Thanks, a lot to go through, and I will do so at my own pace. ^3^ (I did happen to attempt to listen to Be by Common before. Though one the early songs "Go" I found silly (in a bad way) sounding, so I stopped early. Though maybe I'll give it another shot. I've liked albums that I didn't on my first listen before. So we'll see.) Like I said, appreciate the large pool you gave me. :3

Edit: I just decided to start listening to everything in order, to see how many I can get through. Not gonna lie unfamiliar with Ween, but "I'll be your johnny on the spot" is pretty damn enjoyable track, and right now it kind of reminds me of the Beatles on far more drugs...Will give my overall feelings of the albums once finished with all of them.

I am going to ask everyone to put youtube videos in hiders from now on. I’m getting extreme latency issues on the previous page due to the videos enmasse. I would also like Sleeping Silence to remove the quote from Fabricant to avoid latency hikes on this page. Thank you.

@Inkarnate If you mention us, we'd get the message quicker. Just saying. :3

But I will do so. For you. ;P Put it in a hider.

@Fabricant451 Well I'm half done with your suggestions, overall I'm grateful for your suggestions. Found a lot of good music, I probably wouldn't of found myself. Here's some of my thoughts of them and will post opinion of the 2nd half eventually. It's a lot of music to go through. :P

Ween – I liked it. (My favorite album thus far.) I'd call it enjoyable, unique and interesting music. Brilliant and purely positive lyrical writing? Not as sure about that. “The Blarney Stone”/ “Cold Blows The Wind” are kind of dark lyrically in particular. “Waving My Dick In The Wind” Instantly reminded of me of something Biffy Clyro would write. (not a good OR bad thing mind.) Most lyrics overall remind of the Beatles “I'm The Eggman” (which was made to be nonsense, as a joke.) I doubt I'm suppose to be analyzing the lyrics of this music. (And now I will know the “Waving My Dick In The Wind” band, wrote “The Loop De Loop” song for Spongebob...thank you youtube. I'm not sure if I needed that insight. But I have it now.)

The Flaming Lips – Another one I enjoyed. Had good lyrics, but I just didn't get very positive lyrical vibes from a lot of these songs. Several songs had something that had a dark tone to it.
(“But life without death is just impossible, Oh, to realize something is ending within us. Feelin' yourself disintegrate.” “I accidentally touched my head and noticed that it had been bleeding.
for how long i did not know. What was this, I thought, that struck me?” “Theirs is to win if it kills them.
They're just humans with wives and children.”)

Animal Collective – Very first track apparently has to do with accidental love/abortion according to a website, but it's not very happy sounding lyrically regardless. ^-^' This is also apparently supposed to be a break up album...or at least the last half of one. Some of these songs are pretty simple lyrically. “Bees” for one example. Also wasn't my favorite. Their constant odd vocal squeals I suppose do add a silly vibe. But I don't think it adds much to the songs otherwise.

Deerhoof – The lyrics are as basic and simple (to the point of childish.) as they can get.
“Pan-da Night-night Pan-da Beep-beep Pan-da Tung-sun Pan-da Ding-ding” But it's decent noise rock. The vocals do bring a lighter mood, albeit far too obnoxious for my taste. (Listened to the entire album from the song that was on.)

Moullinex – It was really hard to locate official lyrics for a lot of it, but it seemed like pretty standard dance/electronica music. It was happy though I doubt their was many complex/well thought out lyrics. Take A Chance was an enjoyable track.

The Polyphonic Spree – (Again listened to whole album.) Really liked the opening track and this definitely gives off positive vibes, lots of chanting and is also musically interesting at parts. Not sure if the lyrics are that great, but probably the best example I've heard thus far of what I was looking for. (Also they were in “Scrubs” which basically gives them a free pass from criticism.)

