Hungover Music

As today I have a hang over , thanks to a very fine party thrown by some friends, I thought it might be a good idea to talk about the times when you need music to suit your mood.

Specifically that mood where you cant decide on anything and you swing between feeling quite good and quite quite horrible. A hang over. My Hang over today is what I would call a category two hangover. I know I went out last night, but my lovely wife let me sleep in. So i feel like I had a big night, slightly runny nose but I would be alright to operate heavy machinery, just. i could work basically. But certainly wouldn't enjoy it. Although as a side point, for some reason I am a brilliant manager in this mood. Must have something to do with caring less I think

Anyway, the best music to listen to when you are hung over is good music

Wow holy relevation batman

It is an obvious thing to say , because obviously there is never a good time to listen to bad music is there. What I actually mean is when you are hung over it is not a good time to listen to new music, or re-try something you heard before but weren't sure about.

You have to listen to the stuff you like the most. It generally helps if it is also not at the hard fast edge of metal, death metal. The head can not take the pounding. I recommend listening to Prog. Prog you like, and the best of it.

To my mind the best Prog is on Damnation by Opeth. Do not be put off by the title, this is an amazing album of sound scape's and up and down shifts that leave the hung over mind soothed and interested at the same time. it is like taking a bath in milk and honey with your mind. If that sounds like a complete load of bollocks, to you, it is actually, a mind bath?? anyway, listen to the opening track and see what I mean

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IzLDT73bkk

Hopefully that shows up a bit better than last time. learning here folks.

Anyway, the other good thing about Prog is that the songs go on forever and as you have a mind that can not concentrate for more than 10 seconds it means you can drift away and come back.

The next Prog album i would strongly recommend to the hung over mind is Lateralus by Tool. I heart Tool, I really do. I like Lateralus for the hang over because it is a bit softer (if there is such a thing in a Tool album) than Aneima and a bit more coherent than 10 000 days. By the way Tool, where is the next album please? We are waiting guys, we miss you , very badly

Here is The Patient

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtHAKEZzrl8

How good is that? When looking at the album listing , i see that as an album Lateralus went to number 1 in the US and Australia and Austria but only to 11 in Finland? What's all that about? That means that there were 10 albums that people preferred to buy that week than Tool. In Finland! Which is very much a metal country and , speaking from person experience, the people like their metal to the point of it being a religion. Oh well.

The other way to go with the hang over is in the realms of electronica. As I have posted before , I love ambient electronica. I love the sound scape's that can be created. One of the albums I have spent a lot of time listening to this year is The Campfire headphase by the very excellent Boards of Canada. Who are a Scottish duo.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqD5b75ye14

If you have time watch the film clip which is very appropriate for the music. I think that is a great song , it has very deep emotional attachment to it somehow. I think you need to be a certain age, i.e. a young kid in the late 70s to really understand why. I think the breakdown part is taken from a science show from that time. I do not know that for a fact but it rings somewhere in the back of my mind. it is always good to remember that sort of stuff when you are hung over. Gives a warm and comfortable feeling.

The last artist I am going to talk about is MC 900 Ft Jesus. This guy is very much in the underground around the early to mid 90s. The music is what I would call artistic electonica. the lyrics are very clever in many respects and the underlying beats are very well put together. If you are after a song that tells the story and also makes you feel the ambiance, then it is hard to go past ' The City sleeps.

here it is
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KB54p8_wh8

This track is off the album ' welcome to my dream' which isn't the best album by this guy. The best album is One Step ahead of the spider. Particularly the first track which is very much a short story at 9 mins or so long. And track 3, If i only had a brain. Which is just funny. I used to listen to this album a to while driving across southern Australia with a mate and his dad going to car race meetings. It was cool to listen to this in the dead of night and watch the scrub and small towns go by.