Blog

Maxwell
Prince
Raphael Saadiq
Eric Roberson
Leela James
Amp Fiddler
Amy Winehouse
Angie Stone
Anthony Hamilton
Ayo
Ben Westbeech
Choklate
DJ Jazzy Jeff[/artist
]Jill Scott
Erykah Badu
D'Angelo
Dwele
Fertile Ground
Julie Dexter
Kaidi Tatham
Hugh Masekela
Roberto Fonseca
Nas
Jodeci
R Kelly
Whitney Houston
Mary J Blige
Joe
Jose James
Lenny Kravitz
Little Dragon
Q-Tip
Lynden David Hall
Terri Walker
Marcus Miller
Mark de Clive-Lowe
Kaidi Tatham
Me One
Omar
Robin Thicke
Simphiwe Dana
Tawiah
Usher

First, make a list of your top-20 artists overall. Then, for each of these artists, add the 8 most similar artists to your list. Delete any duplicates, count up the number of entries on your list and this will give you some idea of how eclectic your listening habits are. A score of 9 represents an extremely unvaried musical taste while a 160 represents an extremely varied one.

1. Lady GaGa
- Britney Spears
- The Pussycat Dolls
- Space Cowboy
- Ashley Tisdale
- Katy Perry
- Ke$ha
- Madonna

2. Pixie Lott
- The Saturdays
- Cheryl Cole
- Alexandra Burke
- Girls Can't Catch
- Kristinia DeBarge
- Jordin Sparks
- Paloma Faith

3. Beyoncé
- Destiny's Child
- Ciara
- Kelly Rowland
- Michelle Williams
- Solange
- Rihanna
- LeToya

4. Little Boots
- Marina & the Diamonds
- Annie
- VV Brown
- Ladyhawke
- Frankmusik
- Dragonette
- Florence + The Machine

5. Alicia Keys
- Aaliyah
- Mary J. Blige
- John Legend
- Amerie
- Keyshia Cole

6. Kelis
- Tweet
- Brandy
- Monica

7. Gabriella Cilmi
- Duffy
- Delta Goodrem
- Amy Macdonald
- Sugababes
- Maria Mena
- Alesha Dixon
- Katie Melua
- Natasha Bedingfield

8. Amel Larrieux
- Groove Theory
- Goapele
- Floetry
- Vivian Green
- Ledisi
- Rahsaan Patterson
- Bilal

9. Janet Jackson
- Mariah Carey
- Toni Braxton
- TLC
- Whitney Houston

10. Jill Scott
- Erykah Badu
- Dwele
- Kindred the Family Soul

11. Joss Stone
- India.Arie
- Christina Aguilera
- Adele

12. Amy Winehouse
- Lily Allen

13. Sarah Connor
- Monrose
- No Angels
- Jeanette
- Sandy
- Bro'Sis
- Queensberry
- Anastacia
- Preluders

14. Chrisette Michele
- Jazmine Sullivan
- Raheem DeVaughn
- Musiq
- Maxwell

15. Sade
- Anita Baker
- Lisa Stansfield
- Chaka Khan

16. Janita
- Lalah Hathaway
- Will Downing
- Nylon Beat
- Hil St. Soul
- Emma Salokoski Ensemble
- Tuomo
- Kemopetrol

17. Nadia Oh
- Electrovamp
- Space Cowboy feat. Nadia Oh
- Dangerous Muse
- Rachel Stevens

18. La Roux
- Miike Snow
- Dan Black

19. Macy Gray
- Angie Stone
- Lauryn Hill
- Nneka

20. Corinne Bailey Rae
- Norah Jones
- John Legend

= 95

Recommended Songs (sorted by most recommended songs)

Save You : Kelly Clarkson (Score = 82.95)
All I Ever Wanted : Kelly Clarkson (Score = 81.68)
I'd Like To : Corinne Bailey Rae (Score = 67.87)
Radian : Air (Score = 64.71)
People In The City : Air (Score = 63.21)
Do Something : Macy Gray (Score = 62.04)
I'm You : Leona Lewis (Score = 49.73)
Bust Your Windows : Jazmine Sullivan (Score = 48.83)
Heartbeat : Nneka (Score = 48.78)
Impossible : Christina Aguilera (Score = 46.86)
Go Ahead : Alicia Keys (Score = 46.42)
Butterfly : Corinne Bailey Rae (Score = 43.82)
Video : India.Arie (Score = 43.24)
Each Day Gets Better : John Legend (Score = 41.58)
Superwoman : Alicia Keys (Score = 41.19)
Best for Last : Adele (Score = 40.36)
Out of Reach : Gabrielle (Score = 39.91)
One Night Stand : Jazmine Sullivan (Score = 38.8)
Wish I Didn't Miss You : Angie Stone (Score = 37.06)
Cherish the Day : Sade (Score = 36.66)
All Dressed In Love : Jennifer Hudson (Score = 34.97)
If : Beyoncé (Score = 34.74)
No Love : Erykah Badu (Score = 33.72)
Sanctuary : Gabriella Cilmi (Score = 33.72)
Staying in Love : Raphael Saadiq (Score = 32.9)
Work It Out : Chrisette Michele (Score = 32.62)
Jezebel : Sade (Score = 32.27)
T.O.N.Y. : Solange (Score = 32.17)
Golden : Jill Scott (Score = 31.3)
Spotlight : Jennifer Hudson (Score = 30.64)
Violet Hill : Coldplay (Score = 30.2)
More Than Friends : Estelle (Score = 30.15)
The Greatest : Michelle Williams (Score = 30.14)
A Change Is Gonna Come : Leela James (Score = 30.09)
Baby I Love You : Aretha Franklin (Score = 29.94)
My Love Is Your Love : Whitney Houston (Score = 29.76)
Be Without You : Mary J. Blige (Score = 29.42)
If It's Over : Mariah Carey (Score = 29.18)
Life Story : Angie Stone (Score = 29.08)
To Zion : Lauryn Hill (Score = 28.65)
Therapy (feat. Gramps Morgan) : India.Arie (Score = 28.27)
Einstein : Gabriella Cilmi (Score = 28.06)
Yesterday : Leona Lewis (Score = 27.99)
Sometimes : Raphael Saadiq (Score = 27.6)
Still : Macy Gray (Score = 27.18)
Nature : India.Arie (Score = 27.14)
Seasons Change : Corinne Bailey Rae (Score = 27.03)
Drama : Erykah Badu (Score = 26.33)
Slave Song : Sade (Score = 24.38)
Like A Star : Corinne Bailey Rae (Score = 24.37)
Come Over : Estelle (Score = 23.38)
Strawberry Swing : Coldplay (Score = 23.31)
Like a Tattoo : Sade (Score = 22.75)
Giving Myself : Jennifer Hudson (Score = 22.56)
Doo Wop (That Thing) : Lauryn Hill (Score = 22)
Cigarettes And Lies : Gabriella Cilmi (Score = 21.84)
You're My Baby : Robin Thicke (Score = 21.84)
Forgive Me : Leona Lewis (Score = 21.75)
Son of a Preacher Man : Aretha Franklin (Score = 21.45)
I Am Changing : Jennifer Hudson (Score = 21.12)
The Real Thing : Jill Scott (Score = 21.08)
Rimshot (Intro) : Erykah Badu (Score = 21.02)
The House That Jack Built : Aretha Franklin (Score = 20.94)
Fallin' : Alicia Keys (Score = 20.81)
How It Make You Feel : Jill Scott (Score = 20.6)
Safer : Gabriella Cilmi (Score = 20.35)
Maxine : John Legend (Score = 20.02)
B Boy Baby : Mutya Buena (Score = 19.9)
If I Have My Way : Chrisette Michele (Score = 19.4)
Nothing Ever Hurt Like You : James Morrison (Score = 19.24)
Orange Moon : Erykah Badu (Score = 18.92)
You Gotta Be : Des'ree (Score = 18.91)
Just Fine : Mary J. Blige (Score = 18.45)
Help Is Coming : Ayo (Score = 18.37)
Broken Strings (feat. Nelly Furtado) : James Morrison (Score = 18.33)
It's a Man's Man's Man's World : Seal (Score = 18.11)
I Decided : Solange (Score = 17.95)
Switch! : Jazmine Sullivan (Score = 17.67)
Bedda At Home : Jill Scott (Score = 17.42)
Another Again : John Legend (Score = 17.09)
Come Back Baby : Aretha Franklin (Score = 16.95)
Breathe Again : Toni Braxton (Score = 16.9)
Each Other : Katharine McPhee (Score = 16.9)
Just A Little Bit : Mutya Buena (Score = 16.71)
I've Got a Woman : Ray Charles (Score = 16.27)
Neva Been : Ayo (Score = 15.77)
Angel : Aretha Franklin (Score = 15.7)
In The Rain (Prod. By Johnny Douglas) : Estelle (Score = 15.63)
I'd Rather Go Blind : Etta James (Score = 15.62)
Stole : Kelly Rowland (Score = 15.52)
Magic : Robin Thicke (Score = 15.33)
Brown Skin : India.Arie (Score = 15.31)
Strung Out : Mutya Buena (Score = 14.97)
Me and Mr Jones : Amy Winehouse (Score = 14.9)
Don't Play That Song : Aretha Franklin (Score = 14.88)
Don't Mess With My Man : Lucy Pearl (Score = 14.49)
Down On My Knees : Ayo (Score = 14.43)
I've Committed Murder : Macy Gray (Score = 14.41)
A Woman's Worth : Alicia Keys (Score = 14.3)
A Fool For You : Ray Charles (Score = 13.88)

Recommended Songs (sorted by most recommended songs)

