MicShazam

Time for a random bunch of interesting tracks:

Eliza Carthy & The Wayward Band - Fade & Fall (Love Not)


Calan - Tale of Two Dragons / Chwedl y Ddwy Ddraig


Saltland - I Only Wish This for You


Claudia Aurora - Cigana (2013)


THE AGONIST - The Hunt (Official Video)

MicShazam

Some more interesting finds (sorry for making this page probably somewhat heavy...):

Kadhja Bonet - Fairweather Friend

Reeeeally nice.

Damir Imamović's Sevdah Takht - Lijepa Zejno

This one sounds pretty incredible. I love the way the bass sits with the rest of the arrangement.

Sinistro - Reliquia (Official Video)

Loving the vocals. It's doom metal, but it makes me think of music from Twin Peaks.

Joanne Shaw Taylor - Soul Station

I sometimes like this sort of blues rock. Not often, but a few singers do it well. This right here is pretty neat, I think.

Rosie Hood - Adrift, Adrift

The vocals on this track are right up my alley. Beautiful.

MicShazam

If anyone was wondering just how embarassing my music library gets, here's bascailly everything that's on my records shelves (and thus also ripped to my hard drive).
Now, if anyone else wants to call me a pleb or whatever, you've got some more concrete things to use as ammo. If anyone wants me to recommend anything from any artist here, I'll gladly give my 2 cents.

All of my favorite artists


All the other good music I have


Oops! I forgot that a few CD's haven't been ripped yet.
Artists not shown here: Vangelis (only because I have the Blade Runner soundtrack), Carla Pires, Françoise Hardy, Luar Na Lubre, Mor Karbasi, Yasmine Hamdan and Maria Callas.

MicShazam

Sons Of Apollo - Lost in Oblivion

The new band of former Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy.
I was never into DT, but this is pretty good. I might even get the album at some point.

Flavia Coelho - Cê Inventa

It seems I haven't posted any tracks by Flavia Coelho in my journal before.
Big mistake! She's excellent.

Flavia Coelho - Quer Vadiar

... so here's one more.

Kelela - Rewind

Not usually my kind of music, but as with any genre, there's exceptions.
I really like this track. I need to hear more from this artist before I know if I like her overall.

Sukekiyo - Scars Like Velvet

The side project of Kyo, the singer from my favorite band, Dir En Grey.
This track is from their first album, Immortalis.

Sukekiyo - Leather Field

This track is from their excellent follow-up EP, Vitium.
They have a 2nd full length album too, but it's basically unavailable outside of Japan as of yet.

Waltari - Wish I Could Heal

Been a big fan of this band for years. I don't talk about them much despite them probably being personal top 4 material for me. Pretty eclectic, odd band.

MicShazam

I feel like my approach to the whole umbrella of metal is pretty damn different from that of anyone else on this forum, or really anyone else I've ever met, so I thought it could be interesting to simply put together a playlist with a large variety of metal tracks that I personally really like. Or more often than not, love. This, basically, is what metal is to me. You won't find any black metal, or much metal that's even all that grimey in particular. Some of it will be heavy and aggressive - most of it; not really.

I hope someone finds an interesting thing or two here. It's not exactly your usual "best metal evarr" list. Some bands on the list are quite well known, but which songs I've picked from those bands are not exactly the songs usually considered among their best.

https://open.spotify.com/user/micmot...MXjti8UmLmajyF


This is metal through my eyes (ears?), for better of for worse

MicShazam

I've taken a lot on my plate already in terms of having all sorts of music to explore, but it's not every day I'll feel like listening to Tuvan throat singing or classical music, so I thought; why not torture myself a little in hope of challenging my preconceptions of some group of artists?

I've always had a troubled relationship with mainstream pop music, so I will Spotify my way through the music of some of the biggest modern pop diva's and see what happens.

I already like Kylie and Lady Gaga, so... you would think that I could find just something else to like.

The list:
Shakira
Carly Rae Jepsen
Ke$ha
Lorde
Katy Perry
Lana Del Rey
Marina and the Diamonds
Britney Spears
Jessie J
Demi Lovato
Lily Allen
ariana grande
Kelly Clarkson
Gwen Stefani
Pink
Cristina Aguilera
Britney Spears
Jessie J
Demi Lovato
Jennifer Lopez
Gloria Estefan
Britney Spears
Jessie J
Demi Lovato
Miley Cyrus

I choose to leave out Beyonce and Rihanna because they're more R&B and I ****ing hate mainstream R&B.

