Please recommend me music

[Fred the Barber]

I've not been listening to much new music for the last few years and wanted to start remedying that. I'm going back to work in a few weeks, which likely means lots of time with headphones on, and despite it being augmented with a lot of VN soundtracks lately, my music library is getting a bit stale.

Sure, I could use one of those hip new services that all the kids are using for their music, but I'm old and weird, and I like buying and listening to whole albums by a single artist, so those often don't work so well for me. Plus it's more fun to have an excuse to chat about music with people than it is to experience music in a vacuum.

In general, I can enjoy listening to pretty much anything with a good hook, so anything you think is good is welcome. But if you want to recommend something more specific, my preferences for recommendations tend towards:

• rock music from the last couple decades (let's say grunge era onwards; I like older stuff, but I mostly have a pretty good handle on it already)
• not too harsh a sound (e.g., although I do like Cage the Elephant, it's a bit rough around the edges for my usual taste; same with most punk music, though The Clash gets a pass)
• good, distinctive vocals, usually especially male vocals, and especially vocals with strong harmonies (I don't only listen to vocal music, but voices are pretty important to me: Fleet Foxes, Imogen Heap, Yuna, Iron and Wine; I like all of these artists because of the way they sing)
• not a necessity by any means, but I am partial prog rock (Minus the Bear: 10, good!)

Random examples of more bands that I really like which are not mentioned above, and which may or may not fit in any of the above categories: Bon Iver, Belle and Sebastian, Guster, Idlewild, Sufjan Stevens, The Killers, Wilco

Weeb stuff is fine (I've been known to listen to anisong and vocaloid as much as the next guy), but I'm really looking to get into more mainstream rock music at the moment, so I'd prefer that flavor of recommendation.

Also, I promise if you offer me a recommendation, I'll listen to at least one whole song.

[Valmore]

What bands do you already have extensive stuff on?

[Fred the Barber]

4 minutes ago, Valmore said:

What bands do you already have extensive stuff on?

Aside from the ones I've listed above, it's too annoying and long to list; if there were a VNDB for music I might fill it out, but it would take forever anyway...

[Valmore]

Just now, Fred the Barber said:

Aside from the ones I've listed above, it's too annoying and long to list; if there were a VNDB for music I might fill it out, but it would take forever anyway...

I'm going to assume R.E.M. is already in your playlist.

A couple of British Bands I've taken a shine to are Hard-Fi and Fiction Plane. The former has this sort of rock-funk fusion sort of vibe. Hard To Beat is a really catchy tune. The latter is fronted by Sting's oldest son from his failed first marriage. Two Sisters has a nice straight-forward rock approach, though this isn't the best rendition of it.

Stateside I wish Sugarcult would end their Hiatus and record some new stuff.

For something totally off-the-wall, you could check out Blackmore's Night. It's actually the guy from Deep Purple, only now he plays modern Ren-Faire music.

[john 'mr. customer' smith]

You could try Susumu Hirasawa, that sounds about what you asked, except it's sort of more avant-garde with a bit of electronic pop influence.

I don't know much about music, so i just spouted some random words there, anyway, just listen to this if you haven't already 

[AaronIsCrunchy]

If you like Sufjan Stevens and that sort of thing, I cannot recommend Ben Howard enough, particularly his latest album. Keaton Henson too. If you haven't heard them already, that is...

I also recommend Brand New if you're not familiar, they're kinda pop-punk but they have a real emotional draw (The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me is my favourite). If you like them, then check Captain We're Sinking's 'The Future Is Cancelled'.

 

2 hours ago, Fred the Barber said:

Aside from the ones I've listed above, it's too annoying and long to list; if there were a VNDB for music I might fill it out, but it would take forever anyway...

There are several, in fact. Rate Your Music is probably the best one as it's an utterly comprehensive library - down to some really obscure stuff. I use Sputnikmusic cos I'm a fairly active member of the community there, but RYM is pretty much objectively better if you're looking at music cataloguing.

[Flutterz]

3 hours ago, Valmore said:

For something totally off-the-wall, you could check out Blackmore's Night. It's actually the guy from Deep Purple, only now he plays modern Ren-Faire music.

