Car comfort for me = Kid Loco's 'A Grand Love Story'. No way you can be angry with traffic when that's playing.

Proper other comfort album I suppose would be 'On Every Street'. I'm not familiar with any of the Fagen oeuvre but I imagine it's about as uncool as this. You could always test it on your 20-year-old but they might call it abuse.

That what music is for, comforting. Amongst other things.

My numero uno comfort album would have to be Breakfast in America by Supertramp. It soothes me.

And - funnily enough - The Nightfly is right up there as well.

If I Could Do it All Again, I'd Do it All Over You hits the spot every time.

One you're so familiar with that, no matter your geographic position, mode of transport or mood, it will make you feel like you're snuggled up in a big sleeping bag.

Abbey Road for me.

Is The Soft Bulletin by The Flaming Lips. It's statistically impossible not to immediately cheer up at the opening bars of Race For The Prize!

When I'm in the car and the album I'd planned to listen to finishes, and I need to find something quick otherwise it's Radio 1 or Kiss, it's always the same...

Jean Michel Jarre - Equinoxe

Mmmm mmmm mmmm.

by Derek & the Dominos. The full four sides on vinyl.

It's such a perfect album with such great memories that it overcomes whatever shit is going on around me and makes the world seem like a better place.

For some reason I've always found comfort in The Charlatans' unheralded third album. Maybe it's because the production is very warm, or because it reminds me of a certain time in my life, I don't know.

Anyway, it contains this slice of honking Hammond riffery:

Yup - Station To Station. That - and Aretha's Greatest Hits and Joni's Hissing of Summer Lawns and an ancient Reggae compilation called Front Line with LKJ, Dennis Brown and Gregory Isaacs amongst others

...Neil Diamond's 'Twelve Greatest Hits' for me. Has to be that album, those versions (early 70s rerecords of some of the earlier songs), that order.

Assemblage.

Especially All Tomorrow's Parties. Makes me feel all warm inside.

Or, the 1955 recording of Bach's 'Goldberg Variations' played by Glenn Gould.

The Velvet Underground
i'm Your Man
Bryter Layter...there's loads really. Albums you can play alone and hungover on a Sunday afternoon and still feel ok.

and I need that 'wrapped in a warm duvet' feeling whilst I feel sorry for myself and lick my wounds, I've always turned to Captain Fantastic by Elton John and American Beauty by the Dead.

They don't necessarily make me feel better but, to me, they're like a big aural hug.

...you have to go a long way to beat Appetite For Destruction and Back In Black. They just, you know, rock.

For obscure reasons: "Goin' Through Changes" by Zumpano (Canadian power poppers)

As mentioned in another thread, the Proustian Rush album: "Help!" by the HJH

In general: "Songs From Northern Britain" by the Fannies. A big warm hug of an album.

The music on them isn't always soothing music, but listening to them is akin to snuggling in a duvet.

They include:

Julie London - Julie is Her Name
The Feeling - Twelve Stops and Home
Radiohead - The Bends
and any Ink Spots compilation.

To soothe: Keep Going by Stephen Duffy and The Lilac Time

To invigorate: Rainbow Rising

Lexicon of Love - ABC
Bryter Layter - Nick Drake (thanks to my mate Adrian for introducing me)
The Man Machine - Kraftwerk

Don't know why: it just is.

too many to list. The Nightfly would be in that list, as would A Grand Love Story!

2 albums which get played as regularly as all the oldies that give me a bear hug when it's needed would be:

Scritti Politti - White Bread, Black Beer

Feist - The Reminder

including:
The White Album,
various Cowboy Junkies,
Coltrane's Ballads,
various JJ Cale,
Santana's Caravanserai'
Dylan's Time Out Of Mind.

Loveless

Pink Moon and Bless The Weather are my default positions when something is going wrong. Journey home after bad news, rotten day ahead, up against a deadline - my hands move on autopilot to get them on.

The third one is Robert Ashley's 1977 drone and spoken-word album, Private Parts. Wait, don't run away! None of your Ken Nordine or new-age Aunt Diane here, I promise. 45 minutes and 39 seconds of genuinely mesmerising succour for the soul.

And coming in fourth is Doug Paisley's Constant Companion, which for my last year has been a very apt-title indeed.

...but top of the list is Love's Forever Changes.

Cardigans -long gone before daylight
New Radicals - Maybe you've been brainwashed too
ABC - Beauty Stab
Simpe Minds - Sparkle in the rain
Electronic - Electronic
Talk Talk - Colour of Spring

Pet sounds,anything by the beatles,
no matter what diabolical dealings are going on in the world the fabs always ground me and everything's ok.also Catherine Howe in a beautiful place which is gorgeous.

