The last album I played in FULL before my daughter was born was Peter Gabriel's "So." This is the last album I STARTED listening to.
I had been a fan of hers after hearing the album "Approximately Infinite Universe," and "Seasons of Glass." When this was reissued I took a chance on it, having heard a few songs that turned out to be on the first two sides of this double album.
After the last dinner when everyone went home, I was still awake. I wasn't sure I would finish the album, and... I didn't. The night before we went into the doctor's and the hospital, I only listened to sides 1 and 2. They were exactly what I had remembered hearing, very blues-based, more melodic, with a hint of krautrock and indian music at the end of side 2.
The day my daughter was born, I went home that afternoon to change and get things that could be needed. I listened to side 3. I had never heard any of this part of the album before, but it was exactly what I needed to work with the rush of thoughts and feelings of being a new dad. If you have never heard it, two of the three songs were previously heard as background music for an experimental film helmed by John Lennon, and the third ("Don't Count The Waves") is a fitting companion to the other two. Most melody was absent, as was most rhythm. What you are left with is the deliberate organization of sound through chance; it is very meditative, very atmospheric, very ambient. It was the perfect music for reflection.