Do Something : Macy Gray (Score = 237.06)
Impossible : Christina Aguilera (Score = 210.82)
Bust Your Windows : Jazmine Sullivan (Score = 194.67)
Heartbeat : Nneka (Score = 186.03)
I'm You : Leona Lewis (Score = 182.48)
Don't Stay : Laura Izibor (Score = 172.85)
Video : India.Arie (Score = 170.3)
Spotlight : Jennifer Hudson (Score = 167.04)
Golden : Jill Scott (Score = 166.64)
Wish I Didn't Miss You : Angie Stone (Score = 164.32)
Sanctuary : Gabriella Cilmi (Score = 163.85)
All Dressed In Love : Jennifer Hudson (Score = 155.76)
Out of Reach : Gabrielle (Score = 149.81)
Like A Star : Corinne Bailey Rae (Score = 148.77)
Doo Wop (That Thing) : Lauryn Hill (Score = 142.36)
Be Without You : Mary J. Blige (Score = 138.23)
My Love Is Your Love : Whitney Houston (Score = 137.42)
I Decided : Solange (Score = 129.64)
Each Day Gets Better : John Legend (Score = 128.35)
Let's Stay Together : Al Green (Score = 127.59)
Go Ahead : Alicia Keys (Score = 125.7)
Nature : India.Arie (Score = 124.25)
Broken Strings (feat. Nelly Furtado) : James Morrison (Score = 122.79)
Stole : Kelly Rowland (Score = 120.66)
If It's Over : Mariah Carey (Score = 119.88)
Best for Last : Adele (Score = 117.31)
Butterfly : Corinne Bailey Rae (Score = 116.64)
Give It To Me Right : Melanie Fiona (Score = 115.97)
The Thing About Love : Alicia Keys (Score = 114.94)
Work It : Missy Elliott (Score = 112.64)
Fallin' : Alicia Keys (Score = 112.12)
Magic : Robin Thicke (Score = 109.23)
At Last : Etta James (Score = 108.9)
Each Other : Katharine McPhee (Score = 104.9)
Strawberry Swing : Coldplay (Score = 102.97)
B Boy Baby : Mutya Buena (Score = 101.79)
If I Have My Way : Chrisette Michele (Score = 101.16)
Should I Believe You? : Ben's Brother (Score = 100)
Violet Hill : Coldplay (Score = 100)
Pass That Dutch : Missy Elliott (Score = 100)
Save Room : John Legend (Score = 98.55)
Therapy : Ben's Brother (Score = 98.1)
Imma Be : Black Eyed Peas (Score = 97.81)
Breathe Slow : Alesha Dixon (Score = 97.6)
Soulmate : Natasha Bedingfield (Score = 97.49)
You're My Baby : Robin Thicke (Score = 96.99)
Breathe Again : Toni Braxton (Score = 95.4)
I've Got a Woman : Ray Charles (Score = 94.77)
On & On : Erykah Badu (Score = 94.33)
No Love : Erykah Badu (Score = 93.17)
I'd Rather Go Blind : Etta James (Score = 93.07)
You Give Me Something : James Morrison (Score = 91.72)
The Sweetest Taboo : Sade (Score = 91.43)
To Zion : Lauryn Hill (Score = 89.97)
Multiply : Jamie Lidell (Score = 89.44)
Shine : Laura Izibor (Score = 87.65)
Trick Me : Kelis (Score = 87.39)
If : Beyoncé (Score = 85.97)
I Have Nothing : Whitney Houston (Score = 84.36)
Cherish the Day : Sade (Score = 84.21)
One Night Stand : Jazmine Sullivan (Score = 84.09)
My Heart : Lizz Wright (Score = 83.22)
Emotion : Destiny's Child (Score = 83.11)
Everything Is Everything : Lauryn Hill (Score = 82.69)
Slave Song : Sade (Score = 82.48)
Drama : Erykah Badu (Score = 82.39)
Superwoman : Alicia Keys (Score = 81.34)
Let's Get It On : Marvin Gaye (Score = 79.19)
The Greatest : Michelle Williams (Score = 79.07)
Right Round : Flo Rida (Score = 78.18)
Miss You : Aaliyah (Score = 78.09)
In The Morning : Ledisi (Score = 77.55)
By Your Side : Sade (Score = 77.13)
Just Fine : Mary J. Blige (Score = 76.82)
Let It Flow : Toni Braxton (Score = 76.68)
You Gotta Be : Des'ree (Score = 76.52)
Just The Way You Are : Barry White (Score = 76.01)
100 Yard Dash : Raphael Saadiq (Score = 73.98)
The Way That I Love You : Ashanti (Score = 73.86)
What's Going On : Marvin Gaye (Score = 73.33)
Rock The Boat : Aaliyah (Score = 72.87)
American Boy : Estelle (Score = 72.57)
Unpretty : TLC (Score = 71.4)
Your Joy : Chrisette Michele (Score = 71.32)
The High Road : JoJo (Score = 71.28)
Yesterday : Leona Lewis (Score = 71.01)
We Belong Together : Mariah Carey (Score = 69.03)
Don't Mess With My Man : Lucy Pearl (Score = 68.8)
Right Here (Departed) : Brandy (Score = 68.19)
Hallelujah : Alexandra Burke (Score = 68.11)
Blow Me Away : Alain Clark (Score = 67.52)
A Change Is Gonna Come : Leela James (Score = 67.43)
Nothing Ever Hurt Like You : James Morrison (Score = 66.72)
Sometimes : Raphael Saadiq (Score = 66.58)
Baby, baby, baby : Joss Stone (Score = 66.13)
London Bridge : Fergie (Score = 65.8)
P.D.A. (We Just Don't Care) : John Legend (Score = 65.71)
Fire Burning : Sean Kingston (Score = 65.63)
I'd Like To : Corinne Bailey Rae (Score = 65.49)
Baby Can I Hold You : Tracy Chapman (Score = 64.54)

La lista la voy a ir actualizando a medida que vaya comprando.
(la voy a ir haciendo de a poquito, de a ratitos que el trabajo me deje)

A
A Camp - A Camp
A Camp - Colonia
A Fine Frenzy - One Cell In The Sea
Abel Pintos - Sentidos
Abel Pintos - Reflejo Real
Ace of Base - Cruel Summer
Adriana Calcanhotto - Adriana Partimpim
a-ha - Minor Earth | Major Sky
a-ha - Lifelines
Aimee Mann - Whatever
Aimee Mann - I'm With Stupid
Aimee Mann - Bachelor No. 2 (or, The Last Remains of the Dodo)
Aimee Mann - Lost in Space
Aimee Mann - The Forgotten Arm
Alanis Morissette - Jagged Little Pill
Alanis Morissette - Ironic
Alanis Morissette - Head Over Feet
Alanis Morissette - All I Really Want
Alanis Morissette - Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie
Alanis Morissette - Under Rug Swept
Alanis Morissette - So-Called Chaos
Alanis Morissette - Jagged Little Pill Acoustic
Alanis Morissette - The Collection
Alanis Morissette - Flavor Of Entanglement
All Saints - All Saints
Amistades Peligrosas - Relatos de una Intriga
Amistades Peligrosas - La Última Tentación
Amistades Peligrosas - La Profecía
Amy McDonald - This is the Life
Ana Belén - Mírame
Ana Belén - Anatomía
Ana Laan - Orégano
Ana Torroja - Me Cuesta Tanto Olvidarte
Andrea Álvarez - Andrea Álvarez
Andrea Álvarez - Dormís?
Andrea Álvarez - Doble A
Andrea Echeverri - Andrea Echeverri
Andy Rao - Intentar
Angie Stone - Stone Love
Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
Animal Collective - Water Curses
Annie Lennox - Medusa
Annie Lennox - Bare
Antonio Birabent - Morir Y Matar
Antonio Birabent - Anatomía
Antonio Birabent - Cardinal
Árbol - Árbol
Árbol - Chapusongs
Árbol - Guau
Aterciopelados - La Pipa de la Paz
Aterciopelados - Caribe Atómico
Aterciopelados - Oye
Athlete - Tourist
Audiounión - Vencer la gravedad
Autoramas - Teletransporte
Avril Lavigne - Under My Skin


B
The Bad Plus - Suspicious Activity?
The Bad Plus - Prog
Badly Drawn Boy - Have You Fed the Fish?
Banda De Turistas - Mágico corazón radiofónico
Barenaked Ladies - Stunt
Basement Jaxx - Rooty
Bell, Book and Candle - Bell, Book and Candle
Ben's Brothers - Beta Male Fairytales
Bersuit Vergarabat - Libertinaje
Beth Gibbons & Rustin Man - Out of Season
Beth Orton - Pass in Time: The Definitive Collection
Beyoncé - Dangerously in Love
Beyoncé - B'Day
Billy Corgan - The Future Embrace
The Bird and the Bee - the bird and the bee
Björk - Debut
Björk - Post
Björk - Telegram
Björk - Homogenic
Björk - Selmasongs
Björk - Vespertine
Björk - Greatest Hits
Björk - Medúlla
Björk - Volta
Black Box Recorder - England Made Me
The Bloodhound Gang - Hooray for Boobies
Blur - Parklife
Blur - The Great Escape
Blur - Blur
Blur - 13
Blur - Think Tank
Bodyrockers - Bodyrockers
Brian McFadden - Irish Son
Britney Spears - In the Zone
Brooke Russell - The Life I've been Looking For
Bryan Adams - On a Day Like Today


C
Cabezones - Alas
Cake - Fashion Nugget
The Calling - Two
El Canto del Loco - 12 Estados de Animo
Caramelito En Barra - Caramelito En Barra
The Cardigans - Emmerdale
The Cardigans - Life
The Cardigans - First Band on the Moon
The Cardigans - Been It
The Cardigans - Gran Turismo
The Cardigans - Erase/Rewind
The Cardigans - Hanging Around
The Cardigans - Long Gone Before Daylight
The Cardigans - Long Gone Before Daylight (CD + DVD Version)
The Cardigans - Super Extra Gravity
The Cardigans - Super Extra Gravity (CD + DVD NTSC Version)
Carina Round - Slow Motion Addict
Carli Jiménez - Tribal
Carolina Daian - Tengo un Plan
Cat Power - What Would the Community Think
Cat Power - Moon Pix
Cat Power - The Covers Record
Cat Power - The Greatest
Catatonia - Bleed
Catatonia - You've Got a Lot to Answer For
Catatonia - This Boy Can't Swim
Catatonia - International Velvet
Catatonia - Mulder & Scully Ep
Catatonia - Strange Glue
Catatonia - Equally Cursed and Blessed
Catatonia - Dead From the Waist Down
Catatonia - Paper Scissors Stone
Catupecu Machu - Cuentos Decapitados
Catupecu Machu - Cuadros Dentro De Cuadros
Charly García - Say No More
Charly García - El Aguante
Charly García - Influencia
Charly García - Rock and Roll YO
The Chemical Brothers - Dig Your Own Hole
The Chemical Brothers - Surrender
The Chemical Brothers - Come With Us
The Chemical Brothers - Push The Button
The Chemical Brothers - Brotherhood
Cher - Believe
Chico Buarque - O Cronista
Christopher O'Riley - True Love Waits
Chumbawamba - Tubthumper
Chumbawamba - WYSIWYG
Cibo Matto - Pom Pom: The Essential Cibo Matto
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!
Cloe Bosco - Womanhood
Clones - Safety Copy
The Coral - Magic and Medicine
The Coral - The Invisible Invasion
The Corrs - Talk on Corners
The Corrs - In Blue
The Cranberries - Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?
The Cranberries - No Need to Argue
The Cranberries - To the Faithful Departed
The Cranberries - Bury The Hatchet
The Cranberries - Wake Up and Smell the Coffee
The Cranberries - Stars - The Best Of 1992-2002
Courtney Love - American Sweetheart
Cowboy Junkies - Open
Cowboy Junkies - At The End Of Paths Taken
El Cuarteto de Nos - Raro


