I had a similar quandry but coming from the other side - got a long session of playing to cut into songs and mix. I did one to make a template, but then realised that I had gone too far in a bad direction when I heard the results back on big speakers. So I mixed that first track again and got a series of channel strip settings / groups / effects that I was able to use as the basis of subsequent mixes. This means that the songs share a common sound. So far, so good.

TBH, I am surprised that nobody has mentioned instrumentation choice / palette yet. It does help if you think of the sounds that you want for the album as they will dictate quite a lot of the mix. I have a couple of stock synth pads, some standard approaches to drums, favoured way of recording and processing guitars, etc and this means that I know roughly how all songs will sound. Once I've used a combination on one album, I would try and change it around for another. Along with the changes in writing that always happen (or should imho), it helps keep things a little fresh.

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Veni, Vidi, Aesculi
(I came, I saw, I conkered)

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