Xavi's garden

Music

03 Oct 20255 min read

I absolutely adore music. One of the best things out there.

I use Spotify and foobar2000 to listen. I’m a bit of an audio nerd, so here’s a dropdown with my setup.

Artists

Recommendations are usually albums. I’ll only rec an artist if I’ve listened to everything they’ve put out, or they’re just that good.

alt-J

Banger after banger. Tender at points.

Recs: The Dream (very very well-mastered), This Is All Yours, An Awesome Wave, RELAXER. All very good.

PJ Harvey

Seriously good music. I only know Dry and Rid of Me well enough to comment, and they’re both excellent.

Grimes

Just so good. Electronic perfection.

Recs: Visions, Art Angels, Geidi Primes, Miss Anthropocene

Jockstrap

Goes hard.

Recs: I Love You Jennifer B (unbelievably good), Wicked City, Love Is The Key to the City, Acid (single).

Radiohead

They’re popular for a reason.

Recs: OK Computer, In Rainbows, The Bends, Kid A.

MF DOOM

Yeah, he’s that good. Best rap lyrics I’ve heard.

Recs: Operation: Doomsday, Madvillainy, MM..FOOD.

Neutral Milk Hotel

Incredible. These songs have a lot of history for me. Most likely to set me off crying out of any artist on here.

Recs: In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, On Avery Island.

James Blake

Electronic wizardry with great mastering. Gives me shivers.

Recs: James Blake (hooly moly), Overgrown, The Colour In Anything. Newer stuff less good.

Kynsy

I like it.

Recs: Things That Don’t Exist EP, Something To Do With Love.

Do Nothing

Great songs. Bitingly sardonic lyrics.

Recs: Snake Sideways, Zero Dollar Bill, Glueland EP. Basically their whole discography.

Tame Impala

Also popular for a reason.

Recs: The Slow Rush, Currents, Lonerism.

Julia Jacklin

Very well-written songs. Poignant.

Recs: PRE PLEASURE, Crushing.

Billie Eilish

I just really like her songs. They always sound good, which counts for a lot.

Recs: HIT ME HARD AND SOFT, Happier Than Ever, everything i wanted (single), WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO, dont smile at me.

Rubblebucket

Excellent vibes. Surprisingly hard-hitting at times.

Recs: Earth Worship, Sun Machine (especially Party Like Your Heart Hurts and Formless and New, but the whole thing’s good), Year Of The Banana

Kendrick Lamar

I’d be surprised if you need me to tell you this one. Just go listen to any of his albums

Recs: Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, How to Pimp a Butterfly, good kid, m.A.A.d city

Talking Heads

Unbelievably tight lyrics at points. David Byrne was very good at poking fun when he wrote these.

Recs: Remain in Light, Speaking in Tongues, True Stories

Albums

I’m privileging albums whose artists aren’t in the Artists section above.

Anima, Francesca Belmonte

Dry, PJ Harvey

Also listen to Rid of Me

Doolittle, Pixies

Untrue, Burial

loveless, my bloody valentine

The Comforts of Madness, Pale Saints

Rumours, Fleetwood Mac

Strange Mercy, St. Vincent

St. Vincent (album) is also very good.

Rooty, Basement Jaxx

Violator, Depeche Mode

Placebo, Placebo

Feels.

Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We? - The Cranberries

The Stone Roses, The Stone Roses

Hot Fuss, The Killers

Also Day & Age from them too.

Their early albums carry heavy nostalgia for me. We had them ripped to a couple CDs in the car when I was little so the lyrics are ingrained deep into my psyche.

Revolver, The Beatles

Imaginal Disk, Magdalena Bay

Great electronic music and voice glitching.

Violent Femmes, Violent Femmes

hexed!, aya

evil-adjacent, according to Gavin. I’d say it’s a little more playful than that but close. Really bloody good.

Jewellery, Micachu & The Shapes

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Kanye West

More Reality, Urban Blight

Thanks to Charmaine Lee for telling me about this one.

SAYA, Saya Gray

I think I got this from Claire Wang?

Shades, Good Sad Happy Bad

Same people as Micachu & The Shapes, different direction. Excellent album.

I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU, JPEGMAFIA

Bangs.

10,000 gecs, 100 gecs

Yeahh it good.

The Money Store, Death Grips

Memories of headbanging in an almost-Welsh fields with friends. Really high quality.

Linked to hexed, I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU, and 10,000 gecs in my mind.

Songs

I’m daunted by the very prospect of creating this. Here’s a copy of my Liked Songs from Spotify as a proxy.

Playlists

This one playlist called Reference by Jake Cheriff has the highest concentration of excellent indie songs that I’ve ever seen. It’s 12 hours long. Listen through the whole thing to find new artists to adore.

This one from Kynsy is also ridiculously-high SNR.

I also create a new playlist each month to keep track of all the new songs I find and obsess over. You can find links to all of those here.

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