blotthis

Lately, I've largely been listening to ambient or ambient-like music, because when I'm not working, I'm working. :upsidedownsmiley: As mentioned elsewhere, I've adored the Monument Valley soundtracks for this, as well as the Disco Elysium OST, which I think, even aside from its efficacy as a focus-machine, might be one of my new favorite albums. Highly recommend. 

I've played those two (four) games, so that may be a key part of my enjoyment. Maybe? I've also found that the Skyrim: Elder Scrolls V and The Witcher game soundtracks work pretty well, and I haven't played either. I've additionally bounced off of Hades I (game I have played), Katamari Damacy, Night in the Woods, Expedition 33, and Death Stranding (games I haven't), and the Game of Thrones soundtracks (show I haven't).

Who knows. queenlua gave me an excellent reco for Emancipator, which has been going great! If any of you are also looking for that sweet spot of propulsive-but-background that video game music can be excellent for, here's a non OST contender.

Outside of video game OSTs and their alikes, I relistened to three albums recently, on the strength of Really Loving a Track or Two. In the cases of Zach Bryan's Zach Bryan and NakamuraEmi's Nippon no Onna wo Utau Best, I barely remembered the album, but had come to love a track or two so deeply I felt nearly certain I probably just hadn't been ready for it. 

Wrong in both cases! Both albums are fine. I might come back to ZB again, someday, for one more 'gain, but I suspect I've pulled the greats off of it. For those curious, the tracks in question are, from ZB, "East Side of Sorrow," which made me cry every time I heard it for a week (personal problem); and "Hey Driver," a terrific collaboration with the War and the Treaty; and from NakamuraEmi, "I," which slaps.  

I'm doing my yearly "listen to all my likes in alphabetical order," which has taken me, at this point, to the Ms. Last month, I rediscovered Tracy Grammer's "Hey Ho," and was like oh hey. Let me get some more of that! So I turned to Flower of Avalon, that album it appears on. I was really hoping to love this album as well, and I really love "Laughlin Boy" and "Preston Miller," but we didn't hit the majority-bangers rule that makes an album a favorite. That said, damn, T. Grammer can sing. Voice like if a campfire was a drink of water, if you know what I mean.

Mitski has a new album out! Have I listened to it? No, I have not. Instead, I relistened to Puberty 2, the album she released prior to Be the Cowboy, which IS (according to me), majority bangers. In this case, I'd sincerely forgotten how many songs I loved were on this one. "Happy," obviously, and "Your Best American Girl," but this is where "Thursday Girl," "A Burning Hill," and "I Bet on Losing Dogs" live! I'd moved them earlier in my mind! Someday I'll listen to Bury Me at Makeout Creek! I don't love this album as much as I do Cowboy, but it was reallly interesting to listen to it all the way through post-Cowboy, as the last time I'd done it, Puberty had just come out. Cowboy's production values and poppier songs came as a surprise to a lot of Mitski's listeners, and to the critical apparatus at the time, as I remember it, but it's fascinating to see how much they have in common. "A Burning Hill," the less-than-two-minutes album closer, for example, reminds me of nothing so much as "Pink in the Night," a nearly less-than-two-minutes track from Cowboy, and both are two of my favorite Mitski songs ever. There might be something in the shortness that particularly fits how she likes to play with structure--to build it up, and then leave it unfulfilled. Finally, of course I spent a lot of Puberty thinking about "Geyser," another favorite track from Cowboy, and one of the few on that album that used the fuzzy sounds from her previous ones. I should really listen to the newest. They are telling me it has guitars in. 

Anyway. I am requesting music recs, both of instrumental-only, and/or music from the past (checks watch) five years? or ever? that you love? (I particularly love when people are getting at least a little weird with it, although that isn't a hard and fast rule.)