THE mellow music thread

Enya - I play it in the background when I'm cleaning house or just trying to relax.

Anything by the Cowboy Junkies. River Waltz is my favorite. Plus the video has Megan and her teef. Pre Mad Men

One of my favorites from the Great Expectations movie soundtrack.

Lana Del Rey's version of "Blue Velvet" just came up on a playlist I was listening to. I can never take this song seriously, because I first heard the original version in a toilet roll advert starring Hyacinth Bucket. Which is a highly effective way of stripping all the glamour from a song.

Talk Talk - After The Flood

Darlings of the new romantic and new wave scene took a hard turn towards the avant-garde later in their career which even led to their label suing them. I love the pop era of Talk Talk but I’m an even bigger fan of what came later. I think this is one of the most beautiful and soothing songs ever performed by a pop group .

Johnny Hartman lowers my blood pressure by 20%.

I apologize in advance that I'll be posting a fair amount in this thread. I'm very much into the mellower side of music, be it vintage/classic pop, indie and new music, or everything in between.

I actually posted a stand alone thread a while back on this YouTube clip and others like it. This is *very* mellow, more in the Muzak category, but there's some really beautiful instrumental stuff in here, and this is great to put on for an hour or so if you need background music while working.

Vashti Bunyan.

She first started recorded sixty years ago.

Lovely cover of r8 shot in the countryside.

Nick Drake.

Much of Percy Faith's oeuvre. Like this:

And this:

And this too:

"The Nightfly" by Donald Fagen.

My car is old enough to have a CD. It's on regular rotation.

Shirley Horn is hardcore mellow.

But she gets Jacques Brel.

Good choice, r15!

This might be my favorite "mellow" Horn, but there are oh so many to choose from:

My favorite track from one of my favorite Pink Floyd albums:

Another jazz selection:

My favorite cover of Wave

R15, I suspect we’ve crossed paths here before. I am also a huge Shirley Horn fan. I love all of her work from the mid-sixties to her final album, an exquisite record full of reflection at the end of life with longing, joy and sorrow amidst the mellowness.

Have you ever listened to Andy Bey? He’s now in his mid-eighties and recording sporadically. He’s also gay. AND MELLOW.

Here he is covering Nick Drake (at r10).

70s Italian film scores

Doris Day’s foray into bossa nova.

I'm a classicist.

I love Shirley Horn too....and this is THE definitive Shirley for me.

I don't think there will be a day when I hear this and am not weeping by the end. It is truly lovely. I really want this to be played at my funeral.

Actually, THIS might be my favorite Shirley Horn track. But it's really impossible to choose only one.

Fogelberg

R26, you may have heard Donna Summer’s recording of Nether Lands. I discovered it here on DL.

I don’t count it as mellow, though. More majestic.

When Donna Summer learned that Fogelberg’s widow was putting together a tribute album, Summer got in touch saying that she’d always loved Nether Lands, which brought her back to a point in her own life where she was facing a fork in the road.

Fogelberg’s widow was thrilled but sheepishly told her that there was no money to re-record the orchestration in Summer’s key.

Donna Summer told her not to sweat; she’d be fine with the original orchestral track.

It’s a gorgeous song, and DS does it and Dan Fogelberg justice.

R27 yes! It is very sweeping and majestic.

I am the poster who has posted Donna's version here several times. It makes me cry every time I hear it....mostly because she recorded that about 8 or 9 months before she died.

R25's post reminds me of this, of course.

I loved that early 80s vibe of Sade, Everything But the Girl, Alison Moyet, Style Council.......the jazz inflected pop.

Whoops, forgot the link

You probably introduced me to it, in which case, FANK YOU!

R31 *hat tip*

Everything But The Girl's first album was beautifully mellow (as are a number of songs after it).

Sammy Davis dims the razzle dazzle on his lovely 1966 record with Brazilian guitarist Laurindo Almeida.

Another song I've posted in other threads......beautiful and haunting.

Another one that makes me cry.

MARY!

Late in her life, Peggy Lee dug up her own old chestnut from the 50s, The Folks Who Live on the Hill, flipping it from the anticipatory musings of a young woman to a nostalgic look back from an old lady.

It’s slow and unhurried, with the measured calm of old-age wisdom, looking back with a bit of longing, but more with a sense of fulfillment.

Cassandra Wilson. Most anything from her, but I’ve always enjoyed this cover of Jimmy Webb’s evocative Wichita Lineman.

R37 Really enjoy some of her music, too. New Moon Daughter is the one for me.

This cover of Neil Young's Harvest Moon is gorgeous, both this live version and as recorded.

k.d. has a permanent spot on my mellow music list, with Ingenue at the top.

Lana Del Rey is generally very mellow, I especially love the “Honeymoon” and “Chemtrails” albums. Also love listening to Enya’s mellow vibes, and artists like Vangelis, Carbon Based Lifeforms (kind of trippy ambient grooves), Brian Eno, Cocteau Twins’ “Four Calendar Cafe” and “Blue Bell knoll”, some Pink Floyd

This album is also on my mellow playlist. A few upbeat songs but generally a nice mellow vibe - this is the one I always listen to on a plane to chill me out.

The Innocence Mission has been a favorite of mine for 35+ years.

