At some point during high school, I formed a need to play music before I went to sleep each night. I would put the CD player on repeat and it would play through the entire night. I can’t remember all of the CD’s that I chose to doze off to, but some of them are still in my mind.

Then, I got an iPod and started to fall asleep to music with my headphones in. There’s lots of great music that I use to fall asleep to, here’s a few:

JONI MITCHELL- BLUE (1970)

One album that I’ve relied on for winding down my day started in senior year of high school when I discovered that Joni Mitchell’s Blue had such a soft, confessional feel. The final song on the record, “The Last Time I Saw Richard” starts off with a great piano into before Joni’s heartfelt voice starts and tells the story of a woman who wonders how a former fling is doing, and where his life has ended up since they parted ways.

THE NATIONAL- “GREEN GLOVES” (2007)

The acoustic picking that shows up all over Boxer makes for one the best late night albums you could ever listen to. Unlike their previous album, this album has almost no big guitar sounds on it. “Green Gloves” is just one example of overall feel of Boxer. Acoustic guitar, some nice electric guitar underneath it and Matt Beringer’s perfect baritone vocals.

JOHN GRANT- “WHERE DREAMS GO TO DIE” (2010)

One of the more recent songs in rotation at nighttime is John Grant. After reading about him in British music publication Q, I decided to check out his album, and gave it a great review. “Where Dreams Go To Die” is one of several tracks on Queen of Denmark that have such a smoothness to the sound, it could come across as too soft. The haunting strings at the start of track set the mood perfectly and the track reaches it’s pinnacle in the chorus with Grant singing harmonies with himself. Grant’s voice is spectacuar and even holds up when he sings the lines “I know you know I know you know that I know that you know”

I have quite a few more tracks, so be expecting a part 2 soon…