D
Daft Punk - Homework
Daft Punk - Human After All
Damien Rice - O
Damien Rice - 9
Daniel Bedingfield - Gotta Get Thru This
Daniela Herrero - Daniela Herrero
Daniela Herrero - No Voy A Mentirte
Daniela Herrero - El Espejo
Dave Gahan - Hourglass
Dave Matthews Band - Before These Crowded Streets
Dave Matthews Band - Everyday
David Bowie - Heathen
Death in Vegas - Milk It
The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love
Deftones - White Pony
Deftones - Deftones
Deftones - Saturday Night Wrist
Depeche Mode - Exciter
Des'ree - Endangered Species
Destiny's Child - Survivor
Destiny's Child - Destiny Fulfilled
Diamanda Galás - Plague Mass
Diamanda Galás - Malediction and Prayer
Diamanda Galás - Defixiones: Will and Testament, Orders from the Dead
Diamanda Galás - Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!
Dido - No Angel
Dido - Life for Rent
Dionne Farris - Wild Seed - Wild Flower
The Divine Comedy - Liberation
The Divine Comedy - Promenade
The Divine Comedy - Fin de Siècle
The Divine Comedy - Regeneration
The Divine Comedy - Absent Friends
DJ Rap - Learning Curve
Doris - Doris
Double Super Jackpot - Two Minutes in your Microwave
Duncan Sheik - Duncan Sheik
Duncan Sheik - Humming


E
Editors - The Black Room
Eels - Blinking Lights And Other Revelations
Ella Baila Sola - Ella Baila Sola
Emanuel Arias - Alma
Emanuel Arias - Y Que?
Embrace -
Emilíana Torrini - Love in the Time of Science
Emilíana Torrini - Me and Armini
Emma Bunton - A Girl Like Me
Emma Shapplin - Carmine Meo
Engenheiros do Hawaii - Acústico MTV
Enigma - Le Roi Est Mort, Vive le Roi!
Erica García - El Cerebro
Erica García - La Bestia
Erica García - Amorama
Erica García - positiva
Espen Lind - Red
Espen Lind - This Is Pop Music
Esthero - Breath From Another


F
Fabiana Cantilo - Golpes Al Vacío
Fabiana Cantilo - De qué se ríen?
Fabiana Cantilo - Información Celeste
Faithless - No Roots
Fastball - All the Pain Money Can Buy
Fatboy Slim - You've Come a Long Way, Baby
Fatboy Slim - Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars
Fatboy Slim - Palookaville
la Favorita - Suspendiendo Tu Mambo
Federico Aubele - Panamericana
Feist - Let It Die
Fernando Blanco - Blanco Móvil
Fernando Blanco - Mares Lejanos
Finley Quaye - Vanguard
Fiona Apple - Tidal
Fiona Apple - When The Pawn...
Fiona Apple - Extraordinary Machine
Fito Paez/Luis Alberto Spinetta - La La La
Fito Páez - Ciudad De Pobres Corazones
Fito Páez - Tercer Mundo
Fito Páez - El Amor Después del Amor
Fito Páez - Circo Beat
Fito Páez - Euforia
Fito Paez & Joaquin Sabina - Enemigos Íntimos
Fito Páez - Abre
Fito Páez - Rey Sol
Fito Páez - Naturaleza Sangre
Fito Páez - Moda Y Pueblo
Five - Five
Flor - Flor
The Flowers Orchestra - The Flowers Orchestra
Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand
Franz Ferdinand - You Could Have It So Much Better
Fun Lovin' Criminals - Livin' in the City
Furslide - Adventure


G
Garbage - Garbage
Garbage - Version 2.0
Garbage - beautifulgarbage
Garbage - Bleed Like Me
Gavin DeGraw - Gavin DeGraw
Gavin Rossdale - Wanderlust
Gazpacho - Gazpacho
George Michael - Twenty Five
Germán Tripel - Push!
Get Ready - Get Ready
Gloria Estefan - Destiny
Gloria Estefan - Gloria!
Goldfrapp - Black Cherry
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci - Spanish Dance Troupe
The Gothic Archies - The Tragic Treasury
Grace Jones - Hurricane
Gustavo Santaolalla - Gas


H
Hanson - Middle Of Nowhere
Hanson - 3 Car Garage
Hanson - Live From Albertane
Hanson - This Time Around
Hanson - Underneath
Hard-Fi - Stars Of CCTV
Hard-Fi - Once Upon A Time In The West
Heather Nova - Siren
Heather Nova - South
Hole - Celebrity Skin
The Hoosiers - The Trick To Life
Hooverphonic - Blue Wonder Power Milk
Hooverphonic - The Magnificient Tree
Hope of the States - The Lost Riots


I
Ida Maria - Fortress Round My Heart
Illya Kuryaki and the Valderramas - Versus
Illya Kuryaki and the Valderramas - Leche
INXS - Switch
Irupé Tarragó Ros - Ángeles
Irupé Tarragó Ros - Jazmín
Irupé Tarragó Ros - Florencia
Iván Noble - Preguntas Equivocadas


J
Jamie Cullum - Pointless Nostalgic
Jamie Cullum - Twentysomething
Jamie Cullum - Catching Tales
Janet Jackson - The Velvet Rope
JC Chasez - Schizophrenic
Jem - Finally Woken
Jennifer Paige - Jennifer Paige
Jewel - Pieces of You
Jewel - Spirit
Jewel - This Way
Jewel - 0304
John Mellencamp - Cuttin' Heads
Johnny Cash - Super Hits
Johnny Cash - American Recordings
Johnny Cash - American III: Solitary Man
Jonathan Elias - The Prayer Circle
Joni Mitchell - Blue
Joni Mitchell - Misses
Joni Mitchell - Taming the Tiger
Joni Mitchell - Both Sides Now
Jordan Knight - Jordan Knight
Jorge Drexler - Vaiven
Jorge Drexler - Llueve
Jorge Drexler - Frontera
Jorge Drexler - Sea
José González - Veneer
José González - In Our Nature
Juana Molina - Juana y sus hermanas
Juana Molina - Rara
Juana Molina - Segundo
Juana Molina - Tres Cosas
Juana Molina y Alejandro Franov - A∩B
Juana Molina - Son
Juana Molina - Un Día
Junior Senior - d-d-don't don't stop the beat
Just Jack -Overtones


K
Kanye West - Late Registration
Kasabian - Kasabian
Kasabian - Empire
Kate Bush - The Kick Inside
Kate Bush - Lionheart
Kate Bush - Never For Ever
Kate Bush - The Dreaming
Kate Bush - Hounds of Love
Kate Bush - The Red Shoes
Kate Bush - Aerial
Keane - Hopes and Fears
Keane - Under The Iron Sea
Keane - Perfect Symmetry
The Kooks - Konk
KoЯn - Follow the Leader
KoЯn - See You On The Other Side
Kosheen - Damage
KT Tunstall - Eye to the Telescope
Kylie Minogue - Greatest Hits 87 - 97
Kylie Minogue - Fever
Kylie Minogue - Body Language

[album artist=][/album]

L
Lamb - Lamb
Lamb - Fear of Fours
Lamb - Between Darkness and Wonder
Lamb - Best Kept Secrets: The Best of Lamb 1996-2004
Laura Vázquez - Vértigo
Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Lila Downs - Una Sangre (One Blood)
Lila Downs - La Cantina
Liliana Felipe - Materia De Pescado
Liliana Felipe - El Hábito
Liliana Felipe - Trucho
Liliana Felipe - Tangachos
Liliana Felipe - Tan Chidos
Liliana Felipe - Matar O No Matar
Liliana Felipe - Mil Veces Mil
Liliana Herrero -
Lindsay Lohan - Speak
Lior - Autumn Flow
Lisandro Aristimuño -
Live -
Living Things -
La Lupita -
Luscious Jackson -


[album artist=][/album]


M
M2M - Shades of Purple
Macy Gray - The Id
Madonna - Something to Remember
Madonna - Ray of Light
Madonna - Music
Madonna - American Life
Mambrú - Mambrú
Mambrú - Creciendo
Man Ray - Ultramar
Man Ray - Larga Distancia
Mandy Moore - I Wanna Be With You
Mandy Moore - Mandy Moore
Manic Street Preachers - Lifeblood
Manic Street Preachers - Send Away The Tigers
María Bestar - Maria Bestar
Maria Mena - White Turns Blue
María Gabriela Epumer -
Mariah Carey - #1's
Marilyn Manson -
Mark Owen - Green Man
Mark Ronson - Version
Marta Sánchez -
Massive Attack -
Maxwell - Embrya
Medeski, Martin and Wood -
Melanie C -
Meredith Brooks -
Me'Shell NdegéOcello - Plantation Lullabies
Michelle Branch - Hotel Paper
Miguel Bosé -
Mirwais - Production
Missy Elliot -
Moby -
Modest Mouse -
Moloko -
Morcheeba -
mulam -
Muse -
The Music -
Mylo -

N
Natalia Lafourcade -
Natalie Imbruglia -
Natalie Merchant - Ophelia
Natasha Bedingfield - Unwritten
Neil Finn - Try Whistling This
Nek - Nek
Nellie McKay - Get Away From Me
Nelly Furtado - Loose
Nick Cave -
Nine Days -
Nine Inch Nails -
No te va Gustar - Aunque Cueste Ver el Sol
NSYNC -

