The Tired Sounds of Stars of the Lid is the sixth studio album by ambient drone music group Stars of the Lid. It was released in late 2001 on the Kranky label, on two CDs and three LPs. The album features long minimal, droning compositions created from heavily treated guitar, horn, flute, piano, and other classical instruments.

The second track, "Requiem for Dying Mothers, Part 2", features a sample from the final scene of Andrei Tarkovsky's film Stalker, where the character Monkey pushes a glass across a table by way of telekinesis as a dog whines and a train whistle blows in the distance.^[1] The third track, "Down 3", contains a sample from the soundtrack to John Frankenheimer's 1966 film Seconds.^[2]

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Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[3]
Drowned in Sound	10/10[4]
Pitchfork	8.6/10[5]
Stylus Magazine	A−[6]

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The Tired Sounds of Stars of the Lid was generally praised by critics. Thom Jurek, writing for AllMusic, stated:

There is a progression in all the music here, but it is so subtle, so quiet and un-intrusive, the listener would have to pay very careful attention to everything that is happening. More realistic, however, is for those who take pleasure in SotL's music and inner space explorations — for this truly is a music of the inner terrain — to offer themselves little distraction other than a comfortable chair or resting place in order to let this music enter at will, naturally, and expand until it takes you over the edge into something resembling sleep, but far more delicious.^[3]

The music review online magazine Pitchfork placed The Tired Sounds of Stars of the Lid at number 187 on its list of top 200 albums of the 2000s.^[7] In 2016, Pitchfork ranked the album number six on its list of the 50 best ambient albums of all time.^[8]