Stevie Wonder – Does this sound lyrically happy to you? xP
“Broken glass is everywhere
It's a bloody scene
Killing plagues the citizens
Unless they own police
Children play with rusted cars
Sores cover their hands
Politicians laugh and drink-drunk to all demands”

“Starvation roams the streets
Babies die before they're born
Infected by the grief
Now some folks say that we should be
Glad for what we have
Tell me would you be happy in Village Ghetto Land?”

This was not the only example of darkness in the lyrics, (Saturn is another example.) Though I'll be honest and I've never listened to Stevie Wonder, but it's clear from what I listened to that he's a pretty great song writer and I did enjoy this album, and that track in particular. He's definitely more than a love song writer, which was what many gave me the impression he was. But I don't know if this does anything but help my case. Because the stronger/more poignant songs on this album have lyrics that have some darkness in them. (And now I know Pastime Paradise inspired, Gangster paradise and subsequently the much better Amish Paradise. So he get's extra brownie points in my eye. :P)

He's definitely more than a love song writer, which was what many gave me the impression he was.

He’s one of the greatest songwriters in his genre – but I have to say a lot of groups and songwriters that were his peers did the same thing. Energetic, heartfelt, passionate music with dark lyrics and social commentary.

Though I am interested in asking, does your "seldom searching for a certain mood in music" include when your writing/roleplaying? Do you/can you not write with music playing? I find it sometimes a necessity for me to write certain scenes I'm creating with the write music to get me into that mindset.

I’ve made playlists for my RPs and RP characters to get in the right mindset, actually. I view it more as setting the tone or having songs that represent a certain idea I want to write – but I never actually listen to them as I write but as a sort of precursor to trigger my inspiration.

What are some examples you'd consider is purely wholesome, good and optimistic albums. (not just songs.) But entire albums with nothing but positivity, ignoring or minimizing as much as possible of the drama and the adversity and the overcoming of such things.

I suppose I should mention that my favorite album of all time is pretty much pop bliss – Pet Sounds. Though I could see arguments for it being a sort of melancholic, introspective happiness rather than one bred from optimism. Brian Wilson wrote it at a point in his career where he was getting experimental musically yet lyrically profound. Tracks such as “Wouldn’t It Be Nice”, “I Know There’s An Answer”, and “You Still Believe In Me” are examples of tracks that embody this spirit per my perspective.

Beyond Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys, I could name a number of albums. Bleed American by Jimmy Eat World, Growing Up is for Trees by I’m from Barcelona, The Law of the Playground by The Boy Least Likely To, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots by The Flaming Lips, You’re All I Need by Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terell, Brill Bruisers by The New Pornographers, and You Know Who You Are by Nada Surf are all albums I could recommend from various different styles I enjoy.

I suppose I should mention that my favorite album of all time is pretty much pop bliss – Pet Sounds. Though I could see arguments for it being a sort of melancholic, introspective happiness rather than one bred from optimism. Brian Wilson wrote it at a point in his career where he was getting experimental musically yet lyrically profound. Tracks such as “Wouldn’t It Be Nice”, “I Know There’s An Answer”, and “You Still Believe In Me” are examples of tracks that embody this spirit per my perspective.

Beyond Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys, I could name a number of albums. Bleed American by Jimmy Eat World, Growing Up is for Trees by I’m from Barcelona, The Law of the Playground by The Boy Least Likely To, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots by The Flaming Lips, You’re All I Need by Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terell, Brill Bruisers by The New Pornographers, and You Know Who You Are by Nada Surf are all albums I could recommend from various different styles I enjoy.

@Inkarnate I'll will likely go into your suggestions later, I still haven't finished the last one. (been busy with my roommate trying to get himself killed for the third time in less than a year.) Also his girlfriend basically mentioned/recommended a bunch of British female pop singers because I mentioned I liked that she was listening to Regina Spektor's music. So now I have a dozen more albums on my queue list.

As for the one I am familiar with, I absolutely adore Jimmy Eat World's "Bleed American" album and their music in general. Though I think a good chunk of that album has plenty of sad/emotional moments that don't really make me "feel happy go lucky" maybe if I was sad, it would be heartfelt, so then it could maybe relief that sadness. But Hear You Me, is purely depressing to me.

