My sophomore year, Damien Jurado's "And Now That I'm in Your Shadow" played most mornings.
Since then, I've found the value in a number of albums that sound great pre-10am. You know the albums I'm talking about. They're good independent of time of day. But they also capture that gentle rise to full consciousness.
This morning, Iron & Wine's collection of B-sides and rarities, "Around the Well," did the job quite well. More specifically, Beam's cover of "Love Vigilantes."
Any others to add to the list?