[Sambones]

Sufjan Stevens is either hit or miss. In the two albums I have of his (A Sun Came and Seven Swans), about half the songs are listenable. In particular, though, "A Winner Needs a Wand" and "Dumb I Sound" are excellent. Pandora is normally pretty helpful, but it's been thoroughly useless with this, so I figured I'd ask actual people.

"A Winner Needs a Wand" has perfect use of a distorted guitar, with fast enough pace to make his whispered singing style actually interesting. In both songs, though, the drums and other peripheral instruments are incredible. They're almost like backup singers the way they're played. The distorted flute is probably something I'm not going to hear from anyone else, though.

The lyrics are a bit nonsensical, but they're coherent enough to not be distracting from the music. I generally don't like "break-up" music, and the lyrics in "Dumb I Sound" do come off as a bit whinny, but in the end it's OK.

"Jason" and "Ya Leil" also have some of that instrumental experience, and would also be good examples of what I am trying to find more of. Based on that, does anyone have any recommendations?

 

[floydenheimer]

Maybe check out Cloud Cult's Meaning of 8? I think has some songs on there similar to what you're describing.

 

[Sambones]

Thanks, I'll check it out when I get home.

 

[givemevinyl]

Well, Beth Orton virtually created the "folktronica" sub-genre.

 

[Hipstergarabe]

I'm confused as to how you have two Sufjan Stevens albums, and they aren't Greetings From Michigan, The Great Lakes State and Illinois. Get those. Nao.

 

[headibob]

You will be surprised. I usually type in my favorite songs, and pandora.com would give me similiar songs, most I like. Then I would go get those CDs. My latest find: Portuguese Fado

 

[Signal2Noise]

Caribou comes to mind. I have their two CDs and enjoy them. Also +1 to the Beth Orton recommendation but her albums do vary in style.

Let me google that for you

 

[FalconP]

Check out Caroline Lavelle...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJWpgnY1B0E

... and Steve McDonald

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G61AmCqtzN4

 

[leveller1642]

Tunng?

+ YouTube Video​

ERROR: If you can see this, then YouTube is down or you don't have Flash installed.

Psapp?

+ YouTube Video​

ERROR: If you can see this, then YouTube is down or you don't have Flash installed.

 

[Sambones]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hipstergarabe /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'm confused as to how you have two Sufjan Stevens albums, and they aren't Greetings From Michigan, The Great Lakes State and Illinois. Get those. Nao.

Actually, Pandora is responsible for that. I guess, I heard some songs I liked on those albums, so I purchased them. I already plan on getting at least the "Illinois" album, and I maybe I'll get the "Michigan" album as well. I haven't heard anything truly remarkable on the latter, but from the former, "Chicago", "Casimir Pulaski Day", and "John Wayne Gracey,Jr." are great. Maybe more listens are in order.

I'm in the final stretches before finals, so I don't know how much listening time I'll have for new music, but so far I'm liking what I've heard from Cloud Cult and Tunng, but I haven't listened to much more than that.

And, Signal2Noise, Lala.com's recommendations for bands are probably more helpful than anything from google. Nonetheless, lmgtfy is always good for a laugh, especially when the thing someone is asking about is the first entry.