Holy shit, other people that know Blackmore's Night exist?  You are literally my favourite person right now

 

Unfortunately I'm not really well-versed in music genres so I'll just link you some rock-ish stuff I enjoy ^^

The aforementioned Blackmore's Night, Scorpions, After Forever, Nightwish, Xandria, Deep Purple

 

I'll also take this opportunity to plug my channel where I time lyrics for weeb music, so if you decide you want some of that you can check it out (I'm particularly fond of #2 and #7) https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsOdMIjF9wopjQeW5NgjGGA4cKLMqMwVd

 

[Zenophilious]

Carpenter Brut?  Dunno if you'd like them or not.

On a completely unrelated note, I've been listening to a bunch of Huey Lewis and the News lately.  Classics  <3

[Kawasumi]

Listen to the maggot baits op

listen to it again

???????

listen to it again!

 

[FruitsPunchSamurai]

Rise Against?

I'm not huge on rock. If you asked for metal recommendations though i could probably pull out a ton of my favorites straight from my head. 

[Valmore]

2 hours ago, Flutterz said:

Holy shit, other people that know Blackmore's Night exist?  You are literally my favourite person right now

I can't quite remember how I ended up hearing about them, but I think I was using Rhapsody at the time and they were recommended based on something else I was listening to. So I clicked, listened, and I liked it.

2 hours ago, Zenophilious said:

Carpenter Brut?  Dunno if you'd like them or not.

On a completely unrelated note, I've been listening to a bunch of Huey Lewis and the News lately.  Classics  <3

Absolutely nothing wrong with Huey Lewis and the News. Great retro 80's stuff.

[Fred the Barber]

I spent > an hour listening to all the stuff in this thread  and responding (and actually even still I'm not quite done listening yet...). So, thanks, everybody! This is already a huge success as far as I'm concerned, but if anybody's got more, keep em coming!

21 minutes ago, Valmore said:

I can't quite remember how I ended up hearing about them, but I think I was using Rhapsody at the time and they were recommended based on something else I was listening to. So I clicked, listened, and I liked it.

Absolutely nothing wrong with Huey Lewis and the News. Great retro 80's stuff.

Nah, Huey Lewis is just good 80s music. Good retro 80s music is Chromeo:

Spoiler

 

 

46 minutes ago, FruitsPunchSamurai said:

Rise Against?

I do recall hearing something I liked from Rise Against before - probably in Rock Band? Let's see... yeah, I really liked "Give It All" in Rock Band 2. And I like this song, too - so, thanks, I'll pick up an album!

Generally speaking, I do like some metal, though it's not my main thing - in terms of older stuff, I like Megadeth somewhat, but Metallica I'm not too fond of. More recently, I liked Avenged Sevenfold's City of Evil album, especially Sidewinder (dat acoustic solo):

Spoiler

 

 

2 hours ago, Zenophilious said:

Carpenter Brut?

Random, but interesting. Their flavor of synthpop reminds me a lot of Leitbur, who seems to be on the road to legitimately making it as a band now, but who I only know of because of their contributions to the OCRemix FFVI album a few years ago (which I rather liked), which happened before they'd put out any kind of album:

Spoiler

 

 

6 hours ago, Valmore said:

I'm going to assume R.E.M. is already in your playlist.

...

REM is one of my very favorites , so you just went up a notch in my personal Fuwanovel user rankings (no, they don't actually exist) for bringing them up right away . I love Document and Murmur, especially.

Hard-Fi, I liked a lot; although the band sounds completely different, the singer's voice reminds me quite a bit of Bloc Party's (though it really might just be the accent...).

Tried Blackmore Night and ... didn't like it.

Will listen to the rest of your suggestions shortly.

6 hours ago, john 'mr. customer' smith said:

You could try Susumu Hirasawa, that sounds about what you asked, except it's sort of more avant-garde with a bit of electronic pop influence.

I don't know much about music, so i just spouted some random words there, anyway, just listen to this if you haven't already 

Picked one at random on youtube, since it seems the link you provided is blocked for the US because record companies suck. The one I picked was "The Girl In Byakkoya", which was weird, but interesting. I'm not sure yet if I like it or not - usually, for me, whatever the topic, the "not sure if want" reaction means that if I get used to it I'll like it a lot, so I'll keep listening.

3 hours ago, AaronIsCrunchy said:

If you like Sufjan Stevens and that sort of thing, I cannot recommend Ben Howard enough, particularly his latest album.

Unfortunately, it seems Ben Howard's voice isn't my favorite, but it turns out I love his songs and the way he sings, so I'll keep listening until I get to like the timbre as well. At any rate, he went straight to the top of my list of stuff to pick up. Thank you!