O
The Offspring - Americana
OK Go - Oh No
Ojas -
Olive - Trickle
Orson - Culture Vultures
Our Lady Peace -
OutKast -
Ovejas - Al Natural

P
Paralamas - VAMO BATE LATA
Patricio Rey y sus Redonditos de Ricota - Último Bondi a Finisterre
Paul Simon - Surprise
Paula Cole - This Fire
Paula Cole - Amen
Pedro Aznar - [album artist=][/album]
Pequeña Orquesta Reincidentes - Miguita De Pan
Pequeña Orquesta Reincidentes - Traje
Pereza - Animales
Pet Shop Boys - Fundamental
Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel 1
Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel 2
Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel 3
Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel 4
Peter Gabriel - Us
Peter Gabriel - Up
PJ Harvey - Dry
PJ Harvey - Rid of Me
PJ Harvey - To Bring You My Love
John Parish and PJ Harvey - Dance Hall At Louse Point
PJ Harvey - Is This Desire?
PJ Harvey - Uh Huh Her
PJ Harvey - White Chalk
John Parish and PJ Harvey - A Woman A Man Walked By


P.J. Olsson - Words for Living
Placebo - Placebo
Placebo - Meds
Poe - Hello
POL - Pol
Portishead - Dummy
Portishead - Portishead
Portishead - Roseland NYC Live
Portishead - Third
La Portuaria - 10000 Km
Presuntos Implicados - Siete
Primal Scream - Evil Heat
Primal Scream - Riot City Blues
The Prodigy - Their Law: The Singles 1990-2005
proyecto verona - Tontas Promesas Falsas
proyecto verona - Encendida
proyecto verona - Caravana

[album artist=][/album]


Q
Quarashi - Jinx

R
Radiohead - Pablo Honey
Radiohead - The Bends
Radiohead - OK Computer
Radiohead - Kid A
Radiohead - Amnesiac
Radiohead - Hail To The Thief
Regina Spektor - Live at Bull Moose EP
Regina Spektor - Soviet Kitsch
Regina Spektor - Begin to Hope
Regina Spektor - Begin to Hope (Limited Edition)
Regina Spektor - Far
Rob Thomas - ...Something to Be
Robbie Williams - I've Been Expecting You
Robbie Williams - Sing When You'r Winning
Robert Downey Jr. - The Futurist
Robi Draco Rosa - Vagabundo
Ricky Martin - Ricky Martin
Robyn - Robyn
Rosal - Rosal
Rosana - Luna nueva
Roxette - Have A Nice Day
Roxette - Room Service
Ryuichi Sakamoto - Mototronic

S
Samantha Navarro - Mujeres Rotas
Sandra Baylac - XX
Sara Bareilles - Little Voice
Sarah Blasko - The Overture and the Underscore
Sarah Blasko - What The Sea Wants, The Sea Will Have
Sarah Harmer - You Were Here
Sarah McLachlan - Closer - The Best of Sarah McLachlan
Savage Garden - Savage Garden
Scouting for Girls - Scouting For Girls
Seal - Human Being
Sebastián Schon - Dos Puntos
Serart - Serart
Shania Twain - Up!
Shawn Colvin - A Few Small Repairs
Shawn Colvin - Whole New You
Sheryl Crow - Sheryl Crow
Sheryl Crow - The Globe Sessions
Sheryl Crow - Wildflower
Sigur Rós - Takk...
Simio - Quiero Bailar Contigo En La Oscuridad
Simple Minds - Black & White 050505
Sin With Sebastian - Golden Boy
Sinéad O'Connor - The Lion and the Cobra
Sinéad O'Connor - I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got
Sinéad O'Connor - Universal Mother
Sinéad O'Connor - So Far... The Best of Sinéad O'Connor
Sinéad O'Connor - Faith and Courage
Sinéad O'Connor - Collaborations
Sixpence None the Richer - Sixpence None the Richer
Smash Mouth - Fush Yu Mang
The Smashing Pumpkins - Adore
Snow Patrol - Final Straw
Snow Patrol - Eyes Open
Socio - Socio
Soraya - En Esta Noche
Soraya - Torre de Marfil
Spice Girls - Spice
Spice Girls - Spiceworld
Spice Girls - Forever
Spice Girls - Greatest Hits
Starsailor - Silence Is Easy
Starsailor - On the Outside
Starsailor - All The Plans
The Stone Roses - The Complete Stone Roses
Suede - Singles
Sufjan Stevens - Michigan
Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
Sugar Ray - Sugar Ray
Sugar Ray - In the Pursuit of Leisure
Super Furry Animals - Songbook: The Singles, Vol. 1
Super Ratones - Zapping Club
Super Ratones - Autopistas y Túneles
Super Ratones - Mancha Registrada
Super Ratones - Urgente!
Suzanne Vega - Nine Objects of Desire
Suzanne Vega - Beauty & Crime
System of a Down - Toxicity
System of a Down - Mesmerize

T
Tabaquito Marroquí - La Cura
Take That - Beautiful World
Taxiride - Imaginate
Tears for Fears - Tears Roll Down (Greatest Hits 82-92)
The Teenagers - Reality Check
Terrorvision - How To Make Friends And Influence People
Terrorvision - Regular Urban Survivors
Terrorvision - Shaving Peaches
Terrorvision - Good To Go
Texas - The Hush
Texas - The Greatest Hits
Third Eye Blind - Third Eye Blind
Tin Star - The Thrill Kisser
Tin Tin Out - Eleven To Fly
Tiziano Ferro - Rojo Relativo
Tiziano Ferro - 111
Tiziano Ferro - Nadie Está Solo
Tom Jones - Reload
Tom Jones - 24 Hours
Tom Waits - Alice
Tracy Bonham - The Burdens of Being Upright
Tracy Bonham - Down Here
Travis - The Man Who
Travis - The Invisible Band
Tricky - Angels with Dirty Faces

U


V
Valeria Gastaldi - Cuando No Estás
Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
The View - Hats Off to the Buskers
The Vines - Vision Valley
Vitamin C - Vitamin C


W
Weezer - Weezer (Green Album)
Westlife - ...Allow Us to Be Frank
Westlife - Face to face
Wet Wet Wet - Picture This
Wheatus - Wheatus
White Town - Women in Technology
Whitney Houston - My Love Is Your Love
William Shatner - Has Been

X

Y
Yaki-Da - Pride
Yaki-Da - A Small Step For Love
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever To Tell
Yoko Ono - A Story
Yoko Ono - It's Alright (I See Rainbows)
Yoko Ono - Blueprint For A Sunrise

Z
The Zutons - Who Killed the Zutons?
The Zutons - Tired of Hanging Around

2009; (Still in progress)

1 Alela Diane - To Be Still
2 Antony and the Johnsons - The Crying Light
3 Fever Ray - Fever Ray
4 Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
5 Dez Mona - Hilfe Kommt
6 Lee Fields & The Expressions - My World
7 The Veils - Sun Gangs
8 Fat Freddy's Drop - Dr. Boondigga & The Big BW
9 Soulsavers - Broken
10 A Place to Bury Strangers - Exploding Head
11 Akron/Family - Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free
12 Archive - Controlling Crowds
13 Madeleine Peyroux - Bare Bones
14 The Whitest Boy Alive - Rules
15 Joe Bonamassa - The Ballad Of John Henry

2008;

1 Grace Jones - Hurricane
2 Tindersticks - The Hungry Saw
3 Portishead - Third
4 Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Lie Down In The Light
5 Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
6 Kings of Leon - Only by the Night
7 TV on the Radio - Dear Science
8 Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Dig Lazarus Dig!!!
9 Chad VanGaalen - Soft Airplane
10 Barry Adamson - Back To The Cat
11 Lulu Rouge - Bless you
12 Shearwater - Rook
13 Calexico - Carried To Dust
14 Herman Düne - Next Year in Zion
15 The Black Angels - Directions To See A Ghost

2007;

1 LCD Soundsystem - Sound Of Silver
2 The Cave Singers - Invitation Songs
3 Radiohead - In Rainbows
4 Robert Wyatt - Comicopera
5 Bruce Springsteen - Magic
6 Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha
7 The Angels of Light - We Are Him
8 Adrian Orange & Her Band - Adrian Orange & Her Band
9 The Field - From Here We Go Sublime
10 Josh Ritter - The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter
11 Tinariwen - Aman Iman; Water Is Life
12 Okkervil River - The Stage Names
13 Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - Raising Sand
14 Editors - An End Has An Start
15 Mary Gauthier - Between Daylight And Dark

2006;

1 Beirut - Gulag Orkestar
2 Tom Waits - Orphans
3 Ray LaMontagne - 'Till The Sun Turns Black
4 Alela Diane - The Pirate's Gospel
5 !!! - Myth Takes
6 Amy Winehouse - Back To Black
7 Burial - Burial
8 Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - The Letting Go
9 Cold War Kids - Robbers & Cowards
10 Toumani Diabate's Symmetric Orchestra - Boulevard De L'independance
11 Oneida - Happy New Year
12 Midlake - The Trials Of Van Occupanther
13 Guillemots - Through The Windowpane
14 The Black Angels - Passover
15 Snow Patrol - Eyes Open

2005;

1 Antony and the Johnsons - I Am a Bird Now
2 Amadou & Mariam - Dimanche a Bamako
3 Devendra Banhart - Cripple Crow
4 Andrew Bird - Andrew Bird & the Mysterious Production of Eggs
5 The Kills - No Wow
6 Black Mountain - Black Mountain
7 Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
8 LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem
9 Ali Farka Touré - In the Heart of the Moon
10 Gorillaz - Demon Days
11 El Michels Affair - Sounding Out the City
12 Tosca - J.A.C.
13 Alice Russell - My Favourite Letters
14 Fat Freddy's Drop - Based on a True Story
15 Bloc Party - Silent Alarm

2004;

1 Arcade Fire - Funeral
2 Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus
3 Björk - Medúlla
4 Los Lobos - The Ride
5 Madvillain - Madvillainy
6 Zita Swoon - A Song About a Girls
7 The Roots - The Tipping Point
8 Modest Mouse - Good News for People Who Love Bad News
9 Electrelane - The Power Out
10 J.J. Cale - To Tulsa and Back
11 Kings of Convenience - Riot On Empty Street
12 Ozomatli - Street Signs
13 Iron & Wine - Our Endless Numbered Days
14 Mory Kante - Sabou
15 Razorlight - Up All Night