"Your House" lyrics.

You rip my heart right out.

"If you still care at all, don't go, tell me now.
If you love me at all, don't call.
Then out of nowhere, put me right back there.
Rip my heart out, you rip my heart right out."

"Sweetness" lyrics sort of hint, that it's not really a happy song. Seems like a women purposely playing hard to get that he actually wants.

Are you listening?
So tell me what do I need
When words lose their meaning

Won't play your hide and seek game.

Yeah, stumble til you crawl (Whoa,oh,oh,oh,oh,oh)
Sinking into sweet uncertainty

This sweetness will not be concerned with me.

"If you don't, don't" lyrics

I left you waiting, at the least could we be friends?
Should have never started, ain't that the way it always ends?

And I'm sorry that I'm such a mess, I drank all my money could get and,
took everything you let me have and then I never loved you back.

"Get It Faster"

I don't care what you do.
I'm getting out , no nothing ever shames me.
Don't wanna thing from you
I'm going out, I don't care if you're angry.

I'm holding out, but not getting an answer.
I'm finding out, cheating gets it faster.

"My Sundown"

I could be so much more than this.
No one cares. (Repeated alot.)

Yes, "The middle", is basically one of the best feel good, pop punk songs period. Though I feel like there music and catalog in general has a lot of sad parts. Certainly not saying that's a bad thing. (Love this band.) Though my point was, even the happiest sounding music for most bands, there's almost ALWAYS, plenty of meaningful angst or darkness to go around.

But like I said, will go through the rest of your suggestions. (because any chance I can to listen to some good music, is time well spent.)

Yeah, not all of Jimmy Eat World’s output is optimistic one hundred percent of the time lyrically, I think most artists are more three dimensional than that. Even evocative happiness-driven genres like twee have plenty of artists reaching into tones of melancholy, somberness, and regret.

Yeah, not all of Jimmy Eat World’s output is optimistic one hundred percent of the time lyrically, I think most artists are more three dimensional than that. Even evocative happiness-driven genres like twee have plenty of artists reaching into tones of melancholy, somberness, and regret.

Generally speaking, I think Jimmy Eat World's Chase This Light is even more optimistic and saccharine, though it's also not without it's melancholy backdrop. In fact, the sadness is what makes it so uplifting, in my opinion. I was fifteen years old when I first heard the song "Here it Goes". It talks about people not valuing you and stuff like that, but it's also one of the more encouraging songs I've ever heard.

This is reaching back to before they were a general emotive pop-punk band and closer to a general Midwestern emo band (see "Static Prevails"), but the song "Your New Aesthetic" off of Clarity is one of the most awesomest songs ever, once you get over it's deliberate disjointed nature. I'd say that Clarity is extremely optimistic because it's about growing up, getting over your problems and deciding you'll do something productive with your adulthood (see "A Sunday").

Otherwise, I don't know if I'd call this optimism or just general off-the-wall happiness, but Masked Intruder is a pop-punk band in the vain/vein of Blink-182 (but better) with the persistent shtick of assuming the guises of a crew of romantic burglars. What they say isn't always nice, but I haven't ever heard them play a sad song. Check out the EP "Love and Other Crimes".

I don’t really think about Chase This Light all that often, honestly. Lyrically its Jimmy Eat World doing what they do best, but I think that was the album where musically the band kind of fell into a rut. I don’t think I liked a single song from the group until Integrity Blues came out in October 2016 and that was only barely a return to form per my perspective. Which brings the question that is often discussed by those critical of the band – why did the band seem to loose traction after their fifth LP? Was it a matter of creative exhaustion or something entirely different?

I don’t really think about Chase This Light all that often, honestly. Lyrically its Jimmy Eat World doing what they do best, but I think that was the album where musically the band kind of fell into a rut. I don’t think I liked a single song from the group until Integrity Blues came out in October 2016 and that was only barely a return to form per my perspective. Which brings the question that is often discussed by those critical of the band – why did the band seem to loose traction after their fifth LP? Was it a matter of creative exhaustion or something entirely different?