3 hours ago, AaronIsCrunchy said:

Keaton Henson too.

Listened to "You". Sold.

4 hours ago, AaronIsCrunchy said:

I also recommend Brand New if you're not familiar, they're kinda pop-punk ...

Pop-punk is 100% ok by me, generally speaking - I'm not ashamed to admit that I enjoy all four Fall Out Boy albums I've heard (and I didn't realize they had an album last year, or I would've picked that up too). I listened to "The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows" and it didn't really click, though, so I'll probably pass on this band for now, unless you have a song to point me at that might grab me more.

4 hours ago, AaronIsCrunchy said:

Captain We're Sinking's 'The Future Is Cancelled'.

Now that works for me.

3 hours ago, Flutterz said:

rock-ish stuff ... After Forever, Nightwish, Xandria

 

It turns out you like metal but don't realize that it's metal - @FruitsPunchSamurai can probably offer you some good pointers

Actually, I hadn't heard them before, but Xandria's singer does have a crazy voice that I really like, so I'll give that some more time to see if I can get myself to enjoy the instrumentation more and enjoy it. Orchestra-backed metal usually sounds a little too cheesy for me, but hey, I actually like Northern Kings, so nothing is impossible.

Spoiler

 

 

[Flutterz]

3 minutes ago, Fred the Barber said:

It turns out you like metal but don't realize that it's metal

2 complicated 4 me

[Fred the Barber]

I missed Kawasumi's post!

3 hours ago, Kawasumi said:

Listen to the maggot baits op

listen to it again

???????

listen to it again

Oddly specific, but I can't deny the effectiveness of this strategy. That song is amazing.

[Decay]

I was about to mention Sufjan Stevens then reread your post and realized it was already there. Good to see I'm in the same ballpark, at least. 

I will list entire albums instead of individual songs. Everything in this post is from the last few years.

 

The War on Drugs - Lost in the Dream: As the album name indicates, it's rather dreamlike, yet still melodic. Combines post rock-esque instrumentation with dreamlike vocals. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Example 1, Example 2.

Strand of Oaks - Heal: Folk rock album with a fair amount of diversity. Example.

EL VY - Return to the Moon: A side project from the lead singer of The National, it seems a lot of people liked this less than The National's output but I still dug it. The melodies are simple but still appealing. Example.

Mikal Cronin - MCII & MCIII: I really enjoyed both of these albums, although I liked MCII more. Example.

Father John Misty - I Love You Honeybear: Indie folk rock laced with irony and self-depreciation, my enjoyment of this album is proof that the more fucked up the music's subject is, the more I like it. Full Album.

Modest Mouse - Strangers to Ourselves: Isaac Brock's vocals aren't the most silky smooth, but he expertly wields them in tandem with the music to create something equal parts bizarre and catchy, as always. Example.

Spoon - They Want My Soul: Spoon may never drop a masterpiece, but they also never disappoint. Easy to listen to. Example.

And now for something completely different. Some of these albums may take you a bit outside of your comfort zone but I thought they were phenomenal. Sometimes the best things in life happen when you tread out into the unknown and experience the unexpected. 

HEALTH - DEATH MAGIC: When "noise rock" turns into "noise pop." A harsh noise, but not brutally so. Example.

Grimes - Art Angels: Grimes has a very unique vision for the future of pop music, and she's not afraid to execute on it in an utterly uncompromising manner. It helps that she does almost everything herself, and that level of control uncommon to pop music shows through. Example. 

Neon Indian - VEGA INTL. Night School: A great introduction to Chillwave and one of my favorite electronic albums in years. Chillwave, the genre where the goal is to make the music sound as shitty as possible. Turns out, shitty is sometimes exactly what I want my music to sound like. Example.

Titus Andronicus - The Monitor: An eclectic punk rock album featuring raw, emotional vocals and an incredible range musical influences that never stops surprising you. I've said before that the more fucked up the music's subject is, the more I enjoy it, and boy is that ever true here. Tales of pain and misery, of everything wrong with American middle class society just like good punk should be, all told through rousing battlecries, anthems, and drinking songs.  A concept album that took a couple months for me to even open up to the possibility of listening and enjoying it, but once I did I couldn't have been happier that I gave it a second (and third, and fourth) chance. One of my favorite albums of all time, maybe? Example 1, Example 2.

