Music suggestions

[_Tarski]

I am bored with my music playlists.

I have noticed that when you ask someone what music, including popular music, they think has withstood the test of time they almost always lean toward what they discovered in their teens or early twenties. For example, I have a tendency to include the Beatles but not Elvis. As I move forward in time I zero in on groups like The Police which was during my late 20s. But whole decades have past where I am aware of music coming and going and I even enjoy much of it, but it doesn't seem great or seminal. I hear pop songs now and then over the years that seem kinda promising or good in some sense (Clocks by Coldplay just for a random example) but I am unsure of which groups I should really focus on as I try to listen again with that kind of impressionable mind that I had when I was young.

This tendency to include groups from my youth surely must be a prejudice. By all rights I should have gotten into something like Radiohead but it just didn't happen for me, maybe it came too late for me.

So I am asking, what music is really great over the last couple decades that I should give a chance.
Consider the following categories just so you don't leave anything out.

Pop,
Rock
Alternative,
Jazz, instrumental
Electronic, Techno

and most of all things that are hard to classify.

[_Bret Ripley]

I can relate. Every so often I go looking for great music that I've missed. I usually end up a bit disappointed, but not always! Here are a couple of the overlooked gems I've stumbled across:

If you like the Beatles, you may very well enjoy Cotton Mather's Kontiki.

If you haven't given King Crimson a chance, you may want to check them out. I am particularly fond of their album Red -- the last track ('Starless') is simply amazing.

I look forward to seeing what others may suggest.

[Gladness]

Analytics List of Not-At-All-Obscure Timeless Music that Might Have Been Missed by Somebody Wearing Out Their Beatles, Stones, and Who Albums:

70’s: The Clash. Rolling Stone magazine ranked London Calling as the best album of the 1980’s, which is ironic since it actually came out in 1979. I say it is the best album of all time. If I had one wish, it would be that every kid listens to the song Clampdown before turning in their mission papers.

80’s: Dire Straights: Only the Sultans of Swing are cooler.

90’s: Red Hot Chili Peppers: With the birds I share this lonely view.

00’s: Green Day: Generation Y will have fewer American Idiots than their boomer parents.

Lifetime Achievement Award: REM

[_Bret Ripley]

Three of my all-time favorite bands with which you are almost certainly familiar but I'll mention just in case you spent a few decades as the subject of cryogenic research: Pink Floyd, U2, Queen. These are some of my reliable "go to" groups -- I'm tempted to store their albums in a case labeled "In Case of Fire Break Glass".

[Reflexzero]

Here are some of the albums that have stood out to me over the last 15-or-so years. Below each one is a youtube link to one of the songs from the album.

The Flaming Lips: The Soft Bulletin
I had to listen to this album several times before it grew on me. The first time through, I didn't really like it at all, but my friend urged me to listen to it a few more times, and each time through, I began to like more and more songs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs56ygZplQA

The Beta Band: Hot Shots II
Just a great album for some relaxing head-bobbing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkjg3SgUUkY

The Budos Band: The Budos Band
By far, my favorite afro-beat album of all time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTi7I92ArXU

Eels: Daisies of the Galaxy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQF0hs9Rzus

Badly Drawn Boy: The Hour of the Bewilderbeast
I personally like his later ablum, Have You Fed the Fish better, but this is the album that most critics consider his best. It's included in the book "1001 Albums to Hear Before You Die."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgrHvz3zZZM

David Byrne: Look Into the Eyeball
Not really much to say about this one. If your a Talking Heads or David Byrne fan, you'll love this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-d-kNsm__-g

Fiona Apple: When the Pawn
in my opinion, this album is 100 times better when listened to on headphones, or on a sound system where you can really hear/distinguish the stereo -- great mixing/production.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BK30r_SIZ-g

Camille: Le Fil
The album title translates to "The Thread." Throughout the entire album, there is a low level tone. A capella heavy, but you don't really notice as you get lost in it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6at4ag3KW6s

Verve Remixed
There are several of these compilation albums, but the first one is my favorite. It is remixed vocal jazz songs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h98oA2CAr2I

Spoon: Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
I can't think of a song on this album that I don't like. Great incorporation of horns (love the bari sax).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7v0KCoPMTdU


I could keep going... if there are any of these that you end up liking at all, I might be able to suggest other artists that are somewhat in the same vein.

[_Analytics]

Three of my all-time favorite bands with which you are almost certainly familiar but I'll mention just in case you spent a few decades as the subject of cryogenic research: Pink Floyd, U2, Queen. These are some of my reliable "go to" groups -- I'm tempted to store their albums in a case labeled "In Case of Fire Break Glass".

Pink Floyd has aged well. "Comfortably Numb" is an absolutely incredible piece of art.

[_Bazooka]

Rock
Alter Bridge
Shinedown
Black Stone Cherry


Indie
Arctic Monkeys
Editors
The Music
We Are Scientists

[Alf'Omega]

The Flaming Lips: The Soft Bulletin
I had to listen to this album several times before it grew on me. The first time through, I didn't really like it at all, but my friend urged me to listen to it a few more times, and each time through, I began to like more and more songs.

I concur. I love the Flaming Lips. Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots is an amazing album that I didn't really get at first, but when it grew on me, it grew hard.

My favorites over the last 20 years:
- Stone Temple Pilots
- Dave Matthews Band
- Coldplay
- Cake
- Soul Coughing** (totally underrated, awesome band)
- Beck
- Radiohead (give them another shot, Tarski. It took forever for me to really get them, and now I can't seem to get enough)
- Ian Brown/Stone Roses
- Grandaddy (another very underrated band, although I think they appeal to a pretty narrow range of musical tastes - namely, mine)
- Widespread Panic (likely the best band I've ever seen in concert)
- Pearl Jam

Softer/Trip hop:
- Zero 7
- Supreme Beings of Leisure
- Jem

Shout Outs:
- Squeeze (likely the most underrated band of all time)
- Queen
- Led Zeppelin
- Pink Floyd/Roger Waters
- Supertramp
- Beatles/McCartney & Wings
- Police/Sting
- Ween
- Prince

I know I'm going to click the submit button and think of ones I should have listed. I have in the neighborhood of 200 gigs of music, and I believe my taste is pretty eclectic, so I'm sure I'm forgetting some good ones.

[_Doctor Steuss]

I concur. I love the Flaming Lips. Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots is an amazing album that I didn't really get at first, but when it grew on me, it grew hard.

I remember when my friends and I got together, and listened to the four CDs of Zaireeka simultaneously on four seperate stereos. I still don't think my brain has fully recovered.

- Supreme Beings of Leisure

Yes! Portishead too. Sneaker Pimps aren't bad either (depending on the album).

- Beatles/McCartney & Wings

Tarski, if you don't have any McCartney albums, get and listen to Ram with some quickness.

[_Some Schmo]

- Supreme Beings of Leisure

Yes! Portishead too. Sneaker Pimps aren't bad either (depending on the album).

Yep, I dig Portishead too. Haven't heard of Sneaker Pimps. I'll have to make a Pandora station and check them out.

by the way, Tarski, that's the thing to do if you want to discover good music you're liable to like: http://www.pandora.com. Make a station of a contemporary band you know you like, and just listen to it for a while to discover other bands you had no idea about and never knew you loved.

- Beatles/McCartney & Wings

Tarski, if you don't have any McCartney albums, get and listen to Ram with some quickness.

Yes. I also highly recommend Venus and Mars. Actually, pretty much every McCartney album in the 70's was great.