2003;

1 OutKast - Speakerboxxx/ The Love Below
2 Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Master and Everyone
3 The White Stripes - Elephant
4 Lhasa - The Living Road
5 Hieroglyphics - Full Circle
6 Calexico - Feast of Wire
7 A. Skillz & Krafty Kuts - Tricka Technology
8 The Mars Volta - De-Loused in the Comatorium
9 Amy Winehouse - Frank
10 Sun Kil Moon - Ghosts of the Great Highway
11 Tindersticks - Waiting for the Moon
12 Vetiver - Vetiver
13 Kelis - Tasty
14 Ibrahim Ferrer - Buenos Hermanos
15 Rufus Wainwright - Want One

2002;

1 N.E.R.D. - In Search Of...
2 Johnny Cash - American IV: The Man Comes Around
3 Missy Elliott - Under Construction
4 Peter Gabriel - Up
5 Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
6 Orchestra Baobab - Specialist In All Styles
7 Moloko - Statues
8 Clinic - Walking With Thee
9 Coldplay - A Rush Of Blood To The Head
10 Spinvis - Spinvis
11 Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights
12 Archive - You All Look The Same To Me
13 Sigur Rós - ( )
14 Songs: Ohia - Didn't It Rain
15 Queens of the Stone Age - Songs For The Deaf

2001;

1 Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - No More Shall We Part
2 Manu Chao - Proxima Estacion; Esperanza
3 Tinariwen - The Radio Tisdas Sessions
4 Angie Stone - Mahogany Soul
5 Gorillaz - Gorillaz
6 Rufus Wainwright - Poses
7 The Strokes - Is This It
8 Noir Désir - Des visages des figures
9 Björk - Vespertine
10 Yann Tiersen - Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain
11 Bilal - 1st Born Second
12 Gomez - Liquid Skin
13 Ian Brown - Music of the Spheres
14 Angels Of Light - How I Loved You
15 Fanfare Ciocarlia - Iag Bari

2000;

1 Johnny Cash - American III: Solitary Man
2 U2 - All That You Can't Leave Behind
3 Jill Scott - Who Is Jill Scott?
4 Antony and the Johnsons - Antony and the Johnsons
5 Radiohead - Kid A
6 Erykah Badu - Mama's Gun
7 Amon Tobin - Supermodified
8 A Silver Mt. Zion - He has left us alone, but shafts of light sometimes grace the corner of our rooms
9 16 Horsepower - Secret South
10 Jurrasic 5 - quality control
11 Rubén González - Chanchullo
12 D'Angelo - Voodoo
13 Elevator Suite - Barefoot & Shitfaced
14 Godspeed You Black Emperor! - Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
15 The Avalanches - Since I Left You

See also;
Best Albums of The Late Fifties
http://www.last.fm/user/thomas10/journal/2009/08/17/2y26bt_best_albums_of_the_late_fifties_%281956-1959%29

Best Albums of The Sixties;
http://www.last.fm/user/thomas10/journal/2009/08/17/2y23k7_best_albums_of_the_sixties_%281960-1969%29

Best albums of The Seventies;
http://www.last.fm/user/thomas10/journal/2009/08/17/2y22fg_best_albums_of_the_seventies_%281970-1979%29

Best Albums of the Eighties;
http://www.last.fm/user/thomas10/journal/2009/08/17/2y24lq_best_albums_of_the_eighties_%281980-1989%29

Best Albums of The Nineties;
http://www.last.fm/user/thomas10/journal/2009/08/17/2y25kn_best_albums_of_the_nineties_%281990-1999%29

Adele
North Sea Jazz, Rotterdam 07/12/2009

African Head Charge
Glastonbury Festival, Glastonbury 06/24/1994

Mose Allison
North Sea Jazz, Den Haag 07/09/2005


Antony and the Johnsons
Carré, Amsterdam 06/22/2009

Apparat
Parque do Ibirapuera, Sao Paulo 11/25/2007

Arab Strap
Vredenburg, Utrecht 10/08/1999


Gnarls Barkley
North Sea Jazz, Rotterdam 07/13/2008

Beastie Boys
Statenhal, Den Haag 02/10/1995


Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
Vredenburg, Utrecht 03/13/2007


Andrew Bird
Helling, Utrecht 05/23/2007
Paradiso, Amsterdam 05/07/2009

Björk
Glastonbury Festival, Glastonbury 06/25/1994

The Black Angels
Helling, Utrecht 08/19/2009


Blind Melon
Ahoy, Rotterdam 11/11/1993
Glastonbury Festival, Glastonbury 06/24/1994

Blur
Glastonbury Festival, Glastonbury 06/26/1994
Dour Festival, Dour 07/09/1994

Body Count/Ice-T
Belfort Festival, Belfort 07/08/1995

Dennis Brown
Tivoli, Utrecht 12/09/1994

Solomon Burke
North Sea Jazz, Den Haag 07/09/2005


Burning Spear
Paradiso, Amsterdam 06/15/2007


David Byrne
Glastonbury Festival, Glastonbury 06/08/1997
Pepsi Stage, Amsterdam 05/03/2004

Terry Callier
Glastonbury Festival, Glastonbury 06/29/1998
North Sea Jazz, Den Haag 07/08/2005


Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Glastonbury Festival, Glastonbury 06/29/1998
Heineken Music Hall, Amsterdam 11/23/2004
World Forum Theater, Den Haag 09/19/2006

Chatham County Line
Ekko, Utrecht 08/29/2009


George Clinton/Parliament/Funkadelic
Tivoli, Utrecht 07/12/2002
Tivoli, Utrecht 07/13/2004
Paradiso, Amsterdam 09/03/2008

Cold War Kids
Melkweg, Amsterdam 05/05/2007

Bootsy Collins
North Sea Jazz, Rotterdam 07/11/2008

Consilidated
Dour Festival, Dour 07/09/1994

Robert Cray Band
North Sea Jazz, Den Haag 07/08/2005


Jamie Cullum
North Sea Jazz, Den Haag 07/09/2005
North Sea Jazz, Rotterdam 07/12/2009

The Cult
Goffertpark, Nijmegen 06/05/1993


The Cure
Glastonbury Festival, Glastonbury 06/25/1995

D.A.A.U.
Tivoli, Utrecht 01/27/1996
Crossing Border, Den Haag 10/17/1998

De La Soul
Parkpop, Den Haag 06/29/2003

Dengue Fever
De Beschaving, Utrecht 08/30/2008

Delphic
Kitsuné Maison Party, London 10/31/2009


dEUS
Dour Festival, Dour 07/09/1994
Tivoli, Utrecht 10/07/1994
Paradiso, Amsterdam 02/23/1995
Torhout Werchter, Werchter 07/01/1995
Belfort Festival, Belfort 07/08/1995
Crossing Border, Den Haag 09/11/1996
Tivoli, Utrecht 10/11/1996

Alela Diane
Helling, Utrecht 04/12/2008
Paradiso, Amsterdam 04/08/2009
Helling, Utrecht 07/14/2009


Dr. John
Paradiso, Amsterdam 07/25/2007

Candy Dulfer
Beachpop, Renesse 06/28/1993
North Sea Jazz, Den Haag 07/10/2005 with Sheila E.

De Dijk
Beachpop, Renesse 06/28/1993

Johnny Dowd
Tivoli, Utrecht 02/01/2001

Eek-A-Mouse
Tivoli, Utrecht 12/01/1997

Faith No More
De Kuip, Rotterdam 06/23/1992

Fanfare Ciocarlia
North Sea Jazz, Rotterdam 07/15/2007

Fat Freddy's Drop
Paradiso, Amsterdam 11/26/2009


Ibrahim Ferrer
North Sea jazz, Den Haag 07/08/2005

Fink
North Sea Jazz, Rotterdam 07/11/2008

Forguette Mi Note
Dour Festival, Dour 07/09/1994

Fun-Da-Mental
Glastonbury Festival, Glastonbury 06/27/1997

G. Love and Special Sauce
Metropolis at Zuiderpark, Rotterdam 07/10/1994

Peter Gabriel
Glastonbury Festival, Glastonbury 06/26/1994

Girls Against Boys
Hotel Arena, Amsterdam 10/29/1994

Gomez
Tivoli, Utrecht 07/04/2002

Gotcha!
Beachpop, Renesse 06/28/1993
Bevrijdingspop, Haarlem 05/05/1996


Al Green
North Sea Jazz, Den Haag 07/08/2005

Guns N' Roses
De Kuip, Rotterdam 06/23/1992
Goffertpark, Nijmegen 06/05/1993

Buddy Guy
North Sea Jazz, Rotterdam 07/13/2008

Hallo Venray
Tivoli, Utrecht 12/17/1993

Herbie Hancock and The Headhunters
Glastonbury Festival, Glastonbury 06/29/1998


Roy Hargrove
North Sea Jazz, Rotterdam 07/12/2008

PJ Harvey
Torhout Werchter, Werchter 07/01/1995
Heineken Music Hall, Amsterdam 06/10/2004

Kristin Hersh
Glastonbury Festival, Glastonbury 06/27/1998

Gorky's Zygotic Mynci
Glastonbury Festival, Glastonbury 06/26/1994

Gregory Isaacs
Tivoli, Utrecht 12/09/1994

Joe Jackson
North Sea Jazz, Rotterdam 07/13/2008

Jose James
Tivoli, Utrecht 05/08/2008


Jamiroquai
Glastonbury Festival, Glastonbury 06/24/1995

Molly Johnson
Paradiso, Amsterdam 10/18/2009

Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
North Sea Jazz, Rotterdam 07/12/2008

Junkhouse
Knoninginnenach Spui, Den Haag 04/28/1995
Paard, Den Haag 04/28/1995
Gigant, Apeldoorn 04/29/1995

