Posted on June 4, 2009 - by Maria Gocze

In Dreams, Emotions are Overwhelming

There is something about the summer months that makes my mind want to stay up all night long.  I believe it has a lot to do with the crickets that sing for the duration of the darkened hours outside of my window; I am always envious of any living creature that has the capability to uproot and leave to go wherever it pleases.  So oftentimes I try to fool myself into becoming sleepy through music.  Nine times out of ten, it works; these songs soothe my troubled mind to a point where I have no choice but to succumb to the sheets that also sing to me nightly.  And so, I present to you, my fellow Sleep Walkers, a sleep-inducing mix…

In Dreams, Emotions are Overwhelming

1. Gene Wilder – Pure Imagination

From the soundtrack of the classic film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, this song is surreal and lovely and full of quiet truths.  “If you want to view paradise / Simply look around and view it / Anything you want to, do it / Want to change the world? / There’s nothing to it.”

2. The Music Tapes – Freeing Song for Reindeer

Julian Koster is the king of composing comfortable songs.  The Music Tapes’ 2008 release, Music Tapes for Clouds and Tornadoes, is full silent snowy fields to curl up under and be blanketed by.

3. Nesey Gallons – My Lighthouse

Nesey is currently a member of the Music Tapes, as well as the Circulatory System.  He recently released three CD-rs that are full of stunning and quiet love songs to astronomical phenomenons, pumpkin fields, dying in New England, and this song, which is a love song to a lighthouse.  “My Lighthouse” is probably my favorite from Eyes & Eyes & Eyes Ago, which will hopefully be seeing new life in vinyl in short order.

4. Donovan – Catch the Wind

A classic.  Unrequited love always makes me tired, and I am full of it.

5. Dick Annegarn – Coutances

I was introduced to this song by the Michel Gondry film, The Science of Sleep.  And despite not being able to decipher many of the lyrics (I’ve retained very little from the two years of French I took in high school), it feels very brokenhearted and exhausted.

6. The Wiyos – Summertime

The Wiyos are one of the best bands you have probably never heard of.  They classify themselves as American Unpopular music, which is sad, but true.  Their interpretation of Gershwin’s classic lullaby, “Summertime”, is the most sultry and sweltering version I have ever heard.

7. The Cinematic Orchestra – To Build a Home

Quiet and calming and yet thunderous, this smells like electricity and wet pavement and afternoon naps.

8. Elliott Smith – Twilight

My heart aches and sings when it thinks of Elliott.  This song is perfect for summer sleeping, on nights when those crickets have decided to migrate somewhere else, and it’s very still and quiet.

9.  Ben’s Imaginary Band – Underwater Waltz

There are very few times in my life where I am not completely terrified of the idea of being underwater or drowning.  This song is one of those times.

10. Nick Drake – Place to Be

There are no words for this song.  Another classic, unrequited love song.  “Now I’m weaker than the palest blue / Oh so weak in this need for you.”  The longing is palpable.

11. The Toughcats – Pinata

Hailing from the islands of the Penobscot Bay off the coast of Maine, these local boys make some of my favorite feverish bluegrass music.  They slow the pace with “Pinata,” a lone, drifting lobster boat at dusk.

12. Tom Waits – Midnight Lullaby

The song is called “Midnight Lullaby”… there was no way it wasn’t going to make an appearance!

13. Neutral Milk Hotel – Engine

There are very few songs that steal my breath as quickly as this one.  A children’s lullaby, accompanied by the singing saw and horn.  Simple and perfect.

14. Fionn Regan – The Cowshed

A slow and sad song about suicide.  Perhaps an odd choice to sleep to, but for me, it’s more about ambiance than lyrical content when trying to drift to the land of unconscious and dreams, and this song is chock full of sleepiness.

15. Azure Ray – Displaced

Maybe Azure Ray has more lyrically fitting songs to sleep to (i.e. their song “Sleep“), but the swelling strings of this song makes my eyelids unwillingly heavy.

16. Jon Brion – Strings That Tie to You

I have a tendency to become very wistful in the late evening hours, and this song plays into that wistfulness perfectly.  This song is from another Michel Gondry film, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.  A regretful, yet hopeful love song.

17. The Mountain Goats – There Will Be No Divorce

There is nothing more comforting than the quiet hum of white noise in the background while John Darnielle sings, his guitar gently weeping along.  “If I ever want to drive myself insane / All I have to do is watch you breathing.”  The Mountain Goats’ more recent releases have had a more studio-produced sound, but there is something really lovely about sleeping to music that sounds as though it could’ve been recorded in the bedroom in the house next door.

18. Sophie Zelmani – Most of the Time

A Swedish songbird sings one of my favorite Dylan songs.  This song was featured on the soundtrack for Masked and Anonymous.

19. Madeline – Sleeping Dogs

“Cry my eyes blind.”  A song for those lonely nights that heave themselves onto your chest, when you find the tears coming more quickly than you can wipe them away.  And so you do, “Cry my eyes blind”….

20. The Smiths – Asleep

I sleep best in the winter, so a song that begins with howling winds and ends with a music box warbling “Auld Lang Syne” sings me to sleep better than most.  Albeit a sad song about not wanting to carry on in this world any more, it is a lovely cloud to drift off on.

21. The Music Tapes – Kolyada #2

I like to bookend my sleeping mixes with the first (or second) and last songs being by the same artist.  Sung by a singing saw symphony, this song is quiet and warm.  If “Freeing Song for Reindeer” is a blanket of snow to curl up under, “Kolyada #2″ is the fire to curl up next to, quietly sparking and roaring, embers glowing softly through the night, until dawn.

You can temporarily download this drowsy compilation by clicking here.

Sweet dreams!

Waiting for our sight:

• What Will Replace MTV? (15)
• Our last year of independent? (7)
• Indie O’Clock: Tiny Tide and Nothing Meets All (7)
• Funny Little Bunny (6)
• Christmas Indie Ep from Japan (6)