4 votes

Help needed narrowing down the qualities of these songs that I like so much

I've been building a playlist of songs that I would classify as, for lack of a better term, "cool" songs. The word is extremely subjective and based on my personal experience, of course. But the best way I would describe these songs would be: if I imagine myself riding in a car with a friend, and he/she puts on a playlist to show off some new music discoveries, these would be songs that I hear for the first time and think, "damn, that is a cool song."

Most of the songs that I'm about to list have similar qualities, but there are some exceptions. I know all of these songs by heart, so my objective is to find new songs that fit these obscure qualities. Also, I'd really like to know what exactly is causing me to call these songs "cool".

The songs (with Spotify links):

Now, you're instantly thinking: 5 out of 6 of these are songs from the 90's from groups that all probably ran in the same circles and shared pedal board setups backstage. There's probably a lot of truth to that. Aside from that theme though, here's what I've identified:

  • Typically the sound is lo-fi.
  • There's some sort of funky beat/rhythm. The drums are probably electronic.
  • Many of these songs feature buildups into a powerful chorus or ending
  • There may be vocal distortion or other effects
  • Usage of electronics
  • There's a dark/minor/modal sound to them
  • Maybe there's a bit of industrial tie-in?
  • The singers are closer to monotonous than all over the octaves

And that's all I've got so far. I've been thinking about this a lot and would love to discover some more music to fit into this theme. I want to be clear that I do NOT think this should just be a 90's playlist... unless that just happens to be where all of these songs exist.

3 comments

  1. cfabbro
    (edited )
    Link
    Even though not all your example tracks are Trip Hop ones, they do all seem to share a lot of the same qualities of the genre, so RYM's Trip Hop genre page is probably a good place to start...

    Even though not all your example tracks are Trip Hop ones, they do all seem to share a lot of the same qualities of the genre, so RYM's Trip Hop genre page is probably a good place to start looking:

    Trip hop is a style of Downtempo that emerged from the Bristol underground in the early 1990s. Although it shares the constant, repetitive beats of downtempo, trip hop is texturally a little busier, featuring Hip Hop-influenced beats that evoke a surreal, trippy, dreamy, and sometimes dark atmosphere, as well as both live and electronic instrumentation. Other common features include offbeat turntable scratches, vocal melodies, and usually a mellow tempo in 4/4. Although some (particularly earlier) trip hop is instrumental or features rapped vocals, the genre often employs light, sometimes ethereal female vocals influenced by Contemporary R&B and Soul, with lyrical themes being abstract and metaphorical.

    And speaking of which, IMO Portishead, Massive Attack, Gorrilaz, Björk, and UNKLE, would probably be up your alley.

    Regardless, you have good taste in music. :) I dig all those tracks, and bands. I still listen to Prodigy and RTJ regularly, but haven't heard White Town, Lo Fi Allstars, or the Eels in ages. I bought the CD for Beautiful Freak back when it first came out, and listened to it on repeat for weeks on end.

    Edit: A few more random tracks/bands (not trip hop ones), off the top of my head, that I think you may also dig:
    Cornershop - Brimful Of Asha, Norman Cook Mix
    Speaking of Norman Cook, Fatboy Slim ft. Bootsy Collins - Weapon Of Choice
    The Chemical Brothers - Block Rockin' Beats
    Pierre Henry - Psyché Rock

    3 votes
  2. [2]
    NaraVara
    Link
    Have you tried just using Pandora for a while? Once you plug in the songs you want to create stations for and tell it what you like for a bit it starts to infer the common elements of the songs...

    Have you tried just using Pandora for a while? Once you plug in the songs you want to create stations for and tell it what you like for a bit it starts to infer the common elements of the songs you favor.

    3 votes
    1. CptBluebear
      Link Parent
      To tie into this, Plex Music has an integration with ChatGPT that allows you to ask for a specific, sound, mood, genre, etcetera, and it will produce a playlist for you. It's kinda cool how that...

      To tie into this, Plex Music has an integration with ChatGPT that allows you to ask for a specific, sound, mood, genre, etcetera, and it will produce a playlist for you. It's kinda cool how that works.

      There's services, like Pandora, that can really facilitate OP's request.

      2 votes