Jurassic 5
Metropolis, Rotterdam 07/04/1999


Kaizers Orchestra
De Beschaving, Utrecht 08/30/2008

Kelis
Gelredome, Arnhem 08/01/2001

Alicia Keys
North Sea Jazz, Rotterdam 07/13/2008

Killing Joke
Paradiso, Amsterdam 05/18/1996

King Sunny Ade
Parkpop, Den Haag 08/21/1994

Kiss My Jazz
Patronaat, Haarlem 04/27/1996

Kosheen
Crossing Border, Amsterdam 11/21/2000

Lenny Kravitz
Ahoy, Rotterdam 11/15/1991
Ahoy, Rotterdam 11/11/1993
Westerpark, Amsterdam 07/04/2009

Kyuss
Tivoli, Utrecht 02/09/1995

The Levellers
Glastonbury Festival, Glastonbury 06/24/1994

Lightning Dust
Helling, Utrecht 11/27/2009

Live
Glastonbury Festival, Glastonbury 06/24/1995


Los Lobos
Paradiso, Amsterdam 09/21/1999

Luciano
Glastonbury Festival, Glastonbury 06/29/1997


Massive Attack
Glastonbury Festival, Glastonbury 06/27/1997
Vredenburg, Utrecht 06/03/1998
Heineken Music Hall, Amsterdam 04/28/2003
Westerpark, Amsterdam 07/03/2008

Marcus Miller
North Sea Jazz, Rotterdam 07/11/2008

Moondog Jr.
Tivoli, Utrecht 01/27/1996

Van Morrison
Glastonbury Festival, Glastonbury 06/29/1997

Morphine
Glastonbury Festival, Glastonbury 06/25/1995
Crossing Border, Den Haag 09/11/1996


Róisin Murphy
North Sea Jazz, Den Haag 07/10/2005
Heineken Music Hall, Amsterdam 11/21/2008

Me'shell N'degéocello
Glastonbury Festival, Glastonbury 06/25/1994


Youssou N'Dour
Glatonbury Festival, Glastonbury 06/29/1997
Parkpop, Den Haag 06/29/2003
North Sea Jazz, Rotterdam 07/13/2008

Nits
Helling, Utrecht 11/22/2009

Nneka
De Beschaving, Utrecht 08/30/2008

Oasis
Paradiso, Amsterdam 11/25/1994

The Offspring
Metropolis at Zuiderpark, Rotterdam 07/10/1994

Orbital
Glastonbury Festival, Glastonbury 06/25/1994

Ozric Tentacles
Glastonbury Festival, Glastonbury 06/28/1998


Page & Plant
Glastonbury Festival, Glastonbury 06/25/1995
Belfort Festival, Belfort 07/08/1995

Maceo Parker
North Sea Jazz, Den Haag 07/10/2005
North Sea Jazz, Rotterdam 07/15/2007

Pere Ubu
Tivoli, Utrecht 11/28/1998
Helling, Utrecht 10/01/2009


Lee "Scratch" Perry
Tivoli, Utrecht 05/22/2008

Pete Philly & Perquisite
De Beschaving, Utrecht 08/30/2008

Phosphorescent
Paradiso, Amsterdam 05/07/2009

Pink Floyd
De Kuip, Rotterdam 09/05/1994

A Place to Bury Strangers
Helling, Utrecht 08/19/2009

Iggy Pop
Finsbury Park, London 06/23/1996


Portishead
Vredenburg, Utrecht 02/13/1998
Glastonbury Festival, Glastonbury 06/27/1998

Primal Scream
Metropolis at Zuiderpark, Rotterdam 07/10/1994


Prince
De Kuip, Rotterdam 08/18/1988
De Kuip, Rotterdam 06/02/1990
Thialf, Heerenveen 08/05/1990
Ahoy, Rotterdam 07/05/1992
Brabanthallen, Den Bosch 08/09/1993

The Prodigy
Metropolis at Zuiderpark, Rotterdam 07/10/1994
Glatonbury Festival, Glastonbury 06/23/1995

Public Enemy
Belfort Festival, Belfort 07/08/1995

Pulp
Glastonbury Festival, Glastonbury 06/26/1994

Q-Tip
North Sea Jazz, Rotterdam 07/12/2009


Radiohead
Glastonbury Festival, Glastonbury 06/26/1994
Paradiso, Amsterdam 12/04/1995
Glastonbury Festival, Glastonbury 06/28/1997

Rage Against the Machine
Glastonbury Festival, Glastonbury 06/24/1994

Rahzel
Crossing Border, Den Haag 11/22/1997


Red Snapper
Glastonbury Festival, Glastonbury 06/25/1995
Glastonbury Festival, Glastonbury 06/27/1997
North Sea Jazz, den Haag 07/11/1997

R.E.M.
Torhout Werchter, Werchter 07/01/1995


Rollins Band
Glastonbury Festival, Glastonbury 06/24/1994
Dour Festival, Dour 07/09/1994

Mark Ronson
North Sea Jazz, Rotterdam 07/13/2008

Nitin Sawhney
Paradiso, Amsterdam 06/04/2005

The Scene
Torhout Werchter, Werchter 06/30/1995
Patronaat, Haarlem 04/20/1996


Jill Scott
North Sea Jazz, Rotterdam 07/11/2008

Seal
North Sea Jazz, Rotterdam 07/12/2009

Senser
Glatonbury Festival, Glastonbury 06/23/1995


Sex Pistols
Finsbury Park, London 06/23/1996

Ian Siegal
North Sea Jazz, Den Haag 07/08/2005

Paul Simon
North Sea Jazz, Rotterdam 07/12/2008

Mariee Sioux
Helling, Utrecht 04/12/2008

Six Organs of Admittance
Helling, Utrecht 11/27/2009


16 Horsepower
Crossing Border, Den Haag 09/11/1996
Crossing Border, Den Haag 10/17/1998

Skunk Anansie
Finsbury Park, London 06/23/1996

Sly & The Family Stone
North Sea Jazz, Rotterdam 07/15/2007


Patti Smith
Paradiso, Amsterdam 08/18/2005

Snoop Dogg
North Sea Jazz, Rotterdam 07/15/2007


Sonic Youth
Vredenburg, Utrecht 04/17/1996

Soul Asylum
Goffertpark, Nijmegen 06/05/1993

Soul Coughing
Glastonbury Festival, Glastonbury 06/24/1995
North Sea Jazz, den Haag 07/11/1997

Soundgarden
De Kuip, Rotterdam 06/23/1992
Vredenburg, Utrecht 04/09/1994


Spearhead/Michael Franti
Glatonbury Festival, Glastonbury 06/23/1995
Glastonbury Festival, Glastonbury 06/27/1997
North Sea Jazz, Den Haag 07/09/2004

Spin Doctors
Glastonbury Festival, Glastonbury 06/24/1994

Angie Stone
North Sea Jazz, Den Haag 07/09/2004
Paradiso, Amsterdam 08/15/2006

Swell
Tivoli, Utrecht 06/07/1994

Third World
Bevrijdingspop, Haarlem 05/05/1996

13 (feat. Lester Butler)
Crossing Border, Den Haag 11/22/1997

3-11
Glastonbury Festival, Glastonbury 06/24/1995


Tindersticks
Crossing Border, Den Haag 10/07/1999
Vredenburg, Utrecht 10/08/1999
Crossing Border, Amsterdam 11/21/2000
Oosterpoort, Groningen 03/24/2002
Vredenburg, Utrecht 05/01/2008


Tool
Glastonbury Festival, Glastonbury 06/24/1994
Dour Festival, Dour 07/09/1994

Toots And The Maytels
De Helling, Utrecht 06/24/2004

The Tragically Hip
Wisseloord Studios, Hilversum 05/07/1997

Transglobal Underground
Dunya Festival, Rotterdam 05/31/2009

Tricky
Glastonbury Festival, Glastonbury 06/25/1995

Urban Dance Squad
Statenhal, Den Haag 02/10/1995
Tivoli, Utrecht 12/22/1996


U2
Stadion Strahov, Prague 08/14/1997
Gelredome, Arnhem 08/01/2001

Herman van Veen
Luxor, Rotterdam 03/14/2009

Steve Winwood
North Sea Jazz, Rotterdam 07/12/2009

Zion Train
Glastonbury Festival, Glastonbury 06/24/1995

Zita Swoon
Crossing Border, Den Haag 10/17/1998
Paard, Den Haag 12/19/1998

Zuco 103
Wilhelminapark, Utrecht 05/25/2008
Dunya Festival, Rotterdam 05/31/2009

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The Sunday Times guide to today's music scene : Part 2
The Sunday Times guide to today's music scene : Part 3
The Sunday Times guide to today's music scene : Part 4

January 11, 2009

The Sunday Times guide to today's music scene

Ambient I Alt-country I Americana I Anti-folk I Art rock I Blue-eyed soul I Conscious Rap I Electro I Emo I Fence Collective I Folk traditionalist I Folktronica I Freak Folk I Fridmann's Freaks I Gangsta rap I Garage I Grime I Hardcore I Heavy Metal I House I Hip-Pop I Indie rock I Manufactured pop I Montreal scene I Neo-Psychedelia I Nordic pop I Post-rock I Power-pop I Progressive rock I R&B I Second Childhood I Singer-songwriters I Slowcore I Synth pop I Techno


From singer-songwriters like Laura Marling to Techno, Emo and Folktronica: part one of our definitive guide to modern music



MP3 players on shuffle, internet radio communities such as Last.fm and “If you like this, try this” guidance on the web have contributed to a surge in people’s awareness of different musical eras and genres, and to a marked reduction in pop tribalism. These days, it is not only acceptable to admit a partiality to several distinct types of music, it’s positively de rigueur. In this brave new long-tail world, we are on a never-ending journey of discovery, veering off at any number of tangents. With the number of music genres reproducing like rabbits, the journey might become a trek. The most welcome help in such circumstances is a trusty travel guide, to place that journey in context, to make it seem less daunting and more fun (and discovering and buying new music should surely be that). Here, then, in the first part of a weekly series, is Culture’s musical satnav.

