Music to calm you down.

All right, so we all have times when life gives us the red hot barbed shaft right in the ass, and we get all riled up about it. What do you listen to that calms you back down? The music that slows your adrenaline and stops you from shaking out of frustration, etc. I'm asking this mainly because nothing in particular leaps to mind for me...

odly enough when I am super pissed off, only the heaviest of music will calm me down, stuff like Slayer, the Haunted, Lamb of God, Burn it Down. If it's just a mad or anxious anything mellow like Elvis Costello, Nirvana unplugged, nothing too aggressive, but not too depressing. Anger can turn to depression with the right trigger.

Madder Rose...

Mary Lorson's voice is like NyQuill.......in a good way

REM - Life's Rich Pageant (amazing)

Trashcan Sinatras....their album "Cake" always does it for me.

broadcast-work and non work
explosions in the sky
the mercury program-a data learn the language
nick drake-pink moon
ooh...i forgot some:
azure ray, hope sandoval, cat power

[Edited on Nov 07, 2002 by drpetervenkman]

Brian Eno: "Another GreenWorld." Better than valium.

belle & sebastian - don't leave the light on baby

Gregorian Chant, Sounds of Nature, and Jin Roh Sound Track. For me atleast

Belle and Seb.,
Schubert
Orbital

aphex twin "selected ambient works 2"
auburn lull
bjork "vespertine"
elliott smith "roman candle"

ooh and jazz!...although I'm in the beginner stage of Miles Davis "Kind of Blue" but things without words that I can liten to while I read or zone out...

kind of blue-miles davis
fade into you-mazzy star
ocean rain-echo and the bunnymen

some rocksteady, raggae, or jamacian dancehall usually calms this savage beast.

Bed Head, Low, Velour 100, Harold Budd, FSOL, Isotope217, Mouse Parade...ooh the list goes on and on...

coltrane and ellington (kick ass release)
saxophone collosus
live at the village vanguard
directions in music
evelyn glennie
etta james
otis rush

it warms my heart to see 'kind of blue' getting so much play

Dead Can Dance leaps nimbly to mind. Miles Davis, Nina Simone...even Enya.

I also like stuff from my world music collection like "Zap Mama", "Ayub Ogada", "Mari Boine Persen", "Peter Gabriel - Passion Soundtrack".

Speaking of soundtracks, my movie score collection is also a fave "Dead Man Walking" (Score, not soundtrack), "Searching For Bobby Fisher".

And finally a little known duo "Chris Brown and Kate Fenner" who do this really cool jazzy stuff with peotic and intricate lyrics.

But in actual fact it would be very random and based on the exact situation and time in my life anyway.

Travis.....Howard Jones (piano only)....Jai

Cat Power, Rachel's, Radiohead, This Mortal Coil, Mogwai

definently Mazzy Star, Billie Holiday, and Belle and Sebastian, and (laugh at me) Enya

Fuck

well, if i'm terribly upset about something, usually only harder, non-chillout music helps me out...like american nightmare or converge...that kind of thing calms me down when my brain won't stop. then once i get it to stop, i listen to slower, prettier music, like bright eyes, REM's "Up" album, the weakerthans, air, jeff buckley, perhaps something with pianos...pianos are nice...and it's not really "pretty" in the traditional use of the word, but Atmosphere's "Lucy Ford: The Atmosphere EPs" is always good because it sort of runs the gamut of emotions, and ends with a very disturbing yet funny recording of slug (the mc) walking in the snow singing "you are my sunshine" while murdering cattle...then it builds back up into a great loop with slug singing "it's all sunshine, it's nothing but sunshine" over and over again...and then there's a secret track...so i guess that's really the end and not the murdering cattle part...shut up!...i'm tired. i'm going to bed. i'm going to go listen to the insides of my eyelids...wait...that doesn't make any sense...leave me alone!