My loads include

Lindsey Buckinghams Out of The Cradle
ACDC Back In Black
Happy Mondays Pills Thrills
The Cardigans Long Gone Before Midnight
Donald Fagan Nightfly
Michael McDonald Sweet Freedom
Steve Winwood Chronicles
Koop Islands

Stormcock by Roy Harper and Rock Bottom by Robert Wyatt. For some unaccountable reason they nearly always work a mysterious juju and get my mojo working.

I've always regarded it as just an album that I can play anywhere under any circumstances and in any mood. I guess it's my comfort album:
Louis Jordan - Golden Greats.

obvious........ but I just return to Justin Curries "What Is Love For" time and again when the demons raise their collective heads. I haven't listened to it for a while which is a good thing because I haven't felt the need and I'm not 100% sure it's a comfort or makes me feel any better. It just kind of justifies my misery as each song makes me nod my head in agreement about how shit life can be sometimes. Probably just better if I just read Stimpys thread for some perspective

Justin Currie "Walking through You"

I don't know if I have one special comfort album, but there are a few records that I know I can always go back to, and which I'll feel better for hearing again.

Welcome Home - Til Tuesday
The Roads Don't Love You - Gemma Hayes
Low - David Bowie
Flow - Annabel Lamb
Innervisions - Stevie Wonder

And It's pretty recent, but Tale To Tell by The Mummers looks set to be a constant companion over many years. As does Julia Johnson's I Am Not The Night

but ones that spring to mind and are probably played more than others are;
Abbey Road
Dark Side Of The Moon
BJH & Other Short Stories
Solid Air

Earth Wind and Fire's All n'All - all killer no filler
Asleep at the Wheel's Tribute to Bob Wills - just relentless cheer all the way through and you can go "aah" just like Bob at several points usually just before a pedal steel solo

Tom Waits - Small Change
The Avetts Brothers - I & Love & You
Bob Dylan - Blood On The Tracks
Bruce Springsteen - Tunnel of Love and Ghost Of Tom Joad

.... Tom Waits - Closing Time, ultra snug, in fact, I've just put it on, 'Ol' 55' - mmmm that's better.

Not far behind:

Ben Watt - North Marine Drive
Nick Drake - Bryter Later

Exile On Main St. is never far away

Rain Tree Crow's "Rain Tree Crow"
Donald Fagen's "Kamakiriad"
Avalanches' "Since I Left You" - lets face it, any track that includes a healthy sampled chunk of Kid Creole is bound to cheer anybody up. I just wished they'd included "Stool Pigeon"s final bit of 'A-cha-cha-cha!'

BR
FT

The term comfort album is a new one to me, but I too know exactly what you mean.

Mine is R.E.M.'s Automatic for the People. I'm surprised no one else has mentioned it. Sweetness Follows being the key comfort track for. The close is perfect: Find the River never fails to give me a little emotional boost.

Out Of The Blue by ELO although The Nightfly is a good choice too as is Automatic For The People

"Chants, Hymns and Dances - Music of Gurdjieff and Tsabropoulos" played by the Greek pianist Vassilis Tsabropoulos and the German cellist Anja Lechner, on ECM records.
Once heard, never forgotten.

as a relative newcomer to this cosy community, I am now sitting comfortably knowing that my own list is common to many, but I also have a few more to check out - brilliant!

May I add the following?

Meddle - The Floyd ('Echoes will do if a quick balm is needed)
Moondance -Van the Man
Workingman's Dead
Natty Dread - Bob Marley

and...a couple courtesy of my now grown-up sprogs:

From Punjab to Pit Top - Angel Brothers/Sabnam Singh
Jurassic 5 - Jurassic 5

especially 'Back to the Family' and 'Look into the Sun'. These songs still resonate 30 plus years on from a sad post break-up car journey, with just this taped album for company.

I know I've mentioned this before; in fact I think one member of the Massive acquired it following my raving about it, which was most gratifying. It's Songs From The Centre Of The Earth by Barbara Thompson. It's a solo saxophone album (tenor, alto or soprano) of folk songs from around the world, recorded in a 14th century French cathedral, with astounding natural reverb. I'm not actually a big fan of the saxophone as an instrument, but this record is a thing of beauty and a joy forever.

comfort album recently has to be l cohen.tales from the road....class..

The Very Best of Jackson Browne - CD One, as perfect a compilation of his music during his halcyon days as you could wish for.

