Your default albums for whatever situations

[NoFred]

Got hit hard in an unexpected way today, and needed something awesome/engaging/uplifting/and ultimately frivolous to keep me level... so tale of the 22nd century mermaid it was.

Do you have go to albums for whatever, or to get through whatever? Now that I think about it I have 6 or 7, with Aquarius as one for great escapism.

[Eldomm]

For me there’s one album for this type of situations: Queen II.

[TAC]

I had a fear of flying that kept me off airplanes for 15 years. I'm still not great, but have taken long flights (for me) for each of the past 6 summers.

My take off music is Armored Saint's Raising Fear. Everytime.

[MirrorMask]

When I fly I always listen to the following compilation:

Iron Maiden - Aces High
Iced Earth - Red Baron
Stratovarius - Distant Skies (about the fear of flight)
Bruce Dickinson - Kill Devil Hill (about the first Wright flight)
Edguy - Lavatory Love Machine (about boning the hot flight assistant in the lavatory while the airplane crashes  )
Rage - Higher than the Sky (about a plane crash)
Iron Maiden - Coming Home (doing physically the gesture when he sings "stretch the fingers of my hands, cover countries with my span")

If I have enough time I also listen to Maiden's Empire of the Clouds which has another happy ending, the R101 crashing on its maiden flight 

[Stadler]

Asia, the debut album is always there for me, as is Wind and Wuthering by Genesis. 

I used to listen to Awaken before (almost) every softball game, back when I was playing regularly. 

[Lethean]

I know you'll all be shocked:

Katatonia - Dead End Kings, Night is the New Day, and The Fall of Hearts.  I could add a few more - Katatonia in general is the default for "whatever" situations, but those three in particular.

[mike099]

My chill, end of the evening is Steven Wilson ‘The Raven that refused to sing’.  My go to during the day is Rivers of Nihil, Monarchy or Where owls know my name.

[NoFred]

Tycho - Epoch has been my flight music since it was released. It’s basically a GoPro soundtrack.

[DTA]

Hey Stoopid by Alice Cooper is my go-to album for when I don’t feel like listening to the other shit on my iPod at work.

[Crow]

I have a set of albums for sleeping to (all the hammock and eluvium albums I have basically) but that's about it, my regular rotation is always changing

[pg1067]

I don't really have albums for particular situations, but lots of songs remind me of particular times or things from the past.

A lot of 80s hair metal reminds me of summers at the beach when I was in high school (particularly Y&T's Summertime Girls (duh!) and Scorpions Love at First Sting).

The last three songs on side 4 of Genesis's Three Sides Live (the international version) remind me of a particular girlfriend and our breakup back in the early 90s (I Saw Red by Warrant does the same thing).

For no good reason I can think of, The Road Goes on Forever by Fates Warning reminds me of my sister, who died in 2007 (if someone were to ask me to pick a song that I wanted played at my funeral, this would be it).

[v_clortho]

Not sure if this fits as it was a one time thing, but when I went skydiving I listened to High Speed Dirt by Megadeth on repeat the whole way there.

[Stadler]

The last three songs on side 4 of Genesis's Three Sides Live (the international version) remind me of a particular girlfriend and our breakup back in the early 90s (I Saw Red by Warrant does the same thing).

Dude, bro. 

You Might Recall (more then than now) and Evidence Of Autumn (more now than then) to this day remind me (sometimes painfully so) of my college girlfriend with whom I broke up in 1990, and her favorite song was "Lady In Red" by Chris De Burgh (she used to love to dance to that).

Wow; it's been almost 30 years.   "Though you hardly can recall her face or form, her memory lingers on..." indeed.   

[pg1067]

The last three songs on side 4 of Genesis's Three Sides Live (the international version) remind me of a particular girlfriend and our breakup back in the early 90s (I Saw Red by Warrant does the same thing).

Dude, bro. 

You Might Recall (more then than now) and Evidence Of Autumn (more now than then) to this day remind me (sometimes painfully so) of my college girlfriend with whom I broke up in 1990, and her favorite song was "Lady In Red" by Chris De Burgh (she used to love to dance to that).

Wow; it's been almost 30 years.   "Though you hardly can recall her face or form, her memory lingers on..." indeed.

Yeah, I probably should have said YMR, EoA and OD (Me and Virgil not so much, although it's a really lyrically powerful song as well).  But that line from EoA (along with the prior lines - "But that was many years ago, and though the pain is dim, a something still remains...") was just an absolute killer.  Open Door is a killer as well (although it's not technically a break-up song, it easily could be).

[Nekov]

When I'm feeling particularly bad I spin SFAM. It has a way of sucking me into it and distract me from whatever is ailing me while also giving me some awesome music that lifts me up.