Donnie Trumpet and the Social Experiment - Surf: Various rappers delve into the shitty life circumstances I thrive off of in music, often to brilliant results such as Kendrick Lamaar's Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City. Chance the Rapper put together a different kind of hip-hop album in Surf, that doesn't look back but forward. It doesn't dwell on the darker parts of life in Black America, but instead offers a font of hope and optimism. It does so with a fusion of Jazz and soul, And it's fantastic. Full Album.

Jamie xx - In Colour: One of the best electronic albums in years. Not a whole lot to say about it, its melodies are relatively simple but endlessly listenable. Example.

 

Honorable Mentions - Everything Everything, Chvrches, Destroyer, Todd Terje, Kamasi Washington. Also practically everyone I know with the same tastes as myself wouldn't shut up about Currents by Tame Impala, but it just didn't click with me for some reason. 

I wish I was more capable of speaking intelligently about music, I find it really hard to describe why the music I like is good. 

edit: I spent like 90 minutes on this post for some reason. Hope you find something you like here, @Fred the Barber.

[AaronIsCrunchy]

4 hours ago, Decay said:

The War on Drugs - Lost in the Dream: As the album name indicates, it's rather dreamlike, yet still melodic. Combines post rock-esque instrumentation with dreamlike vocals. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Example.

Dude, YES. Probably the best album from 2014, absolutely beautiful stuff. The only thing I will say is if it doesn't immediately grab you... It doesn't work that way, at least not for me. Give it a few chances, and its charm is absolutely undeniable.

[Decay]

This prompted me to stay up extra late so I can listen to the whole album again. For me, it's a tie between that and Sun Kil Moon's Benji as best albums of 2014. So I guess maybe I should have mentioned Benji? It's not the kind of music you listen to for a good time. It's poetry about death and growing old. I listen to it once every few months, appreciate it as great music, but keep it far away from my playlists. Full Album.

[LoganW]

12 hours ago, Decay said:

Donnie Trumpet and the Social Experiment - Surf: Various rappers delve into the shitty life circumstances I thrive off of in music, often to brilliant results such as Kendrick Lamaar's Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City. Chance the Rapper put together a different kind of hip-hop album in Surf, that doesn't look back but forward. It doesn't dwell on the darker parts of life in Black America, but instead offers a font of hope and optimism. It does so with a fusion of Jazz and soul, And it's fantastic. Full Album.

^^^ And Frank Ocean

[Fred the Barber]

Thank you, @Decay, this is awesome.

 

The first The War on Drugs song you linked grabbed me immediately, so that got picked up.

Listened to a couple Strand of Oaks songs, including the first one you linked, but it didn't quite click yet. Might come back to it later.

EL VY was an immediate fit. I especially love the instrumentation and the production, I think? Production these days often makes it hard to hear distinct instruments through the wall of sound, but everything's incredibly distinct in the song you linked, which gives it a really unique sound. And the instrumentation is great, so it really benefits from it. I listened to the same song twice

Mikal Cronin - good. Nothing specific to say, but I liked it.

Father John Misty - First two songs on the album sound fine, but the lyrics are just a bit weird for me. I enjoyed the third song on the album, but the fourth one completely threw me out of that mood again. I may be too sincere a person to enjoy this.

I've listened to a fair bit of Modest Mouse before, and it's very hit-and-miss for me. Good News For People Who Love Bad News is by far my favorite album that I've listened to (I haven't heard the album you linked, yet), but even on that album I really enjoy only about half the songs ("Ocean Breathes Salty", "Float On", "The Good Times Are Killing Me"); some of the songs, like "This Devil's Workday", I find pretty grating. They definitely do meet the criterion of having distinctive vocals. I'll give that newer album a listen.

Spoon was one of those bands I kept meaning to listen to and never got around to. The song you linked is great; I grabbed the album.

Noise rock is somewhat relevant to my interests, actually - when I'm properly prepared for it, Sonic Youth's album Dirty does a lot for me. But I haven't found much else in this arena that I liked (tried Dinosaur Jr., couldn't get into it even though I like their distinctive guitar tone a lot; even other Sonic Youth albums around the same time, like Sister and Daydream Nation, don't appeal to me much). At any rate, I didn't really like "LIFE" that much, but I tried the album from the start, and I liked "STONEFIST", so I'll pick this up too.

Grimes: this kills.

Neon Indian - weird. But good.

Titus Andronicus - not crazy about his voice, but the guitars remind me of what I like about both Idlewild and Hüsker Dü, and the songwriting especially is very Hüsker Dü-like, which is high praise from me... until it turns into Irish pub music, but that's all right too.

