The Felice Brothers – Favorite Waitress (2014)

It's always fun to hear music that sounds completely new and super innovative, but at least to me, there are many times when I just want to hear good old-school music with all the fun of making music. The Felice Brothers sound like they couldn't care less about sounding different or unique. They're just having fun with music and you can really hear it. I guess this is also explained by the band's history. They started their career by playing on the subways in New York City. Most of their songs are strong in Americana folk and country influences and they haven't put much effort in thinking about sounds for their albums. They just play organic set of instruments that sound like they would do live. They have lots of humorous lyrics and the melodies are simple, yet kind of catchy. It's simple music, but it makes me happy to listen to them.

Fatoumata Diawara – Fatou (2011)

In my youth, the musicians I discovered were largely just from Western Europe or North America (well, also from Australia and New Zealand). Anyway, I didn't really know that much about the music from other continents. Then I moved to London where the diverse atmosphere introduced me to many new artists from all around the world. I also started writing my music scene geography blog, creating playlists of great music from different geographic areas. That's when I broadened my horizons on music big time. When creating the list for Malian music, I came across Fatoumata Diawara. She's a folk musician playing guitar and singing in Wassoulou. Even though the songs are mainly very melodic and beautiful, there's a really good feel for the rhythm in this songs as well.

Art Garfunkel – Fate for Breakfast (1979)

I think it's quite clear that Paul Simon was the better musician of Simon & Garfunkel. I'm not really a huge fan of either chap's solo careers, but at least Paul Simon has made his mark in music history outside the duo as well. I don't think I had ever heard Art Garfunkel's solo stuff before I got this album from my grandma's place among many other vinyl albums. It's interesting that Garfunkel hasn't actually composed any of the songs on this album. Most of the songs on this album are incredibly cheesy. It is appropriately called soft rock by Wikipedia. There are various different album covers for this album, but in each one, Garfunkel is enjoying breakfast in his bath robe. I find it interesting how both Simon and Garfunkel stopped playing folk music after their duet years. They were undoubtedly one of the greatest folk acts ever and then they both replaced the amazing sound with cheesy crap.

Dinosaur Jr. – Farm (2009)

Dinosaur Jr. is one of the loudest bands ever. The trademark of their music is sharp and aggressive overdriven electric guitars and piercing solos. The frontman J Mascis has pretty much written all the songs and he plays the lead guitar and sings. So, he basically is the band. His vocals are fairly laconic and lazy, which is a nice contrast to the aggressive sound of the songs. Farm is the band's first album released by Jagjaguwar record label that has produced numerous fantastic indie records in the last couple of decades. The songs are a bit more approachable than the songs on their 90s and especially 80s albums, but the same general elements are still there. The album cover is one of the coolest ever. The green giant ents are carrying children away from the polluted city. I feel like Dinosaur Jr. has always had bit of an environmentalist approach in their music.