Help me 'broaden my musical horizons'

[Guest treble charged]

As I mentioned in the '5 Favourite Tracks' thread, I need to broaden my musical horizons. Please, give me your suggestions. I'm open to anything, so don't hold back.

[Guest Kinetic]

This year's best album is Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot so I'd suggest picking that up. Get some Velvet Underground stuff, as well. And visit places like www.pitchforkmedia.com. Their musical opinions--if not the way they express them, which can come off as condascending--are usually dead-on.

[Guest Incandenza]

I second Velvet Underground (and Wilco). Also, a little Tom Waits in your life will do you good--a great place for beginners would be either Mule Variations (a good, though not great, LP that does a fine job in covering his sound over the past two decades) or Bone Machine (a terrific disc that managed to make him Cool Old Guy among all of the hipper kids).

[Guest Flyboy]

You can't go wrong with Alanis Morissette... nope, sure can't.

[Guest treble charged]

You can't go wrong with Alanis Morissette... nope, sure can't.

Well, I hate Hands Clean with a fierce passion, so that doesn't give me any incentive to check out the rest of that album. However, I do like some of her older stuff (specifically Jagged Little Pill). I even have that tape somewhere at home.

[Guest Kinetic]

The route I went was slow and steady from mainstream alternative rock to metal to indie rock to whatever suits me. I'd definitely suggest looking for some Pixies stuff used, if you can find it. Judging by your current favorites, you like to rock. For that, I'd also suggest Built to Spill. All of their albums other than Ancient Melodies of the Future are good starting places, so it doesn't matter which one you buy first. I could go on.

[Guest Flyboy]

Jagged Little Pill owns.

 

Anyhow, I have like 5-6 MP3s from her new CD, and I enjoy them greatly.

 

Maybe it's because I'm a huge Alanis fan. *shrugs*

[Guest Edwin MacPhisto]

It also never hurts to have some Elvis Costello in your collection. This Year's Model is probably his most rockin', accessible, and best album, and is out (along with most of the rest of his catalogue) in a great two-disc set.

 

I also recommend the Clash's London Calling to anyone who's never heard it. I've been surprised by how many people know the Clash from the big 80's singles, but never managed to find this, which is one of the best albums from anyone, ever, period.

 

Final choice, a little more modern: for some innovative, gritty, and raw rock, get Pavement's Slanted & Enchanted.

 

There ya go. Three albums I safely recommend to anybody.

[Guest Incandenza]

Pixies is great. Start with Doolittle.

 

Built to Spill kicks ass, though I'd suggest picking up either Perfect from Now On or Keep it like a Secret first. Ancient Melodies is okay, but not exactly a shining moment in their catalog. Ultimate Alternative Wavers is good, but not necessarily a great starting place; I just don't care that much for There's Nothing Wrong with Love, but I'm in the minority.

 

If you're going for Costello, Edwin's right in suggesting This Year's Model.

 

As for Pavement, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain is one of my favorite albums ever. If you don't like it, you'll never like Pavement.

[Guest Kotzenjunge]

Refer to the "I have a cable modem" thread in General Chat for what I say to snag. It isn't the highbrow stuff that these people have, but it's DAMN entertaining.

 

Fo sheez,

Kotzenjunge

[Guest Kinetic]

Hell yes on Edwin's London Calling summation, as I've currently got that album in my top five albums of all time list. I'm hesitant to suggest Slanted and Enchanted to people who aren't already familiar with that sort of music, though, as I wouldn't really consider it an accesible album. For every pop song on there, there's a strange sonic experiment. Crooked Rain is easily their most accesible album, so I'd give that the nod in this situation. Liz Phair's Exile in Guyville is another good rock record that's usually avialable in used stores. Stateside, at least. I don't know what they've got in the used bins in Canada.

[Guest razazteca]

Forgein Language Music:

 

TATU for Euro pop dance music

Rammstein for industrial metal

Brujueria for Mexican metal

Alejandro Fernandez traditional Mexican music not sure what subgenre it is

 

Herbie Hancock - Rock It

Clipse its produced by Neptunes so it has to be good

DJ Sammy - Heaven its a remix of Bryan Adams song

[Guest Edwin MacPhisto]

I'm hesitant to suggest Slanted and Enchanted to people who aren't already familiar with that sort of music, though, as I wouldn't really consider it an accesible album. For every pop song on there, there's a strange sonic experiment. Crooked Rain is easily their most accesible album, so I'd give that the nod in this situation.

 

Fair point indeed. "Summer Babe" hooked me, but that's probably one of the most accessible songs on there.

 

I'll also jump out and tell you that, for something completely different and almost guitar-free, you ought to investigate Depeche Mode's Violator. This is easily their best album, as there's really not a bad moment on it, and it's infinitely well-produced. Spawned "World In My Eyes," "Policy of Truth," and "Enjoy the Silence," if you've ever heard those. 9 songs, about 45 minutes, and barely a moment of filler.

 

(Note: I'll grant that "Blue Dress" is a little weak when compared to everything else on the album, but hey, it's the Martin-Gore-Gets-To-Sing song, and when compared to something like "Somebody," it's one of his better efforts.)

[Guest Mad the Swine]

The Beach Boys and Brian Wilson are two pretty good additions. For the Beach Boys, their best albums were:

 

Surfer Girl, Today, Pet Sounds, Wild Honey, Friends, 20/20, and Sunflower

 

Most of it isn't surfer music. 20/20 features two songs that had input from Charles Manson (Be With Me, Never Learn Not to Love). Neither are the gems of the album.

