw on Black Celebration, or, hell, Black Box (!!!) I'm not listening to them in the same way I did in my teens, because I didn't hear music the same way back then. You can continually revisit a song from your past and attach a whole new set of associations & emotions to it as the years go by...

listening to them

listening to THE ALBUMS etc, etc.

Urgh.

James Brown and Aretha Franklin probably.

Mid-90's R&B for me.

I don't think it's always necessarily about "going home again" - when I throw on Black Celebration, or, hell, Black Box (!!!) I'm not listening to them in the same way I did in my teens, because I didn't hear music the same way back then. You can continually revisit a song from your past and attach a whole new set of associations & emotions to it as the years go by...

-- Tantrum The Cat, Tuesday, 5 June 2007 14:10 (33 minutes ago) Link

it's true...

but together with that new set of emotions, i always do the over-the-shoulder peep at the old set. the music then becomes a way to track personal change.

springsteen!

Simon & Garfunkel, Stephen Sondheim, Panda Bear, Iron & Wine.

Melvins, Melvins, Melvins, Melvins

especially the Bullhead/Lysol/Houdini/Stoner Witch run of albums

The Cure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9l_wsYE5Fs

at least 1/2 of my music listening is done for comfort purposes. right now i am listening to ducktails' the flower land which is comforting. grimes' music is weirdly comforting to me too. both those albums are very catchy and non-abrasive but also kind of detached, and maybe more meandering in structure than most verse-chorus-bridge pop music.

and oh yeah, most comforting song of all:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bb2mAJbH5AU

good song

all aphex twin
sibelius syms 3-7
late beethoven sqs
victorialand
durutti column
morales's officium defunctorum
couperin harpsichord pieces
mouse on mars's "frosch"
in a beautiful place out in the country
many bach organ pieces and cantatas esp "vergnunte ruh, beiliebe seelenlust"
berlioz requiem
3rd movement from berio's sinfonia
early cage piano pieces (dream, in a landscape)
the disintegration loops

dylan
neil young
townes
the dead
bill callahan

in a beautiful place out in the country

otm

totally realize my list appears soooooooooo boring to a good number of people around here

xp not totally my comfort music but that BoC ep is my favorite thing they've done

it's subtly discomforting in a way that is comforting, i think. it depends on my mood though.

actually, i should stop fronting and admit that a favorite source of junk food comfort music currently is the amelie soundtrack

though i'm wrong, i forgot that that it played a really healing and soothing role in a particular period in my life -- one summer during college i'd frequently come home at the end of the night and get stoned in my room to in a beautiful place... and it was really a perfect thing

Sun Kil Moon

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