From a quick wikipedia look, their original producer started fighting with them. With caused futures, to be a darker album. Which always seems to be why those exist in the music world. Chase this light has a completely new producer. Four of them...which honestly is not a very good sign, most of the time. Because it screams, "this wasn't a concise project." So maybe that started it? It's not easy a lot of time to know what the problem is. But, eventually you will run out of ideas. I certainly seem to be in the minority when I think their newest wasn't really a return to form and was pretty lackluster single wise. :/

I certainly seem to be in the minority when I think their newest wasn't really a return to form and was pretty lackluster single wise. :/

I think the new album is a step in the right direction. I don’t love it and definitely don’t think it’s on the quality of Futures or Clarity (or even Static Prevails), but it’s a return in the way it seems focused and some of the songwriting is at the very least inspired. I thought “You with Me” was a great Jimmy Eat World song regardless of the fact it was a new one – additionally I enjoyed “It Matters” and “You Are Free”.

Oooh. Yeah..

I was looking into buying Static Prevails on vinyl on their website and had been checking back every day for a while when the front page of their website was dominated by a fifteen second clip of a car driving down a road with the song "Get Right" playing in the background.

Jimmy Eat World is one of my favorite bands, period. But from the fifteen second clip, I knew that it felt unnatural. Get Right is slow and loud, but the writing isn't very clever, and none of the sounds feel very powerful in general. It sounds like something monstrous is lurking beneath the surface. Unfortunately, I feel that the something monstrous never presented itself.

That's Integrity Blues in a nutshell for me. It feels like it could have been a meditative epic. But it feels incomplete, like the high production value is meant to make up for the lack of theatricality. People are constantly saying that Integrity Blues is JEWs best album since Bleed American. I have a few contentions there. The biggest being that I think every single album that precedes Integrity Blues is superior.

Bleed American was far more cohesive than anything to come afterward. But Clarity and Futures are both far more thoughtful. Static Prevails has a raw edge that the band has never recaptured. Invented was more creative. Damaged was more mature without being a bore. The only album that I feel has the same overall creative direction was Chase This Light. Then you have Integrity Blues. I'm not saying Integrity Blues is objectively bad, but it does not live up to the grandeur I've associated with the rest of their discography.

@Fabricant451

I've had a lot of music recommendations to get through from other people, among the rest of my life that I needed to deal with first. But I finally got through the second half of your suggestions. Here's my opinions.

The apples in stereo: New Magnetic Wonder

There's happy songs on this, though not sure if there lyrically written all that well.

Just looking at Skyway, Same Old Drag,Play Tough,Open Eyes, Beautiful Machine Parts 1-2, Beautiful Machine Parts 3-4 lyrically, don't really seem to reflect positivity.

This music is decent, 6/10 consistently throughout. Though not in that mainstream, “it's easy listening/a bit boring” kind of way. It certainly is trying to be different, I do appreciate most solo parts put on this album, but there's just so much filler in this album (both in the actual filler (to the point it was frustrating me) and in how many times they repeat their chorus's.) It's music that perfectly fits the “never complain that it's on.” but never “go out of way to listen to it.” for me.

Asobi Seksu: Citrus

Okay, this is really hard to judge with English translations and on lyrical quality. Goodbye and Lions And Tigers aren't happy lyrically. Some of the translated stuff sounds like nonsense. And some apparently have no translation possible. >.< Music didn't really interest me, but it wasn't bad or anything.

The Go! Team: Thunder, Lighting Strike

Okay, what little music that has lyrics in this are usually very simplistic. Also some of them didn't seem to have the lyrics they were suppose to? I sort of liked the first track but wasn't a particular fan of the production in general, whether on purpose or not. Which is unfortunate because it has musical variety. Another one that just isn't my thing.