It's not the best album in the world (it's not even the best Fairport Convention album) but once Simon Nicol's warm (and oddly pronounced) "Forever, forever - the road goes on forever..." kicks in I know that for the next forty or so minutes no RTA, roadwork, contraflows or jam will disturb my contented equilibrium. It's the audio equivalent of a pluch armchair and the weekend broadsheet supplements.

Free's second album.

Very mellow, very soulful and it ends with "Mourning Sad Morning" where Paul Rodgers' careworn delivery counterpointed lovingly by Chris White's slithery-lipped flute solo always comforts me that there are those in greater pain and suffering more hellish anguish than this old sap.

Gets out of hand and the way through is unclear (which is pretty often). I turn to HMHB and CSI: Ambleside. And everything's OK again.

On a more visceral level I recently dug out Among the Living by Anthrax after about 20 years, all surliness and despair vanquished in the space of a handful of chords.

I have 2

Elton John - Captain Fantastic (&TBDC)

Chris Izaak - Not 100% sure on the title - Forever Blue ??

so I don't have special albums that I turn to.
But when I was a kid I had a comfort single. When I was sad I would first listen to the B-side Isn't It A Pity and wallow in my misery for a while, then I would flip it over to the A-side My Sweet Lord and the sun would come out.
So a belated thank you to George Harrison!

It's got to be The Sophtware Slump for me by Grandaddy although John Frusciante's Shadows Collide With People runs it a close second ( I write this after listening to the latter twice on the trot during last night's night-shift. )

For me, it has got to be 'Live At Carnegie Hall' ( 1973 ) by Bill Withers.

Matthew's Southern anyone?

Reek of Putrefaction puts me in a mellow mood.

I always return to Pet Shop Boys Behaviour album - from the opening bars of Being Boring to the triumphant close of Jealousy...

Approved By The Motors is an album I always turn to when I can't find owt else to play.

Don.

Live - Free
Foxtrot - Genesis
Live Dates - Wishbone Ash
Gabriel 4 - Peter Gabriel
Behind the Sun - God
Graceland - Paul Simon
White Album

This is my first post, so having laid my soul bare may I say Hi to anyone **rsed to read it.

More Songs About Buildings etc and Fear of Music

I play these together - Funky but sort of laid back; quirky but familiar; one of my first musical discoveries, redolent of my optimistic youth. Just calms me and puts me on an even keel.

More Songs About Buildings etc + Fear of Music

I usually run these together in the car - a couple of perfectly formed pearls - funky but sort of laid back; quirky but familiar; the Heads an early musical discovery for, now redolent of my optimistic youth. Just calms me and puts me on an even keel.

More Songs About Buildings etc + Fear of Music

I usually run these together in the car - a couple of perfectly formed pearls - funky but sort of laid back; quirky but familiar; the Heads an early musical discovery for, now redolent of my optimistic youth. Just calms me and puts me on an even keel.

first album. Perfect for a night like this. I've been working all day,I'm slightly hungover, I'm pissed off with a certain woman and I'm at home alone. Just cracked open my first beer, making some food (including some nice forest mushrooms) and listening to Lewis Taylor. Life's not so bad.

When i've had a bad day at the coal face, i always find Van the man's eighties classic, makes the world a better place.
Just a few bars of 'in the garden' and you're off...

Dave Brubeck Quartet. Magic. Those drums on Take Five.....Paul Desmond, bloody genius.

I haven't been around much for the past couple of years but do occasionally pop in for a read, so I just thought I'd like to add Van: 'Veedon Fleece', John Coltrane: 'A Love Supreme', Pentangle: 'Basket Of Light', anything by The Incredible String Band up to and including 'Liquid Acrobat', and the HJH 'HJH For Sale' and 'Magical Mystery Tour' LP.

Capitol really got it absolutely spot on there. Wonderful.

Oddly, it's the only Bob Dylan album I like (*Dons Flack Jacket/Helmet*) and I know Dylan fans think of it as a bit of a stinker, but it's got a "warm bath" effect on me like no other album. It was the backdrop to a particularly happy summer as a teenager, maybe that's why. I stick that on in the car and it can be road-rage all around me but I'm miles away - maybe even the cause of it, dawdling along in the middle lane, lost in 1978.

For me it has to be Hats by the Blue Nile.Paul Buchanan's voice is just like coming home to a warm house after walking home in the drizzling rain,when you've missed the last bus and your girlfriends just dumped you.

But sheer comfort, infused with gentle nostalgia and soothing familiarity, free from critical analysis, just albums that are hardwired into my DNA are, amongst others

Spacemen 3 - The Perfect Prescription
Ride - Going Blank Again
Abba - The Album
Stereolab - Peng!
Rolling Stones - Exile/Sticky Fingers
Dame - "Heroes"
HJH - every ruddy last note.