INDIE ROCK

Arctic Monkeys, Wild Beasts

Blokes who remember Meat Is Murder (and former riot grrrls, for that matter) grumble and groan when asked about today’s “indie” scene. From the early 1980s to the mid-1990s, the term was a rallying cry not merely for music released on independent British record labels such as Creation, Factory and Rough Trade, but for a DIY ethos and an awkward, oppositional attitude. Fey outsiders from Morrissey to Belle and Sebastian’s Stuart Murdoch, and fierce autodidacts from Mark E Smith to the masked men of Clinic, could rule their own roosts and connect with like-minded souls. Indie was then a way of life; now the word is applied, willy-nilly, to any two-bit guitar band in skinny jeans. Thus, indie has become a marketing category, empty of meaning. Critics call the interchangeably ho-hum tunes of The Kooks, The View, The Wombats, The Pigeon Detectives and their ilk “landfill indie”. How grateful, therefore, were grumpy middle-youths for Sheffield’s Arctic Monkeys, who cussedly signed for an independent label, in Domino, write great songs and cock a snook at the Establishment. Yorkshire, indeed, is a bastion of “proper” indie values, with labels such as Dance To The Radio and bands including the Cribs and Wild Beasts.

ESSENTIAL RECORDINGS

Recent: Arctic Monkeys, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not (2006); The Cribs, Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever (2007); Wild Beasts, Limbo, Panto (2008)

Classic: The Smiths, The Smiths (1984); The Jesus and Mary Chain, Psychocandy (1985); Belle and Sebastian, If You’re Feeling Sinister (1996)

Key track: Arctic Monkeys, When the Sun Goes Down (2006)

BLUE-EYED SOUL

Amy Winehouse, Adele, Duffy

The past two years in music have shown just how commercially potent blue-eyed soul remains, with singers such as Amy Winehouse and Duffy selling millions of albums around the world. A term originally coined in the 1960s to describe white singers and bands — such as the Righteous Brothers, the Rascals and Dusty Springfield — whose sound was indebted to rhythm and blues and Soul music, it first became really big business in the 1970s and 1980s, when David Bowie, Hall & Oates, Rod Stewart, George Michael and Simply Red rode high in the charts with slick, soul-infused hits.

For some, the term will always be synonymous with a dilution of the form; and, at its worst, the genre has certainly lent weight to that argument. The Australian singer Gabriella Cilmi, who had a big hit last year with Sweet About Me, didn’t put a foot wrong in the song, which is a note-perfect facsimile of classic motown — and in a sense, that’s the problem. Yet from Dusty in the late 1960s to Amy today, white artists with real emotional and vocal heft have proved that soul can come from anyone, as long as the song, and the performance, communicates a sense of rapture or pain that is authentic and searing. Now the singer and Mark Ronson collaborator Daniel Merriweather looks set to join the party with his debut album, due in April.

ESSENTIAL RECORDINGS

Recent: Amy Winehouse, Back To Black (2006); Adele, 19 (2008); Duffy, Rockferry (2008)

Classic: Dusty Springfield, Dusty In Memphis (1969); David Bowie, Young Americans (1975); Daryl Hall & John Oates, Daryl Hall & John Oates (1975)

Key track: Amy Winehouse, Love Is A Losing Game (2006)

PROGRESSIVE ROCK

Muse, Radiohead, Secret Machines

To watch Matt Bellamy, the singer and guitarist of Muse, the Devon neo-prog trio, pirouette around a concert stage as notes cascade from his guitar, as his songs become ever more labyrinthine, grandiose and verging on absurdity, and as pyrotechnics explode above the band’s heads, is to witness all the mad splendour of prog rock, alive and well three decades after its heyday (and apparent death at the hands of punk). If, today, original prog dinosaurs such as Yes, Genesis and Emerson, Lake & Palmer are still (sometimes unfairly) the names most often wheeled out as evidence of just how pompous and overblown the genre could be, there is nonetheless a growing appreciation of the way-off-the-scale work of earlier bands such as the Mothers of Invention, King Crimson, Soft Machine and, lest we forget, the pre-megastardom Pink Floyd. Back in the days before prog and art rock were seen as two separate entities, the best practitioners not only justified their mission — to make music of a greater complexity and inventiveness than the standard rock-song format allowed for — with some superb albums, they also pointed the way towards the music of similarly unfettered and adventurous contemporary bands such as Radiohead and Muse.

ESSENTIAL RECORDINGS

Recent: Muse, Absolution (2003); Hope of the States, The Lost Riots (2004); Secret Machines, Now Here Is Nowhere (2004)

Classic: King Crimson, In the Court of the Crimson King (1969); Soft Machine, Third (1970); Yes, Close to the Edge (1972)

Key track: Secret Machines, Atomic Heels (2008)

NEO-SOUL

Alicia Keys, Angie Stone Raphael Saadiq

Long before the likes of Mark Ronson spliced together elements of classic 1970s soul and modern production techniques and rhythms, a new generation of American acts such as Tony! Toni! Toné!, D’Angelo, Lauryn Hill and Erykah Badu took a conscious decision to return to the era’s roots in the music of Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and Donny Hathaway, with a succession of 1990s releases that heralded a rediscovery of first principles — these can be heard in the recent work of artists such as Alicia Keys and Angie Stone, and, in an arguably more opportunistic form, that of Ronson, Duffy et al. Not that the original neo-soul crew were exactly slouches in the sales department: D’Angelo’s superb Brown Sugar album sold more than 2m copies, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill has clocked up a mighty 18m, Baduizm, the debut from Badu, went triple platinum in America and Macy Gray’s On How Life Is was also a multimillion-seller. With bass-heavy grooves, complex harmonies and classic soul instrumentation, these albums opened doors at record labels and radio stations for artists who followed in their wake: Keys, with global album sales in excess of 30m, has been the most obvious beneficiary. Others have not been so fortunate. With Hill clearly in a troubled place, and D’Angelo not having released any new material in eight years, it has been left to others to package up the idea and make off with the spoils. Which is, when you think about it, pretty much the history of black music in a nutshell.

ESSENTIAL RECORDINGS

Angie Stone, Mahogany Soul (2001); Alicia Keys, The Diary of Alicia Keys (2003); Lina, The Inner Beauty Movement (2005)

Key track: D’Angelo, Chicken Grease (2000).

FOLKTRONICA

Tunng, Four Tet, Caribou

As acoustic guitars returned to the fold in the late 1990s, laptops joined them by the campfire. If quiet was the new loud, then some of the sounds would be software-generated. Beth Orton’s stony cooing over gently distressed drums had made her the rave generation’s comedown queen when Four Tet (aka Kieran Hebden) released Pause in 2001. Its skittering brand of hip-hop fidgeted under a warm blanket of strings, and folktronica was born. Hebden refined his formula on Rounds (2003). Caribou’s bucolic reveries and Mira Calix’s spooky sonic collages have developed the more textural aspects of a genre whose co-ordinates aren’t particularly fixed, while songwriters from Adem (Hebden’s former band mate in Fridge) to Peter Broderick, and Juana Molina to Laura Veirs, have made good use of gadgets such as loop pedals and samplers. There’s a case, too, for describing Björk’s album Homogenic — its beats gurgling like geysers — as folktronica-esque. Yet the folk and electronic halves of the equation best add up in the songs of Tunng, where Sam Genders’s dour vocals are dappled by Mike Lindsay’s audio seed bank of buzzes, flutters and squelches.

ESSENTIAL RECORDINGS

Four Tet, Pause (2001); Tunng, Mother's Daughter and Other Songs (2005); Caribou, The Milk of Human Kindness (2005)

Key track: Tunng, Fair Doreen (2005)

ART ROCK

Franz Ferdinand, TV on the Radio, Bloc Party

For as long as real ale is served and beards are worn, grizzlier male music fans will gather in pubs and mutter into their pints about where art rock went wrong. Not for them the jagged, post-punky rhythms of Franz Ferdinand and Bloc Party, both of whom favour music that sits somewhere between the hollow-eyed noir-rock of the velvet underground, the glammed-up artiness of early Roxy Music, the nervy dance music of Talking Heads and the jerky, confrontational experimentalism of Wire. No, what they want is someone who will reconnect the genre with something altogether proggier or more avant-garde. The poster boys for such nostalgists are early Genesis and Pink Floyd, Brian Eno and King Crimson. (You can trace a straight line from Arnold Layne to Psycho killer, but we’ll let that go.) They might like to try Brooklyn’s TV on the Radio. In a sense, each of the genre’s contemporary exponents, no matter how contrasting their road maps, is staying true to art rock’s core raison d’être: to make music that is, as one website puts it, “in the rock idiom . . . appealing more intellectually or musically, that is, not formulated along pop lines for mass consumption”. If that sounds like it rules out hit singles, somebody forgot to tell Franz Ferdinand.

ESSENTIAL RECORDINGS

Recent: Franz Ferdinand, Franz Ferdinand (2004); Bloc Party, Silent Alarm (2005); TV on the Radio, Dear Science (2008)

Classic: Roxy Music, For Your Pleasure (1973); Brian Eno, Here Come the Warm Jets (1974); Talking Heads, 77 (1977)

Key track: TV on the Radio, Shout Me Out (2008)

TECHNO

Richie Hawtin, Robert Hood, Jeff Mills, Speedy J, The Advent, Adam Beyer

When the different electronic genres started to establish themselves in the dance-music boom of the early 1990s, territorialism was rife. If you were a techno person, you probably had a skinhead and would be seen in a house club either dead or under duress from a female. Techno was the music of the future, with sci-fi themes, indescribable noises generated by yanking machines into overdrive and a rigid 4/4 beat structure, with every beat pronounced for ease of dancing. It was acceptable to enjoy both, but the two sounds were, broadly, detroit techno and acid techno. Although the Detroit producers made free use of “acid”, the pinging, metallic tone wrested from the Roland TB-303 bass generator, they also often based tracks on funky basslines, whereas acid techno was predicated on the 303. “gabber”, a harder variant at absurd tempi with doom-laden imagery, developed in Rotterdam, and there were more abrasive strains of German techno, but broadly everyone was happy with the formula. Until several lone producers, including Richie Hawtin and Robert Hood, independently thinking something was getting lost in the maximal approach, took the sound back to basics, and a minimal movement centred on Berlin took root in about 2003. The latest technology could create music with an appealing sense of space; soon, minimal outstripped old-style techno in popularity. Now that the in crowd has moved on to a subtly different style called deep house, techno is likely to beef up again, although the synthetic sound and sense of utter control inherent in minimal made it perhaps the most “techno” music yet.

