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The Top 10 Rock Albums to Fall Asleep toJan 19 '07 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line Seek out these albums, curl up on the couch, turn down the lights and let them lull you into a satisfying and rewarding slumber.
Best listened to: While Sleeping
Top 10 Sleepers ... (and I mean that in the best possible way). I really do mean that non-disparagingly. What I am talking about here are some of the best albums, staying within the broad genre which is rock, to put on and drift off into a nice afternoon nap with. This is one of the small pleasures of life in my opinion and I am a strong believer that there exists the right music for anything you can do. These choices have been arrived at through much field study... (I had to sleep a lot to research this article). Here we go then: (In an order that is interchangeable). 1. Slowdive - Pygmalion (1995) This was Slowdives last official release and in it they moved from their previous staple of more sunny alternative and experimental pop to what exists here which is an expansion of their previous experimentation and a full fledged foray into ambience. This album was a departure for Slowdive and from song structures which are designed to sell records and caused their label to drop them and the band to split up. It is however an ambient and atmospheric dream-pop masterpiece with the rare ability to place you into an almost hypnotic and relaxed state which is perfect for falling into a restive sleep. 2. Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here (1977) The winding soundscapes on this album and Gilmours extended and mellow guitar soloing make this a softer and more ambient record that its predecessor, Dark Side of the Moon, which brought Floyd into the big-time. I can recall skipping classes in the early morning of a rainy day in my college dorm room, leaving the window open so I could hear the rain in the background, and putting Wish You Were Here on the turntable and drifting back off to sleep. That was about 20 years ago but Wish You Were Here and a good rain can still trigger a siesta for me. 3. Low - The Great Destroyer (2005) Although almost any of Lows albums would probably qualify here, surprisingly enough it is the more pop and less abstract and minimalist styled The Great Destroyer which for me qualifies the best for this list. Low explores tighter song structures than ever before with this album, their first for the Sub-Pop label, yet do so with a grace and smoothness atop such an underlying layered depth that it can effortlessly lull you into a state of pre-sleep mellowness. One of the better a releases of 2005 which raises Low from strict minimalism without ever getting edgy. This is an album which can be enjoyed either awake or asleep. 4. Nick Drake - Five Leaves Left (1969) This is Drakes earliest LP and his most produced and upbeat. Drakes mix of baroque strings and steady measured vocals create an aura of haunting mystery behind his jazz tinted arrangements. The affect is simply one of chilling and somber beauty. I have enjoyed this album with headphones in the wee hours of a mid-summer night in a back bedroom of a country house (at the in-laws) that was too hot to sleep in until Nick Drake was able to lull me off into la-la land. 5. Beck - Sea Change (2002) Beck if anything is susceptible to wild swings of stylistic moods and genre hopping on his albums with the exception of the focused and somber Sea Change which will stand the test of time and in my opinion endure as his masterpiece. Definitely a breakup album which arises from melancholy and the kind of introspection which comes from standing in the shadows of love, Beck brings his singer/songwriter persona to the forefront to create a cohesive collection of comforting and beautiful if sad songs. Tinged with a baroque psychedelia, Becks acoustic string arrangements create a gentle and subtle richness to this album which can easily initiate a deep sense of comforting, consoling sadness which is the front doorway to a good nodding off. 6. Spiritualized - Lazer Guided Melodies (1992) This was the debut album from Spiritualized and it catches the band still well within a dreamy and hypnotic ambient brand of pop which does not shy away from incorporating noise and intertwining seemingly floating vocals into the heavy mix. The overall effect is one of a kind of droning otherworldliness which works perfectly, even through layers of distortion, to act as the perfect backdrop to an attack of forty winks. 7. Joni Mitchell - Blue (1971) Another sparse and confessional singer/songwriter collection which serves as a turning-point of sorts for both Mitchell and for the possibilities it awakened in folk-rock to enter into a deeper level than ever before in terms of sophistication and honesty. This is a dark and sorrowful album reflective of loneliness and a bittersweet sense of love and loss. Mitchell does it all with an impressive complexity and an openness. The sparse darkness hanging over these songs alone is all that is required for one to want to curl up on the couch in the dark and drift off into the Blue with Joni. 8. Camel - The Snow Goose (1975) Camel was a mid 70's British prog-rock, art-rock band which never reached the popularity level of such contemporaries as The Alan Parsons Project or Pink Floyd, but filled their music with hints that they share a sub-genre with both. This is an instrumental concept album based on a novella by Paul Gallico and it was Camels breakthrough album (which may be rather meaningless for those who have never heard of them). The novella is a complex fable about a about a lonely man who finds an injured snow goose and nurses it back to health aided by a young girl. The friendship between the humans fizzles out after the goose is healed and set free and the young girl no longer comes to visit. Later the man is killed in the battle of Dunkirk. The goose returns during the battle and is named La Princess Perdue to symbolize the hopes that can endure even during the bleak misery and despair of war. Camel chooses for this album to create lush and flowing, yet intricate soundscapes, rather than foray into the experimental art rock which is their calling, and the result is a pleasing and surprisingly accessible listen which can envelope the listener in enough emotion laden sonic texture to be able to bring on a feeling of falling into an effortless winter slumber. 9. Sigur Ros - Ágætis Byrjun (1999) The title translates roughly to 'good start'. While this is the second album for Sigur and it would seem to represent more of a continuation of the kind of things that bands like Spiritualized and Chapterhouse were doing in the mid 90's. This is an album of heavily layered stings and dense atmospherics from these Icelandic rock experimentalists. It manages in its flow to bestow a lush soothing hypnotic elegance which is highly condusive to placing the trials and tribulations of every day reality firmly into the background thus creating the perfect foundation for an enticing and majestic house of slumber to be built upon. 10. The Strawbs - Dragonfly (1970) The second official release from The Strawbs, Dragonfly continues the acoustic folk-rock of their debut but does not quite match the strong and impressive mix of medieval and folk-rock which stood out on their debut. It is precisely those shortcomings which make this album worthy of making the sleepers list. The Strawbs are a seriously under recognized British folk and progressive rock outfit that went on to later foray into some very accomplished and orchestrated progressive pop-rock. On Dragonfly they were still delivering the folk rock which is their foundation. This album was put together with studio musicians filling out Dave Cousins creations. One of the Studio musicians was Rick Wakeman who subsequently joined the band. This added piano and cello to the stew and the album ends up being a rather subdued yet competent and consistent release which works well to showcase the early song crafting penchants of Cousins without forcing the songs in front of your face. Putting this album on in the background and closing your eyes can quickly result in a comfortable nap. After compiling this list I realized that there are reams of honorable mentions which could be tacked on here. I almost went back and changed the title from 'The Top 10 Rock Albums to Fall Asleep to' to '10 of the Best Rock Albums to Fall Asleep to' because there are lots more and this may prove to be more of a random 10 than the 10 best. So enjoy the choices, they are all pleasurable listens whether you really wish to sleep to them or not. Happy sleeping just the same.  |
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