celeste.is listening

Not a complete list!

Favorites

Beach House | I saw them at an outdoor show on a beach when I was irresponsibly high and it was drizzling while the sun was out and I swear I reached a new plane of existence. Great on vinyl too
Better Oblivion Community Center | such sad music, so good
Big Red Machine | Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) + Aaron Dessner (The National) sounding just as good as you'd expect, recently ft. some Taylor Swift, whom I also love
Billie Eilish | you already know who she is - consistently excellent
Bon Iver | the original indie king of my era, plus Vernon seems like a cool guy. I saw a dance show once set to original music by them and really enjoyed it
CHVRCHES | I remember when their first album came out, I listened to it on repeat for weeks. What a sound!
Car Seat Headrest | really channeled the energy of a really angsty moment in my life. Can be quite beautiful, especially There Must Be More Than Blood
Enya | Look, it's Enya. She is a queen, she is a goddess
Fleet Foxes | such lovely harmonies
Hozier | I can listen to his whole discography and love every bit, and in fact I have quite a few times
Janelle Monae | great music and she just seems like the coolest person ever kind of?
Kishi Bashi | I saw him at a classic venue where he showed such mastery of violin and loop pedal, and after the show he came down to the crowd and had us form a circle around him, just him and his violin, totally acoustic, and had us sing parts together while he played. Honestly it was a spiritually transcendent moment.
Massive Attack | I found them through them being the House theme song. Basically invented trip hop. Incredible sound, very 90s, Mezzanine is my favorite album
Michigander | I love this guy's music and his energy live is incredible. East Chicago is still my favorite, but all albums are worth a list
Mitski | perhaps the ultimate sad girl music, saw her live a few years ago and really enjoyed the show, very mellow
Perfume Genius | bombastic and incredible. I saw him live a few years ago and it was a positively cosmic experience
Phosphorescent | my favorite song always is Song for Zula. I sang it to my cats when they were little and now it calms them down if they're nervous.
Public Service Broadcasting | a recent favorite, especially Blue Heaven, which makes for a great Spotify radio seed
Purity Ring | sort of like what Grimes would be if Grimes was good
SAULT | nobody knows anything about them except that they consistently put out excellent music
Slowdive | canonical shoegaze and their recent self-titled was one of my best live shows ever
Taylor Swift | how is she so good??? Queen of my Spotify Wrapped and it's not even close
The Mountain Goats | this is mostly John Darnielle, great fun live. Distinctive voice, and he recorded early albumns on a cassette deck
The National | interesting time signatures, great music, not very good live
The Strokes | the ultimate early 2000s song, really definitive for me in high school
Wendy Carlos | my cassette of Switched On Bach was one of the first albums that had a profound emotional impact on me. Pioneer of the first synth music, including the superb original Tron soundtrack
Wolf Alice | super cool sound, good albums

Other Good Music

Alexi Murdoch | twangy soulful guitar guy. Feels like music you'd listen to after the end of the world, which is roughly now anyway
Arcade Fire | even more early 2000s
Beck | we mostly know him for his Windows XP Media Player inclusion, and (apparently concluded?) foray into Sc*entology, but he also has a pretty decent sound
Bully | kind of a garage-y grungy sound, angry girl vibes if you're looking to channel that
Cherry Glazerr | I saw her live, I think as an opener? Great show regardless, synthy rock
Chrome Sparks | I really only know Attack Sustain Release, but it's super good. Has a bit of a Perfume Genius vibe
Cloud Nothings | also garage-y, great rhythms, I swear I lost like 10% of my hearing at a basement show of theirs, which was almost worth it
Death Cab for Cutie | my early 2000s is showing
Django Django | kind of Republic Tigers-y, fun
FISHER | incredibly dancy, You Little Beauty is irresistible
Girlpool | cool art girl music, Cut Your Bangs is a good selection
Japanese Breakfast | even more sad girl music, ethereal lately
Jesca Hoop | especially Animal Kingdom Chaotic
Julia Holter | ethereal sad girl, synthy
Julien Baker | even more so
King Princess | poppy and electronic, and a good time
Linea Aspera | sparkly synthy with sort of IO Echo vibes?
Lorde | the maori version of her latest album is much better than the english one, but otherwise she's had very of-the-moment well done albums
Lucy Dacus | are you seeing the sad girl pattern yet?
MIA | like everyone else, I basically only know Paper Planes, but worth a mention just for that
MUNA | been into them for ages, some of the earlier dark pop or whatever the micro genre is called?
Muse | along with Muse, whose album Absolution was stuck in my very broken car's CD deck so I still know all the songs. Not a bad CD to be stuck like that, honestly
My Bloody Valentine | great shoegaze, but when I saw them live their mixing was so so bad, I think it was the venue's fault though
Neutral Milk Hotel | look I know this is basically the Garden State soundtrack but that was pretty good actually?
Orbital | the best song on the very good Hackers (1995) soundtrack is theirs: Halcyon and On and On. Belfast also worth a listen
Phoebe Bridgers | classic sad girl music and delightfully in my range. Listening feels like reading Joan Didion
Radiohead | really just classic, right? OK Computer is seminal
SBTRKT | I only know NEW DORP. NEW YORK but it's such a banger
SOPHIE | wild experimental but good to listen to (a rare combination) electronic - she was a genius, RIP
Sharon Van Etten | more good sad girl music
Sleater-Kinney | classic riot grrl
Snail Mail | more of that sad girl stuff, the first artist in the genre I really got into
St. Vincent | mostly Masseduction but generally rad
Tacocat | riot grrl-ish as well
Teen Daze | mellow electronic vibes. I saw this guy at a grungy broken venue by the freeway and had a great time
The Naked and Famous | a great early 2010s sound, Hearts Like Ours is a great track
The Shins | in that same vein, and have I seen them live? Maybe?
The Smiths | need I say more
The Tallest Man on Earth | I don't know exactly why I like this guy who always sings at like, the top of his range, but I do. Kind of Alexi Murdoch-y
Tomo Nakayama | feels like the next wave of whatever chillwave was doing, nice and synth-y
Tove Styrke | On the Low and Sway are is such pretty songs
Ty Segall | fun rock-ish distortion-y music - Every 1's a Winner is good example