Matt and Kim: Grand

I'm not even sure if I'd even call this musically impressive, let alone lyrically. But it certainly is enjoyable to listen to. I probably liked it more than the previous albums, honestly. But I never said simple, can't make good music.

Kishi Bashi: Carry On Phenomenon

Okay, the band making a song about how delicious their steak was, is about as fantastic as Devin Townsend making a song with a gospel choir singing about cheeseburgers. I'll admit they put more effort in lyrics than the previous albums, in my eye...though not 100% sure if I'd call them as good as many of the depressing/darker bands I know. Mainly because they're more relate-able and these sort of borderline on nonsense. XP (Also the ending song is a little darker lyrically.)

But I genuinely enjoyed this one a lot, good instrumentation and vocals.

Common: Be

Well this is now my second time trying to listen to this album, though this time I went all the through to fairly assess the album.

Okay, I think every single song has some kind of negative sentiment and some things certainly don't put me in a happy mood lyrically, ignoring some groans I make.

But yeah...didn't exactly love this one. XP

I guess something I already sort of knew is Kayne is a decent producer. I enjoyed 'Testify' and 'They Say '. “So many raps about rims, surprised niggas ain't become tires “ Made me smirk. It's a little ironic though, that probably the best verse of the album is probably from Kanye West. <.<

Kanye West: Graduation

Oh lord. You've gotten to get me to listen to a whole Kanye West album voluntarily...

Well for starters just looking at the lyrics first, there's plenty of negative sentiments in the music. There is a lot of 'overcoming', mostly referring to haters. But there's enough negativity spread in it that I wouldn't call it overall happy sounding. (I'd also don't think it's fantastically written either. Or even particularly good.)

Good Morning is a pretty good music video. :P

Also, dammit Kanye is really good at production. >.> I actually enjoyed the first 6 tracks almost in spite of myself and Kanye. The Glory was enjoyable as well. There was only one particular track I outright disliked. So yeah, I'm quite surprised that I enjoyed listening to the majority of a Kanye West's album. (I wasn't outright looking at the lyrics while listening, so that probably helped.)

I'm in no shape to write a long post, but I'll just say this: Music lovers would be extremely interested in the King Arthur: Legend of the Sword soundtrack. Especially if they heard it in the movie. Now goodnight.

@Nightrunner

See, that’s not how I [or even the general critical music community] perceive Jimmy Eat World after Futures. I think Integrity Blues is better than the three studio releases preceding it in pretty much every single way. But that’s not hard given I think pretty lowly of those three studio releases in that I find them all fairly bland low effort albums that aren’t at all very interesting. I doubt I’ll see a resurgence of their energy we saw during their first few LPs, but I’m hoping the glimpses of enjoyable material on is a prelude to the band creating engaging music consistently again.

@Inkarnate

Eh, I guess I'll respect your opinion. But I am with you on that last note: I'm hoping for some now lively Jimmy Eat World stuff in the near future, too. Kinda hoping that Taylor Swift doesn't rub off on them too bad. Jim Adkins, the front man, has taken to describing JEW as a "guitar-driven rock band". I can't help but feel that there's a little dissonance between that description along with Integrity Blues and what I wish they would become again.

---

Can somebody introduce a punk fan to Hip-hop and it's various subgenres really quickly and savvily?

Can somebody introduce a punk fan to Hip-hop and it's various subgenres really quickly and savvily?

Probably, all it would take to get started would be to go through conscious and political hip-hop and making the connections to punk in spirit or just link this song.

@Nightrunner Yes, but not in the middle of the night. XD But I will send you more stuff tomorrow. :D But since you said "Punk" and "Hip Hop" I have a perfect artist for you. This man is actually was in a hardcore punk band called Building Better Bombs. Some of his albums have punk style drums and hardcore style instrumentals. So maybe you'll enjoy the sound of this. :3

Punk Drums





Hardcore style

@SleepingSilence

Man, I told y'all to use hiders for videos from now on. smh

@Inkarnate I'm tired okay! xP

Corrected, and I'll listen to your album recommendations tm. :P