[Sacul]

Converge's Jane Doe is really cathartic when I'm feeling frustrated or pissed.

[Ninjabait]

"That melancholy but not unpleasant feeling when it's late autumn or winter and it's cold outside and the sky's kind of grey and you have a long bus ride to school" - iamthemorning (pretty much all of their albums, and yeah I know that's very specific, but it comes up surprisingly often even here in Florida)
"I'm feeling depressed about the state of the world and am dissatisfied with how my youth has been" - Lorde - Melodrama
"I'm feeling great and need something that SLAPS" - Justice (all three albums really), My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade, lots of EDM and pop albums (Taylor Swift is a good go to), Diablo Swing Orchestra, Snarky Puppy - We Like it Here, jazz in general
"Unrequited love kinda sucks" - Carly Rae Jepsen - E-MO-TION/Dedicated
"I'm in one of those 'seize the means of production' moods" - Muse (in general, really), My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade
"I'm feeling a little frustrated" - Meshuggah - Obzen/I/Koloss, Gojira - L'enfant sauvage/From Mars to Sirius/The Way of All Flesh, Dir en Grey - Dum Spiro Spero, Dream Theater - Train of Thought
"I'm feeling great, but don't really want to move my booty" - Dream Theater - SDoIT/ADToE/Octavarium, Haken - The Mountain/Affinity, Yes, Incubus, lots of classical pieces
"I feel like going on a journey (both musically or literally)" - Dream Theater - The Astonishing/SfAM, Ayreon, Beyond the Bridge - The Old Man & The Spirit, The Dear Hunter, lots of classical pieces
"I'm REALLY sad" - Rachmaninoff - The Piano Concertos (performed by Valentina Lisitsa), lots of other classical pieces
"I'm feeling contemplative/I just want to be alone with my thoughts" - Ne Obliviscaris - Urn/Portal of I, Tesseract - Altered State, iamthemorning, Juno Reactor - Labyrinth, Lorde - Melodrama, Dir En Grey - Dum Spiro Spero, Opeth - Blackwater Park, Pink Floyd, lots of classical pieces
"I feel like taking on the world" - Blind Guardian, Dream Theater, Haken, Taylor Swift, Muse, Epica, Nightwish, lots of classical pieces, soundtracks

There's probably wayyyy more than that. I get in certain "moods" sometimes that are hard to describe (words tend not to be very good at describing moods imo) and I tend to look for music that supports that mood. I find that music doesn't really impart a certain mood onto me so much as it supports the mood I'm currently in.

[The Walrus]

When I'm drinking at home or just feeling bummed out, "Closing Time" by Tom Waits is the answer.

Tycho's "Awake" is an any situation type of album. I can listen to that whenever, doing whatever, in any mood.

I also listen to Toto IV on average once a week if not more, whether it's digitally or on one of my several physical copies. That is another 'whenever I feel like' album like Tycho, but I tend to play it more while doing household chores, or in the shower

[MirrorMask]

My connections are more geographical / seasonal than emotional. I love when music and the setting enhance each other, so I always carry around a bunch of music when it's the right time and place for it.

Starting from the most obvious, there's a looong list of Xmas music for December and lot of bands who are more or less sea-oriented to lisen while on vacation at the sea; I suggest next time any of you has the chance to listen to Davy Jones' Theme (from the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack) or Therion's Seawinds (a cover of Accept) while at night on a beach, it's so fitting.

When the holidays take place in the mountains instead, and I go trekking into the woods, it's folk metal all the way. Stuff from Omnia, Faun for sunny days and if it's a bit colder and autumnish no problem, there's Evocation I from Eluveitie which is perfect.

Michael Kiske sang in a project called "Place Vendome", which is located in Paris, and there's a title track, and you can be damn sure I heard Place Vendome while in Place Vendome, just to give an idea of how far I go with listening the right music at the right time  but there are so many more examples of situations like this with me.

[RoeDent]

I'm more of a seasonal person, so there are albums or bands I'm more likely to listen to at certain times of the year. When spring starts to show, I often decide it's time for some Crowded House. Whereas a band like IQ feels more autumnal to me. If I need to walk off some rage, one of Dream Theater's heavier songs (usually something like The Glass Prison or This Dying Soul) will do.

[lonestar]

Hmmm....I would say this would be albums that can settle an out of skew emotional state(for whatever reason) to something tolerable...For me those would be...

IQ- Frequency
Anathema- Weather Systems
Beyond the Bridge- The Old Man and the Spirit
Haken- Crystalized (not an album, but it sure as fuck does the trick)
Anciients- Voice of the Void
Ostura- The Room

[ytserush]

Probably a bunch but the one that always sticks out (happened again last night) is Marillion's Clutching at Straws for those late night drives home.