Surf - listened to the first two songs. Amazing. This is definitely happening.

Jamie xx - I agree with the assessment of it being incredibly listenable.

 

I think I'm spent, after responding to this post for the last couple hours. I'll get back to your honorable mentions and the subsequent responses later today or tomorrow. Incidentally, because of this thread I've probably listened to more YouTube ads in the last 24 hours than in the entire previous month.

[Fred the Barber]

Promised follow-up:

Everything Everything didn't click.

Chvrches did click. Great voice with great synth complement.

Still trying to wrap my head around Destroyer. My first thought when I heard the sax was OAR, and on that song it's definitely more than just the instruments that's making me think that - the whole song has that same vibe I associate with OAR as well. I'm iffy on OAR, so I listened to a couple more songs and got massively confused, because those songs sounded completely different from the one you linked, and also from each other. So it seems I can't pin these guys down at all, which is interesting. I really liked Kaputt, too, so I'm grabbing that album.

Todd Terje - Yep, that's pretty funky. Done. Incidentally, this seems like the relevant time to ask if other people like Jamiroquai, or if that's just me. I'm a big fan of the album A Funk Odyssey, especially.

Kamasi Washington - I'm a sucker for Latin jazz, so that percussion and piano grabbed me within a couple seconds. My older brother is a jazz pianist (not professional, just a hobby), so I heard so much stuff like this growing up that it's nostalgiac for me. I counter with Poncho Sanchez (his band is always awesome live - I saw him a month or two ago when they were in town).

Tame Impala - the voice isn't working for me, even though I'm really digging the guitar sound. Will keep listening and see if it grows on me after a few listens, or if the rest of the album fits me better.

Sun Kil Moon - interesting. Will keep listening later.

[Valmore]

For a really good piece of power-pop/rock that even keeps in theme of Fuwa:

Kimi Ga Suki * Raifu

Back in 2003 Matthew Sweet released this in Japan only as a sort-of "Thank You" album to his Japanese fans, where he's always had a bigger following than in the States. It was eventually released here, too, but it was probably ignored. "The Ocean in Between" is a piece of pop perfection, in my opinion, but the entire album is a good listen.

[Mugi]

Hm, might as well just suggest a few things that I've been listening to lately.

Basically anything by Aimer is 10/10. One of the few songs that isn't pitched that I could find on Youtube by her

letlive, which I haven't listened to that much, might be a bit too harsh for what you are looking for

Hands Like Houses, which I have listened to for years. I'll link one of their newer songs, which again might be too harsh for what you are looking for. Their older stuff is a little less so 

Also another by them, which is a little less harsh but just as good IMO

And then there's L'Arc~en~Ciel, another weeb artist. Gonna link one of my favorite songs by them, though it's just the regular OP version.

And then obligatory Serj the Tankian engine

Oh, and the whole Persona 4 Golden soundtrack

[Kawasumi]

gonna link some of my favorite japanese bands, you might like it.

 

 

[Fred the Barber]

@Valmore Interesting! I'm very fond of Matthew Sweet's album Girlfriend, which seems to be generally regarded as his best, but I haven't even ever tried anything else, and I've often felt like I was doing him a disservice because of that. I'll give that album a spin.

@Kawasumi - I picked up Uchu Conbini's first album a long time back. Great stuff. That song, especially, is perfect for when I'm in the mood for some prog rock. Their guitarist is something else, and I love the vocalist/bassist's voice. I haven't heard any of the other bands you linked before, though. Unfortunately, some of what you linked is blocked by record companies for me , including that second one. But I listened to the tricot song (which is great - fantastic musicianship and really unusual harmonic choices that are quite appealing) and the Cuushe song (which is really unusual, and I'm still trying to get a feel for). I picked up albums from both of them, though that Cuushe song is definitely stretching the range of what I normally listen to - but that's a good thing 

@Mugi letlive was interesting - at times they reminded me of Fall of Troy, but a little more listenable and with a little more range. Might keep listening to them. Hands Like Houses, the vocal style just didn't click for me. And, pssh, of course I've already got the Persona 4 soundtrack, and the P4 Reincarnation album, and both the OST and Reincarnation for Persona 3, and the Persona 4 DAN OST, and... I should just say, yeah, I like Shoji Meguro. The music is a big factor in my hype for P5 

 

[Mugi]

I just remembered a song that I discovered years ago, so I might as well link it as well