As the Eclectic Mix Lists project grows, I’m reminded of why I got so passionate about it in the first place.
Every contribution from our group is amazing. There are few things I love more than discovering new music, and the fact that multiple people are regularly adding songs to This Week’s Eclectic Mix List makes me soooo happy.
But the best part? Finding those 💎 gems.
The reason I’ve commandeered the 💎 emoji is because the whole point of this project, for me, is to find those truly unique creators & masterpieces.
I truly love all genres of music. I listen to music more than almost anyone I know. And I’ve realized a deep, non-obvious truth about it all:
there are some artists who stand out completely separate from the rest.
Even in a world with more great music than we could ever hope to listen to, some musicians create in a way that transcends everything else around them.
They aren’t a “rock band” or a “rap group” or anything else that they seem to be.
Their work is truly unique.
Some great examples of 💎 artists & albums
Queen transcended the world of rock by experimenting with other genres, taking risks and earning a massive, enduring fan base along the way.
Norah Jones’ Come Away With Me (2002) is a start-to-finish miracle of singer-songwriter jazz.
the olllam’s 2012 self-titled debut album is 43 minutes of Celtic post-rock magic.
Galimatias’s Renaissance Boy (2020) weaves an ongoing thread of audible iridescence through every song.
Busty and the Bass’s Eddie and My Morning Jacket’s The Waterfall II. Dire Straits’ 1991 On Every Street.
Féloche. Catastrophe. Polo & Pan. Mô’ti Tëi. Elias Wallace. Hannah Aurora. Fat Freddy’s Drop. Elephanz.
I actually get a little overwhelmed trying to list them all out. 😂 but I’m doing it on Best Albums of the Year.
The punchline: All music is great. Some is seriously underrated.
No matter what genres you’re into, no matter whether you’re into “the popular stuff” or “the underground stuff,” we can all agree one one thing:
There are good artists, great artists, and top-of-the-game artists.
The kind of musical creations I’m in search of are incredibly hard to describe. I may have just failed in 500 words.
But we all know them when we hear them.
It’s the song that makes you stop what you’re doing, to send it to 2 friends—or 10.
It’s the album you can’t stop listening to.
The artist you’ll see live, anywhere you can.
What’s catching your ear this week?
Show it to us:
Originally published @October 11, 2021
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