Sleepytime Music

I’ve familiarized myself with repeated listens of the new Arcade Fire album, Neon Bible, that I can fall asleep to it, as evidenced by my drowsy trip into Penn Station this morning on the 1 train. It’s the newest addition to my shortlist of albums to fall asleep to. Do I slumber at this music because it’s conducive to that or because I’ve heard it so many times it’s a lullaby? Probably some combination of both.

• Dummy by Portishead
• pretty much anything by Radiohead; the robot voice of "Fitter Happier" from OK Computer always throws me off, so I banished that one from my iTunes library
• Sea Change by Beck
• Rather Ripped by Sonic Youth (silence in music is not a prerequisite for my drowsiness, as evidenced by this ruffianly entrant)
• pretty much anything by Björk or Thievery Corporation
• The Greatest by Cat Power
• Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain by Pavement
• A Love Supreme by John Coltrane
• Zidane by Mogwai, which you wouldn’t initially think possible, given it’s the soundtrack to a documentary about a footballer best-known in the states for a wicked-infamous headbutt
• Rock Action, also by Mogwai, except for that last song, which includes a drum, piano and Liberty-style bell miked so closely the resonance loosens my teeth
• generally any album by PJ Harvey except Rid of Me, the quiet-loud-quiet pattern of which is more useful for waking up