Sunday Morning Chill Out Tracks: Sleep Thieves, Billy Bragg and Wilco and Black Sabbath

If you’re in need of a good rest or just need to relax this Sunday, turn up JOE’s Sunday Chill Out tracks and put the feet up.

By Peter Cooney

Sleep Thieves – ‘Oceans’

‘Oceans’ is taken from the Dublin band’s latest EP ‘Islands’, released in May of this year. With an album and two EPs to date, the band have seen their reputation soar, with each record receiving much critical acclaim.

‘Oceans’ is a wonderful dreamy atmospheric track that will undoubtedly leave you nicely chilled.

Billy Bragg & Wilco Feat. Natalie Merchant – ‘Birds and Ships’

In 1998, Billy Bragg and Wilco gave life to previously unheard Woody Guthrie lyrics. The result was the excellent ‘Mermaid Avenue’ album, which was followed up with two further volumes, the third released earlier this year.

Woody Guthrie’s daughter Nora entrusted Bragg with her father’s unused lyrics and so the link between Billy Bragg and Guthrie was formed. Bragg and Wilco enlisted American singer Natalie Merchant to lend her vocals to this track, and as you can hear, she more than justified their decision. You can catch Billy Bragg with Andy Irvine playing Guthrie songs in Dublin’s Vicar Street on September 17.

Black Sabbath – Planet Caravan

Black Sabbath may not be the first band that pops into your head when it comes to chill out tracks, but ‘Planet Caravan’ is a classic and shows that Ozzy and company did have a more chilled side to them.

Found on Sabbath’s iconic second album ‘Paranoid’, the track is sandwiched between ‘Paranoid’ and ‘Iron Man’, allowing a brief respite before their normal aural wizardry resumes.