I love discovering new music. I used to spend quite a bit of time browsing record shops. After a while, you got to know the shops—and the people behind the counter. If you were lucky, they shared your taste and would hand you a new release with a firm recommendation to give it a listen.
The internet has made finding music both easier and harder. Easier, because there’s “Similar Artists” on Deezer or “Fans Also Like” on Spotify. If you hear a great song in a bar, you can simply pull your phone out of your pocket and let Shazam identify it. Harder, because there seems to be more music than ever—and not all of it is good. 😉 There’s plenty of stuff that sounds as though it came off the same production line. Now that AI is composing music too, I suspect streaming platforms’ profits will benefit more than musical innovation.
I’ve gathered a selection of albums here that I love and that mean something to me. Perhaps you’ll discover something new to fall in love with—or rediscover an old favourite you’d forgotten about. The temptation to include more was strong, but to keep things manageable, I gave myself one rule: just one song per artist. Did I say finding music was hard? It turns out that limiting myself is even harder… especially when an artist or band has made several fantastic records.
Happy browsing!