With Fall around the corner I am looking for some new music to drive to and take long walks with. I listen to a lot of music but find myself returning to many of the same records. Most are sonically complex and feature lots of layers. I like the fact that I feel like I hear something new after the 1000th listen of the Fragile.


Many of these are 90s albums. I feel like there was so much creativity and “realness” in music compared to today.


I will list some of my favorites to give you an idea and hopefully introduce someone else to some great stuff.
The cream of the crop
Aphex Twin – Selected Ambient Works II – The album that got me into Ambient – those soundscapes!!!
Bjork – Homogenic - electronic / drums / strings - feel warm and icy cold at the same time
Marilyn Manson – Mechanical Animals – Perhaps a guilty pleasure? MM is what he is, but this album is gorgeous!! I love the production down to the little segues/interludes between songs

A Perfect Circle – Mer De Noms / Thirteenth Step – great headphone music
NIN – TDS through Still – Do I need to elaborate?
Pj Harvey – To Bring You My Love – PJ is a force of nature. Great bass sounds.
Portishead – Dummy – love the “dusty” and soulful sound of this album. It sounds old and comtemporary at the same time
Radiohead – OKC through Amnesiac – anyone who wonders why Radiohead are treated like gods, proceed to this trilogy
Smashing Pumpkins – Siamese Dream through Adore – those guitars!!! Adore was every bit as brave a change in direction as Kid A
Sonic Youth – Dirty – wish fulfillment! Drunken butterfly!!
Tool – Aenima / Lateralus - Amazing
Tricky – Pre Millenium Tension / Maxinquaye - Maxinquaye is the sexiest album EVER. PMT is so claustrophic and paranoid sounding.
U2 – Achtung Baby / Zooropa – Flood has the magic touch
Unkle – Psyence Fiction – criminally underrated


Other amazing stuff:
Those piano pieces on Aphex Twins Drukqs
Verspertine
Bowie’s Low – ENO!!!
Dave Navarro – Trust no one – a hidden gem
Dredg – El Cielo – the most underrated band on the planet – amazing live performers as well
Explosions in the sky – the earth is not a cold dead place
Godspeed you black emperor
Mark Lanegan – Bubblegum – he has a very strange discography – either good or not so
Nearly
Puscifer
Queens of the Stone Age
Tweaker
Twilight Singers – Powder Burns – some great stuff on here – another hidden Gem
Kranky ambient – Stars of the lid – winged victory for the sullen


Tried , but can’t get into (and should maybe give another chance)
Flying Lotus
Grizzly Bear
The Knife
The Mars Volta
Arcade Fire

What am I missing? There has got to be some great stuff out there obscured by all the pitchfork hipster stuff….