Tastes:I think I’m going to keep this brief this time as I don’t get the impression many people read this anyways.
I’ve actually recently been testing out a more quantitative rating system for albums that focuses on the aspects of music I enjoy the most, and the best albums tend to score highly in at least two to three of these, if not more.
Intensity: Covers both how literally heavy the music is as well as how emotionally intense it is; for metal these tend to go hand in hand but for other genres that’s obviously not the case; the point though is that I like music that evokes strong feelings from me, whether they be strong feelings of sadness or music that sounds like it wants to eviscerate me. I don’t like angry music much, though.
Memorability: Possibly the most important one here. If a song doesn’t have something to get stuck in my head, it’s gonna be hard to really care about it in the long run. This can be a catchy chorus, an excellent riff, a great bassline, basically anything. I want music that forces itself to play back on repeat in my head all day and makes me want to listen to it more as a result.
Technicality: Obviously this doesn’t apply to all genres of music, but being technically interesting is almost absolutely a requirement for being one of my favorite albums, I want music that I can pick apart and continue to find new and interesting details about even after a dozen listens or more. Pushing this too far though almost always tends to come at the expense of all the other factors here, though.
Groove: If I’m not feeling strong emotions from a song, I at least want to feel some groove, something that makes me bob along to the beat or gives me a reason to really feel the song in some way. This often goes hand-in-hand with memorability but it’s way more driven by the instrumentation than the vocals.
Variety: This covers a lot of things as well; if individual songs don’t do enough to stand out from each other, they’re all going to blend together and fail to be memorable in any way, and even if all the songs are distinct, if each song is very one-note it’s going to bore me quick. I like songs with dynamics, songs with some unique quirk to them that make them feel like they deserve to exist. Again, pushing this too far can come at the cost of song or album cohesion, though.
As far as these apply to my tastes, I can just point to what I’d consider to be my current top 5 albums and how they stack up;
East of the Wall – The ApologistPain of Salvation – The Perfect Element IOceansize – FramesThrice – BeggarsThe Hirsch Effekt – Holon : AnamnesisMy opinions on such may change in the future but for now I think this is the best way I can describe my preferences in music.
I’m also going to do an open Q&A before the first round where you all can ask me questions about my musical preferences & I will add that to this post afterwards.