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When I have the time, or just need some wonderful sounds as background, especially when I'm at the computer, a good long song usually does the trick. Hell, when I was a kid, I usually picked the long songs on the jukebox (hey, I was not going to waste that quarter on something two minutes while I was waiting for my Pizza!)

Echoes - Pink Floyd
Curtain Call - the Damned
Sister Ray - Velvet Underground
Maldoror est Mort - Current 93 (or really anything from the first albums from Nature Unveiled to Dawn)
Shores in Flames - Bathory
Voodoo Chile - Jimi Hendrix Experience
Many Ambient works, usually those that convey something dark.
When the Music's Over - The Doors
The Thrill is Gone - BB King

Plus one I chose as a kid:
Take Your Time - Lynyrd Skynyrd



Only a very few examples, but there's more.

There's something for every mood in my collection, and sometimes long songs do the trick.

To view things in a different light for a while, when I'm in the mood to just write long pieces of just do research, a nice long work usually does the trick, especially one that creates a mood. It's cool when musicians stretch out and try something beyond the obvious. It's half and half with the artistic success rate, but when it works, it works. Some of them fit very well into my research of 60's Cult Movies, especially the Hippie flicks - one good play of Steppenwolf's "Monster" (and, yeah, even Iron Butterfly's "In a Gadda da Vida!") takes me there when I do some of my writing about that era off-line. For NYC Roughies (films like Olga's House of Shame), it's over to "Sister Ray." Long songs help the focus out a bit. Helps with the flow of both the research and writing.

European Horror films? Some Cold Meat Industry-style ambiance does the trick!

A little indulgence does the ears and mind good. also helps with the much needed daydreaming as well when I need to stretch out and think.