# What Album got you through hard times **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 18, 2012, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-album-got-you-through-hard-times/622364 "2012-05-18T20:51:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2012, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-album-got-you-through-hard-times/622364/1 "2012-05-18T20:51:08Z")
Inspired by [this thread.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=652077) What album (did)do you listen to to cope with hard times? The one that made you forget that the job is stupid and menial, the boss is an ass, and the weather has been absolute crap for the past week and a half. The one guaranteed to defunk my life back when I was in the U.S.A.F. was Lynda Carter’s _Portrait_(1978). I was at Warehouse Records in Hollywood and someone had left it in a listening booth, so I stuck on the headphones and heard [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vujeQv0vnfo). I double-checked to make sure it wasn’t a Karen Carpenter album in the wrong sleeve, took it home, and it’s been cheering me up ever since. ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2012, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-album-got-you-through-hard-times/622364/2 "2012-05-18T21:10:44Z")
As a mopey teenager, it was Joni Mitchell’s [Blue](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_%28Joni_Mitchell_album%29). As a frazzled support technician, when I wasn’t working I couldn’t stand the sound of human voices – even lovely singing ones – so it was John Renbourn’s [The Lady and the Unicorn](http://www.amazon.com/The-Lady-Unicorn-John-Renbourn/dp/B000000E9F). More recently, [Chin Up, Cheer Up](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cDE4ffwo2I). 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2012, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-album-got-you-through-hard-times/622364/3 "2012-05-18T21:22:57Z")
King’s Singers _Madrigal History Tour_ has been my going-to-sleep album for I don’t know how many hundreds of nights running when I’ve been living overseas and having some trouble coping. Something about the surgically precise diction and pitch combined with the loveliness of tone and charm of musicality just makes that album my walled garden of security and beauty. _“Margot, laborez les vignes, vigne vigne vignolet…”_ ETA: Oh, and it’s not an album, but the song “Work’s Too Bloody Hard” by the Prodigals has got me through more all-night grading and writing sessions than I would care to count. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2012, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-album-got-you-through-hard-times/622364/4 "2012-05-18T21:31:21Z")
Back in about 2001/2002 when I out of the blue developed an anxiety syndrome, complete with panic attacks and all that, and I felt I was slowly going out of my mind (eventually, it passed), it was Sleater-Kinney’s _Dig Me Out_ album, along with _Call the Doctor_ that kept me feeling sane. Whenever I would start feeling a panic attack come on, I would just try to play back a song off one of those albums in my head to distract me, and it would work. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2012, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-album-got-you-through-hard-times/622364/5 "2012-05-18T21:45:04Z")
Listening to anything by Kesha never fails to cheer me up. If I have to answer the OP’s question, I’d say her _Cannibal_ EP because of a song called “Crazy Beautiful Life.” ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2012, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-album-got-you-through-hard-times/622364/6 "2012-05-18T22:16:54Z")
Joe Satriani’s self titled album from 1995 > **[Joe Satriani (album)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Satriani_%28album%29)** > > Joe Satriani is the sixth studio album by guitarist Joe Satriani, released in October 1995 through Relativity Records. This was his last album for Relativity, as he would switch record labels to Epic (or Sony Music) for his next eleven albums. Joe Satriani reached No. 51 on the U.S. Billboard 200 and remained on that chart for seven weeks, as well as reaching the top 100 in four other countries. "(You're) My World" was released as a single, reaching No. 30 on Billboard's Mainstream Ro The album i... ---
**Author:** ![Stauderhorse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Stauderhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stauderhorse)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2012, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-album-got-you-through-hard-times/622364/7 "2012-05-19T00:02:38Z")
Pink Floyd’s _The Wall_ helped me when I was feeling lonely and trapped in my own home with an overbearing family. “Mother” in particular struck a chord with me. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2012, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-album-got-you-through-hard-times/622364/8 "2012-05-19T01:23:40Z")
Quadrophenia. _“You’ll all see I’m the one.”_ ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2012, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-album-got-you-through-hard-times/622364/9 "2012-05-19T01:28:05Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > Quadrophenia. > > _“You’ll all see I’m the one.”_ Amen brother. Amen. Much underrated album, and I like it that way. ---
**Author:** ![Stelios](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Stelios](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stelios)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2012, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-album-got-you-through-hard-times/622364/10 "2012-05-19T01:53:04Z")
R.E.M.'s _Automatic For The People_, when I was a shy, underconfident teenager who wasn’t enjoying school. Nowadays, now that I don’t get melancholy anymore, just pissed off, it’s _Weight_ by Rollins Band, or _The First Five Years_, a best of Black Flag complation. ---
**Author:** ![CyclopticXander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@CyclopticXander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CyclopticXander)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2012, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-album-got-you-through-hard-times/622364/11 "2012-05-19T02:00:53Z")
The original cast recording of _The Last Five Years_ was great for sorting through the complex emotions of the end of a bad long term relationship. This song in particular resonates with me [Nobody Needs to Know - The Last 5 Years - YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyZqvgtFa-k). ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2012, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-album-got-you-through-hard-times/622364/12 "2012-05-19T03:31:42Z")
Biko. Peter Gabriel. Nothing captured better. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2012, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-album-got-you-through-hard-times/622364/13 "2012-05-19T04:08:53Z")
The Beatles’ “Abbey Road.” Got a copy for my 21st birthday in 1969. In 2000, in the months immediately after my husband passed away (I was 51), I listened to it over and over and over. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2012, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-album-got-you-through-hard-times/622364/14 "2012-05-19T04:59:07Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > The Beatles’ “Abbey Road.” Got a copy for my 21st birthday in 1969. > > In 2000, in the months immediately after my husband passed away (I was 51), I listened to it over and over and over. Great album. In my top 5 for sure. Wonderful stuff.