 

Brian Wilson's solo stuff is somewhat obscure. All of it (with the exception of one single in 1966) is post 1988.

 

Early Queen is also very, very good. The first two albums, Queen and Queen II are my favorites of theirs.

 

I also have a soft spot for Jan & Dean and The Platters.

[Guest Kotzenjunge]

Come on, TC. You know who to listen to here. Just check that thread I referred you towards.

 

Fo sheez,

Kotzenjunge

[Guest treble charged]

Well, I downloaded the Wilco album, and, from the half of it I've heard so far, it's pretty good.

 

It's going to take me awhile to make my way through this thread though, but I'll get to your's eventually.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

No no no, you need to listen to something completely different. Something that rips the skin off yer face with a cheese grater and dunks your dome in a bucket of poisoned salty acid while doing blast beats on your brain stem. I suggest some Cephalic Carnage.

 

If grind is out of the question, go with some early Black Sabbath, Clutch, or maybe some Crowbar.

 

If anything heavy or remotely heavy is out of the question, find some obscure Pink Floyd stuff, (Relics, or Obscured By Clouds would be good picks) Syd Barrett's solo work is seriously fucked up, too.

 

Primus is good to throw in there, since they don't really sound like anyone in particular. Get Sailing the Seas of Cheese or Frizzle Fry, then work your way forward if you like it.

 

For something COMPLETELY different, strange, bizarre, and almost too fucked up to listen to, find some Third Ear Band.

[Guest godthedog]

i'll assume you've already heard every full-length beatles album from 1965 on and not recommend them.

 

velvets are AWESOME. absolutely essential to any understanding of rock music as a whole, especially where alternative music came from.

 

ween is also some criminally underrated creamy goodness. great songwriters, write and record in an incredible variety of styles that would make the beatles' heads spin, and a killer sense of humor. i'd start with one of their more commercial releases like 'chocolate and cheese' or 'the mollusk' and slowly move backwards to 'godweensatan' and 'the pod'. the latter 2 are better albums, but definitely an acquired taste and hard to listen to.

[Guest Marshall]

Just click here

[Guest evenflowDDT]

Well, since most of these are rock/alternative suggestions, I'm going to go a different route and suggest you download some Blackalicious and People Under the Stairs. From Blackalicious, get pretty much anything, but especially "Blazing Arrow", "Sky is Falling", and "Make You Feel That Way" from Blazing Arrow, and for People Under the Stairs there are three free downloads (so you don't even have to waste time searching!) from Amazon.com, most of which are from the Question in the form of an Answer album, although "San Francisco Knights" from their album Next Step is excellent as well. I've really been feeling that track lately, so I recommend it, if nothing else to see if I'm not the only one who likes it

[Guest redbaron51]

if you want to broaden your musical tastes, just listen to Kid Rock....you got wussy-metal, wussy-country, wussy-rap/rock....well you got everything in wussified.

[Guest Kotzenjunge]

There is absolutely diddely-squat wrong with Kid Rock. He happens to be one of my favorite people out right now. Cocky got an unfair bad rap.

 

Fo sheez,

Kotzenjunge

[Guest Kinetic]

He's an asshole, for one thing. And as Redbaron noted, his music is like several different watered-down genres at once. Don't even get me started on his "ballads," either. ::mutters something deragatory about being a Kylie Minogue fan::

[Guest Kotzenjunge]

I like assholes... guys who ARE assholes.... I mean, oh fuck it. I like attitude, okay?

 

Why is it always some sin for something to be watered down? If he makes it that way, no problems here.

 

And I knew that no one would listen to me because of my other tastes and their somehow-negating effect.

 

Once again, I don't listen to anyone to be enlightened or for artistic merit. I do it for entertainment, and he entertains me quite a bit. (puts on "Your Disco Needs You" and mutters something about elitists)

 

Fo sheez,

Kotzenjunge

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

I don't like him because he's a piss-poor songwriter and he totally relies on image to sell albums.

[Guest myburninghammer]

Holmes, you can't go wrong with the Red House Painters' Ocean Beach...you'll win girlfriends with it, it'll help you through your break-ups with them and it'll make you cry in a totally acceptable way.

 

That said, the Pixies are the best place to start; it's accessible, yet even if you get the GH comp, it'll be 99.9% better than anything you've ever heard. If you want more modern classics of the rock canon, get My Bloody Valentine's Loveless...otherwise, get Pet Sounds, Revolver, Odyssey and Oracle, et.al

[Guest Kotzenjunge]

Oh yes! Red House Painters OWN. I don't know if I listed them in what I referred TC towards or not. I hope I did, and if I didn't, here it is! GET THEIR STUFF. Especially "Katy Song."

 

Fo sheez,

Kotzenjunge

[Guest Banky]

Go get Sparta NOW.

 

RHCP, QOTSA, and Coldplay have all released steller albums this year. In fact, By The Way is the best album of the year.

[Guest Incandenza]

HOLY SHIT! Two posts plugging Red House Painters! It is imperative that everyone with quality taste pick up Ocean Beach, which is the finest mope rock record ever! IT OWNZ~!

[Guest CoreyLazarus416]

If you enjoy heavy music at all, you must pick up Beyond The Embrace - Against The Elements. Enough kick-ass thrashfests to get your blood pumping, and enough mellowness to calm you down.