My music hall of fame

Music holds an important part of my life. I listen to a lot of different genres, constantly. Nonetheless, I'm not such a digger: I think I have pretty broad tastes but they're fairly conventional. Also, I don't know a lot of contemporary stuff. If you dig a majority of songs that were made between the 50s and 80-90s, blues, jazz, progressive, drum and devilish bass riffs, we should get along well.

What about my music consumption, though? Back in the good ol' days, I started listening to some of my parents' old tapes and CDs. It kinda began with Dire Straits, The Doors, The Police... Then, God knows how many albums I downloaded... I also spent a fair amount of time scrolling through Rate Your Music.

Now, in this streaming era, I think I've found many new titles, thanks to the algorithm. But, at the expense of albums and artists. Is it our world-weariness? In response, I terminated my Spotify subscription a year ago. Now, I'm trying Qobuz with an album-centred approach.

So, here are some lists of my all time favourites. I also post small thoughts on Crucial Tracks, if you're interested.

🎉 And then there were ten

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If I had to keep only ten artists I know well...

The Grateful Dead: Maybe the group I love the most, honestly. They're perfect in so many ways.
Pink Floyd: Legendary. They were my gateway to progressive rock. But not just any gate. An astonishing one, like Rodin's The Gate of Hell.
Genesis: Masterpieces during the Gabriel / Hackett era. A masterful switch to Phil Collins. Genesis defines success. And I freaking love Supper's Ready...
Neil Young: His music makes me float like none other. I bless the day I listened to Harvest for the first time, magical.
The Who: A punch. By the strength of some of their songs and by the subtlety and complexity of their concept-albums like Quadrophenia.
Dire Straits: I discovered rock music with Dire Straits. Do I need to say more?
Nino Ferrer: A outstanding artist. Some of his works are hidden gems, touching perfection.
Stevie Ray Vaughan: To represent blues music, I could have written B.B. King, Clapton... But the one I've listened to the most is, indeed, SRV.
Renaud: He's gonna stay with me til' the end! I've been listening to Renaud since I'm a child. I know 3/4 of his old repertoire by heart.
Amon Düül II: A worthy representative of Krautrock and my favourite German band.

⏳ Progressive rock

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Let’s start with my favourite albums that are directly or indirectly related to progressive rock and all its sub-genres, such as Krautrock and the Canterbury scene…

Check out this list on Album Whale!

🇫🇷 French and French speaking albums

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My favorite French-language albums — I’ve tried to limit myself to just one per artist. I realize I’ve included very few recent ones… But if you browse through this page a bit, you’ll start to see that's a pattern.

Check out this list on Album Whale!

🎷 All that Jazz

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I've been listening to jazz records for a while but I haven't spent that much time digging. In a way, I'm discovering jazz music right now. It's a blast.

Check out this list on Album Whale!

🐰 Psychedelic rock

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Classical psychedelic rock and other newer stuff, sometimes borderline dreampop, shoegaze... Whatever. Might evolve a lot. Oh, and I didn't find Moon Blood by Fraction anywhere. But it's a damn fine album.

Check out this list on Album Whale!

💿 Some playlists

Teen-movies

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I love teen-movies, especially from North America. Obviously, this genre comes with a bunch of iconic musics. Here's a quick selection, either its from a movie or associated to this vibe, in my mind.