ESSENTIAL RECORDINGS

Richie Hawtin, DE9: Transitions (2005); Cisco Ferreira aka The Advent, Trinity (2005); Trentemøller, The Trentemøller Chronicles (2007)

Key track: Ricardo Villalobos, Fizheuer Zieheuer (2006)

FENCE COLLECTIVE

King Creosote, James Yorkston, Pictish Trail

The Fence Collective is a bunch of musicians connected to the Fence label and based in or near the fishing village of Anstruther, in the East Neuk of Fife. While Fence emits a folky vibe, its artists also straddle rock, electronica and even mainstream pop. Kenny Anderson used to run a record shop nearby, and, although the shop went bust, his time running it convinced Anderson that there was a vibrant local music scene desperate for some kind of outlet, so he set up Fence. Unlike EMI, say, or Sony BMG, the boss is also perhaps the best artist on the roster; Anderson records his sweet-voiced folk as King Creosote. To underline the family feel of the label, Anderson’s brother Gordon recorded as Lone Pigeon before helping to found The Aliens, and his other brother Ian is a key member of the collective, under the name Pip Dylan. Alongside King Creosote, the collective’s most high-profile member is James Yorkston, whose gorgeous folk songs sound traditional, but are in fact self-penned. Honest-to-goodness pop star KT Tunstall spent some time with the collective before she became famous, and her references to it in interviews helped to attract media attention to this unique and reassuringly DIY musical scene.

ESSENTIAL RECORDINGS

King Creosote, KC Rules OK (2005); James Yorkston, When the Haar Rolls In (2008); Pictish Trail, Secret Soundz (2008)

Key track: King Creosote, You’ve No Clue Do You (2007)

GRIME

Dizzee Rascal, Wiley, Kano, Sway, Lethal Bizzle, GIGGS, Ghetto, Durrty Goodz, Skepta, Chipmunk

It took Britain a while to develop a proper, home-grown answer to America’s all-conquering hip-hop sound. If you take 1979 (the year of Sugarhill Gang’s Rapper’s delight) as the birth year of American rap, then it was more than two decades before a coterie of young producer-MCs in east London came up with grime. It came about as an offshoot of uk garage music, the British urban club sound that combined soulful vocals with jittery rhythms, and it often finds itself lumped in with dubstep, which was being honed at about the same time in south London.

In fact, although the two styles are both in essence offshoots of garage with a lot more bass, grime can be distinguished by its vocal component: yes, grime is musically inventive and versatile, but the rapping is the artists’ calling card. As in the early days of New York hip-hop, grime MCs would gather at club nights for rapping contests or “battles”, which would often be filmed and circulated on DVD. Nowadays, the mixtape has overtaken the battle as the way for new artists to spread the word. The pioneer of grime (his name for the music, eskibeat, did not catch on widely) is Wiley, even if it was his one-time protégé Dizzee Rascal who made the style widely known by winning the Mercury prize with his debut album, Boy in Da Corner, in 2003, then being multiply stabbed the same year; and it is those two who took the style into new territory last year, with their electro grime songs scoring the genre its first No 2 and No 1 singles.

ESSENTIAL RECORDINGS

Dizzee Rascal, Boy in Da Corner (2003); Wiley, treddin’ on thin ice (2004); Sway, This Is My Demo (2006).

Key track: Lethal Bizzle, Pow (Forward) (2004).

AMERICANA

Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, Sufjan Stevens

If you study those end-of-year best-album lists, you’ll have seen the term “americana” a lot recently. Two key Americana releases — Fleet Foxes’ self-titled debut and Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago — were among the most acclaimed albums of 2008, demonstrating the increasing importance of the genre. The first problem you encounter when trying to define Americana is how you separate it from alt-country. Truth be told, the terms are often used interchangeably, and many artists have been described as both. The simplest way to separate the two is to say that alt-country is country that sits outside the current Nashville mainstream, while Americana draws more heavily on the folk tradition, and on those 1960s pop artists and rock bands — notably The Beach Boys and The Band — whose music seemed to evoke an earlier time. Some Americana artists wear their Americanness on their sleeve — notably Sufjan Stevens, with his series of albums each concentrating on one of the American states; others, such as Jim White and The Handsome Family, simply emerge from a peculiarly American sensibility; still others, such as isobel campbell, aren’t American at all. But if it’s rootsy and folksy, and would sound good being played on Bob Dylan’s Theme Time Radio Hour, it’s Americana.

ESSENTIAL RECORDINGS

Recent: Jim White, No Such Place (2001); Fleet Foxes, Fleet Foxes (2008); Bon Iver, For Emma, Forever Ago (2008)

Classic: Woody Guthrie, Dust Bowl Ballads (1940); The Band, The Band (1969)

Key track: Sufjan Stevens, Chicago (2008)

SLOWCORE

Low, Sun Kil Moon, Stina Nordenstam

slowcore began almost as a joke in the early 1990s, when the members of the band Low wondered what would happen if they played very, very quietly and very, very slowly in front of rock crowds used to the noise and energy of grunge. What happened was that they invented an astonishingly powerful musical form, in which, because relatively little is played, every single note and every single space matters. This helps to explain why there are — and will only ever be — a smattering of slowcore artists. Anyone can make an electric guitar sound okay at speed, but when you play only one note every three or four bars, you’d better know what you’re doing. Given the minimal musical backing, one of the key elements of successful slowcore is a captivating voice. Low feature the harmonies of married bandmates Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker; Red House Painters were fronted by the individual vocals of Mark Kozelek, who now leads Sun Kil Moon; while singer-songwriters who have been labelled slowcore (or the virtually interchangeable “sadcore”) also tend to be distinctive vocalists, such as the Swedish singer Stina Nordenstam, with her sadly beautiful little-girl whisper.

ESSENTIAL RECORDINGS

Low, The Great Destroyer (2005); Sun Kil Moon, April (2008); Tram, Frequently Asked Questions (2001)

Key track: Stina Nordenstam, Purple Rain (1998)

R&B

Beyonce, Rihanna, Justin Timberlake

Contemporary R&B — or urban contemporary, as American radio knows it — is not entirely separate from its rhythm-and-blues forebear, but, rather as the original did, it has evolved, in a sort of musical trolley dash, to incorporate pretty much any style (soul, disco, funk, hip-hop, rap and pop) it has found in its path. Today’s leading exemplars, such as Beyoncé, Rihanna and Justin Timberlake, dominate the charts, but do so with music that is often bracingly, and sometimes shockingly, experimental. Indeed, there is an argument for saying that no other mainstream musical genre today is as subversive and left-field as R&B. Hits such as Rihanna’s 2007-dominating Umbrella, or Beyoncé’s Crazy in Love, Deja Vu and now Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It), boast a sonic eccentricity almost unheard of in chart music. Umbrella and Single Ladies both have choruses where minor chords begin to stalk the song, lending the two tracks an unsettling air utterly at odds with the major-key chutzpah of the top lines. Producers such as Timbaland, The Neptunes, Christopher Stewart and Nate “Danja” Hills continue to push the envelope and steer their charges up the charts, making R&B not just one of the most pioneering forces in music today, but one of the most successful, too.

ESSENTIAL RECORDINGS

Amerie, Because I Love It (2007); Rihanna, Good Girl Gone Bad (2007).

Key track: Beyoncé, Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It) (2008)

EMO

My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy

While it’s unlikely that many have sloping fringes and kohl eyeliner in common, emo music fans and Millwall football fans appear to share an anthem: “Nobody likes us and we don’t care.” With brash riffing and bratty vocals, emo deals in teenage angst for kids weaned on the faux-goth Avril Lavigne and pop-punks Green Day. Despite claiming distant kinship with the anti-commercial zealots of us hardcore, it’s slick, self-aware and shifting serious units. These fans suffer for their artists: beaten up, sometimes, for looking “sensitive” and accused, by the Daily Mail, of being a “sinister cult” promoting suicide. Do their heroes repay their loyalty? My Chemical Romance’s motto, Don’t Be Afraid to Live, couldn’t make it clearer that the Mail got the wrong end of the stick. As befits its adolescent concerns, though, emo isn’t comfortable in its own skin. Fall Out Boy’s pin-up, Pete Wentz, worries that he’s “a poster boy for something I don’t even understand”, and all three of emo’s leading bands have edged away from it with their latest albums. Inside, however, the hoodies continue to hum the Panic! At the Disco refrain “Oh, we’re still so young, desperate for attention”. They need a hug.

ESSENTIAL RECORDINGS

My Chemical Romance, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge (2004); Fall Out Boy, From Under The Cork Tree (2005); Panic! At the Disco, A FEVER YOU CAN’T SWEAT OUT (2005).

Key track: Fall Out Boy, Sugar, We’re Goin’ Down (2005).

SINGER-SONGWRITER

Laura Marling, Damien Rice, Ray LaMontagne, Aimee Mann, Cat Power, Ron Sexsmith

Laura Marling’s Mercury nomination for her Alas, I Cannot Swim album underlined that, however weird modern music might get, we always have a soft spot for good old-fashioned singer-songwriters. While everyone who writes and sings their own songs is technically a singer-songwriter, that’s clearly not what the label means. When we think of a singer-songwriter, we think of someone who conforms pretty closely to a template laid down in the 1960s by the likes of Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell and Carole King: they probably play an acoustic guitar (although we would accept a piano), they’re maybe a bit shy (Marling describes playing larger venues as “scary”) and they almost certainly are capable of writing deeper than average lyrics with the ability to illuminate our lives. Since the 2001 rerelease of David Gray’s White Ladder, singer-songwriters have been firmly back in vogue, with Ireland’s Damien Rice and America’s Ray LaMontagne, in particular, plumbing the emotional depths so that we don’t have to. There is a subset of the singer-songwriter genre in which lurk sui generis artists such as Kate Bush and Randy Newman: they don’t quite fit in here, but then they don’t quite fit in anywhere else, and on the rare occasions when they manage to make an album, they’re always welcome. Cat Power has more recently joined their ranks.

ESSENTIAL RECORDINGS

Recent: Laura Marling, Alas, I Cannot Swim (2008); Damien Rice, 9 (2005); Ray LaMontagne, Till The Sun Turns Black (2006)

Classic: Joni Mitchell, Blue (1971); Paul Simon, There Goes Rhymin’ Simon (1973); Neil Young, Harvest (1972).

Key track: Cat Power, The Greatest

Source: The Sunday Times - Culture

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