They started as a major label band with a similar sound to the Sundays and Mazzy Star. They've become a little more folk since being on their own label.

This is a good example of their sound - Sufjan did a cover of this one.

R39, agreed.

k.d. lang’s Drag record is full-on mellow - and it’s a concept album centered around smoking cigarettes!

R43 Love that one, along with Ingenue and Hymns of the 49th Parallel.

I mean I love numerous other songs of hers as well, but those three are pretty perfect albums, beginning to end.

This may be the finest thing she's ever done, at least from a technical standpoint.

Hairs stand on end, every time. Goosebumps.

Very mellow.

I remember an eldergay, a dear friend and mentor to me in my 20s, turned me on to Liz Story.

*

Judee Sill - intense, beautiful, otherworldly.

Documentary on her life and music coming this year.

I love the High Llamas - they have an array of music and some is more fast-paced and upbeat, but for fans of a more Bacharach mellow vibe, they're one of my go-to artists.

Ditto for the Aluminum Group, gorgeous music made by two gorgeous gay brothers.

Sufjan Stevens’ new album, Javelin, is wonderful.

The music act "Brett" owns this thread -

Vacation - Brett

And finally, an original -

The Trip

Mystified...

Everywhere...

Winter Sadness =

It's companion from a year earlier.

Some mellow Belinda...

Missing Person's most mellow tune -

We're Looking for the Whales = a-ha

Bluest Of Blue = a-ha

Some Icehouse

Most of Joni's catalog is mellow and has some beautiful songs.

If you're tired of the ones everyone knows, dig deeper, there's a lot to love.

See/hear also:

El Condor Pasa. Simon and Garfunkle.

Miracles, by Jefferson Star Ship.

Not sure if classical music counts but I really like Nils Frahm and Olafur Arnaulds, who are more in the contemporary classical genre.

More of the band I mentioned at r50

I find this heavenly, and Roo Panes is handsome as fuck.

All of Cleo Sol's albums are wonderful. Start with "Mother" - it's the most special.

Her band, SAULT, with partner Inflo is completely different and often wild!

Song from The Servant

This is an utterly gorgeous song. The artist is a woman who (beautifully) plays an instrument despite a severe disability/deformity.

The song always makes me cry.

*sobs*

"Pretend I Don't Exist" - Melody Gardot

I'm so tired of waiting in restaurants

Reading the critics and comics alone

With a waiter with a face made for currency

Like a coin in ancient Rome

Jobim -genius.

Stephen Bishop - Careless (full album)

Almost anything involving Henry Mancini

This

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

Milt Jackson-Sunflower

"I Like Birds" - Eels

But what else?

One of the most beautiful songs ever recorded is 'Yellow Roses On Her Gown' by Johnny Mathis, released as a single in May, 1976. I first heard this song when I was 12 (gave my mother the album 'I Only Have Eyes For You' by Mathis for Mother's Day - she loved Mathis), and I watched my mother cry her eyes out when this song played. It took me years to understand this and appreciate this - and for the past 30+ years, I now cry every time I hear this. Absolutely beautiful.

It wasn't a hit on pop radio, but became a hit with his fans - and he would sing this at every concert for many years, bringing the audience to tears.

We can't have a mellow thread without this chart-topper from ONJ !

My favorite cover.

*

Suavecito by Malo is in my top 15 list. One of the members was Carlos Santana’s brother who died fairly recently.

Whispery and weird.

Cocteau Twins has long been one of my favourite bands. Their most mellow album is Four Calendar Cafe and it beautifully showcases Liz Frasier’s peerless voice.

^ Ugh! This should've been posted at R98 =

Love Of The Common Man - Todd R.

Lovers Again - Bonnie Tyler

Abba "Another Town, Another Train"

Thank you to everyone who has posted on this thread, I love mellow music so finding this thread has been a real delight.

I have spent the past few hours listening to all of the music and artists posted on here, and have added most of them to my Spotify playlists. Some of the artists I’d never heard of, and some I have but never really listened to their music. I am looking forward to playing these albums in the coming weeks.

Donna Summer's "Thinkin' 'Bout My Baby" from 1987. Should've been released as a single. One of her most beautiful love songs ever.

For me, this is one of the best feel good songs ever. It reminds me of sunshine and a stress-free life. I don’t know why but it just does.

Where Love Hides...

Too Much Water...

He Goes On...

Kneel AT Your Feet...

Love In The Key Of C - Belinda Carlisle

Where is Your Heart?

Lady Day at her most mellow

And Ella at hers.

For me it's Blue Bell Knoll, R97.

And this with Jeff Buckley.

I lost track of the man who played this for me, but the time always comes back when I listen.

I used to listen to that song on a loop on summer walks, R116. So beautiful.

"Easier Said" - Kacey Musgraves

Club Des Belugas has become my new favorite listen.

Club Des Belugas

Betty Davis

The Secret Of Happiness = Pet Shop Boys

Feel = Pet Shop Boys

Perhaps the most danceable mellow tune on here...

How about some Roberta Flack? This is a live version and the recorded version is probably more mellow

Whoops

Only the Dark = Pet Shop Boys

#2 =

& finally...

Anything by the Carpenters

Moon Song

Sugar For the Pill