Pick one? The Beatles (White Album). So many different vibes and styles on one album!
Metheny and Haden Beyond the Missouri Sky.
Wonderfully soothing, reminds me of a snowy afternoon by the fire.
Grateful Dead - Reckoning
I spent a long lysergic night with this on repeat back as a teenager, and can hear Brent’s piano fills and interplay with Jerry in my head as I’m typing this.
I also had bootlegs of this that that the extra songs from those sets, some of which were released in 2004 by Rhino.
“Saudade” by Thievery Corporation.
https://www.allmusic.com/album/saudade-mw0002558953/user-reviews
Interesting question. I don’t know that this is actually true, but I feel like the answer is Dire Straits’ Brothers In Arms.
It brings me back to middle school age, when my mom would play this album (among others) while doing cleaning on the weekend, or planting seeds in start packs to grow in the corner of the living room in late winter/early spring.
It’s just an album that is calm, understated, is interesting musically, and instantly transports me to memories of stable, positive times in my life.
Dire Straits has a strong '70s AOR feel to their music, though I might choose On Every Street just for the variety.
You Dopers sure have some ecclectic musical tastes.
I can’t name just one because there are many and I tire of some and turn to others. Lately, some of Rush’s earlier albums have been in my head, and that’s where I usually go when I want to hear wailing hard-rock guitar. Specifically, these two solos:
For other moods/moments, it’s often Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli.
Making Movies would be my choice.
The soundtrack to Until the End of the World.
The Black Lips’ Underneath the Rainbow.
It’s just goofy, surreal, light, and ‘Devil may care’. Which is where my center is.
“Road Apples” by the Tragically Hip. No doubt about that.
Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life
August and Everything After by Counting Crows is pure comfort food music for me. Just perfect start to finish.
If I can pick two, I’ll add Southern Rock Opera by Drive By Truckers. DBT is without a doubt my desert island band. My wife grew up near the Shoals area in Alabama and I grew up about an hour away in Mississippi so this one just feels like home with all the good, bad, beautiful and horribly ugly that this place can mean and be.
My choice is Marillion’s Misplaced Childhood. It doesn’t comfort me in a way that a warm blanket would. Its way too dark for that. But how one song flows into the next along with the great lyrics immerse me into the entire experience of the album.
Jewel Spirit. And my favorite comfort songs off the album (which you didn’t ask for but I want to share anyways) are “Life Uncommon” and “Absence of Fear.”
Songs from the Wood is the tightest Tull album ever, with fine quality ba-rock from start to finish, that always leaves me feeling better for having listened to it.
Pulse, the DVD not the CD, Pink Floyd. David Gilmour at his best. Others I enjoy in their entirety include Led Zepplin III, The Village Green Preservation Society by The Kinks and Van Halen’s first album.
I bought a turntable, and this is one of the few albums I rescued from my college days and refurbished.
Next, their Stand Up album…
ps: ba-rock? Google doesn’t know…
As opposed to baroque.
Excellent choice. Should have been first, you Heretic!