I leave out Madonna since her prime was somewhere back in the stoneage and I know that I don't care about her music anyway. I used to have a few of her albums. Her albums are out of my collection and she's off the list.

It's not like I'm going to force my way through whole discographies here, I'm just going to explore and find out what the music of these pop stars is really like, upon closer examination.

Expectation that I will find at least one album that I like: 51%.

Lisnaholic

Nice to see someone else on MB enthusing about Joan Baez, MicShazam!
That Diamonds and Rust track you posted is one of many great songs that she wrote - especially interesting because of the Dylan connection. But perhaps my favourite JB song is her version of the traditional The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.

It's interesting to see all your music files, MicShazam. You are more strictly organized than I am; a key word in all my file titles is "etc." because I keep throwing similar artists in with each other...

Anyway, I thought I might take you up on your offer and ask for your opinion on Coco Rosie and Simple Red. For both artists, I've heard an intriguing track or two but don't know much else about them. Any specific recs?

Also, as you areclearly an admirer of the female voice, I thought you might like Juanna Molina from Argentina if you haven't heard her already:-

__________________
"Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953

MicShazam

So far, I've mostly heard her 60's material, but the later Diamonds and Rust album shows some stylistic shifts, so I'm curious to see how her later material (later than the other CD's I have, that is) will sound, how much variety there is, etc. Not that the early record can't be varied. The album that got me into Baez, Vol. 5, had a song that sounded almost operatic. So far, her albums have been very easy for me to like. I could see how her pretty in-your-face singing voice might grate on some people's ears . Favorite track so far, Diamonds & Rust for sure, but I've still got quite a lot more than ½ a discography to go...

A long time ago, I tried sorting by genre, but that's just impossible. I rip whole albums from my shelves and simply put them in an artist folder. Only soundtracks ruin this system a bit.

I'm not too deep into either, especially not Simply Red since I got the one album I have less than a month ago.
EDIT: Forgot to say that so far, I think the album that I have (Stars) seems pretty good, although the title track is by far the one I like the most so far. I also know they have a track called Fairground that I like. It's on a more recent album.
I also checked out the bands first three albums at some point and two of them had this really cool 80's production style to them, mixed with a 70's soul music style. I liked that combination and it seems the bands early output is easily the most vivid and potent. They do get a bit too glossy and adult conteporary by the mid 90's.

When it comes to CocoRosie, I've heard two albums. The Adventures of Ghosthorse & Stillborn is quite critically acclaimed and clearly the more idiosyncratic and unique of the two, with it's hip-hop flavorings coloring their indie pop, sound-manipulated style of music. Personally, I didn't like it so much though. I connected way more with the album Grey Oceans, even though it's arguably a bunch of Björk and Kate Bush worship. One of these two women even has a singing voice that's quite like that of Björk at times. So I basically liked the less unique album more, I guess because I felt like the songs were, in the end, more evocative.

I will definitely listen to a couple of her albums on Spotify. I must have bumped into her before, because I really recognize a couple or three of the album covers. A quick skim on Spotify seems to suggest she makes some pretty varied, pretty interesting sounding music, so I'm going to dive in for sure. At a glance, som of it reminds me slightly of a sort of mix of Lydia Ainsworth, Islaja and Jenny Hval.

Lisnaholic

Thanks for the tips about Simply Red and Coco Rosie, they'll be a starting point for me when I dip into their music later in the week.

I also know Joan Baez's early stuff better than the later. Actually, the album I know best is Farewell, Angelina from 1965. It's a good mix of traditional and Dylan songs, with the backing nice and simple so that her voice rings out clear as a bell. I wouldn't call her voice in-your-face, tbh. I'd say she sounds like an angel, or Eve, the day before she bit the apple and got thrown out of Eden, but that's just my opinion.

...Lydia Ainsworth, Islaja and Jenny Hval....all new names to me, Micshazam! Where are you finding these people?!

__________________
"Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953

MicShazam

I personally think her voice is simply beautiful and I like her singing style, but I know that some people don't like her sort of approach and would describe her voice as "warbly" and "sharp". Those people are wrong, of course

All sorts of places. Random chance discoveries at the local used records store (I sometimes take photos of interesting albums and google them later), plus several websites I check from time to time. The editor's choice and featured new album releases sections on Allmusic.com are excellent sources for quality music across pretty much all genres. I also occasionally borrow issues of the world & folk music magazine Froots at the local library. Oh, and I musn't forget how much I've gotten out of Ted Gioia's "best albums of [insert year]" lists: The 100 Best Albums of 2016