During a Super Bowl commercial break earlier this year, Jeff Bridges appeared on the screen. His eyes were closed, he was letting out a deep "om" and playing a singing bowl while people slept nearby. It’s an effective advertising method amid the beer commercials and action movie trailers—the absence of sound in an otherwise cacophonous space is jarring. The album he was advertising (a partnership with the website design company Squarespace) makes a similar impact—it’s meant to put you to sleep, but it’s still engaging. Bridges isn’t just playing the role of the trained sleep coach speaking gently about breathing patterns. Instead, he's a warm, absurdist mystic who's not overly precious with his concept. You hear him wake his wife by shoving a microphone in front of her face and telling her he's working on his tapes. As he hikes around Temescal Canyon, he's your buddy, encouraging you to drift off as he engages with nature and waves at a stranger who he's arbitrarily dubbed "Neil." "If you want, we can pretend to be crows," he says at one point. After a pause, he responds, "No? OK."

Composer Keefus Ciancia ("True Detective") provides an ambient hum to linger beneath Bridges' smiling musings, and the formula works. Some of his backing tracks invoke the haunted ballroom vibes of the Caretaker’s An Empty Bliss Beyond This World. Elsewhere, Ciancia's music is sweeping and ethereal while Bridges offers some words of encouragement. ("You are a positive addition to this world. ... You order well at restaurants.") Naturally, the most powerful instrument on the record is Bridges' relaxed, deep, authoritative voice. Whether it's run through effects to sound like a chorus of frogs ("Sleep, Dream, Wake Up") or sitting at the front of the mix as he drifts off ("Seeing With My Eyes Closed"), he's the exact sort of person you want talking to you as you fall asleep or process an ambient album—a guy with actual empathy (he's talked about how the biggest selling point for doing the album and ad was that proceeds would go to No Kid Hungry) and a genuine fascination with the gurgling sounds his toilet makes. It's part comedy album, part benefit album, part ambient record, part sleep aid, part "the Dude is my life coach" fanfiction—an album you never knew you needed, but one that strangely packs a lot of utility. —Evan Minsker

Jeff Bridges: "The Sea"