2011 instrumental metal soundtrack album. Alpha Squad was a twin-stick shooter that was part of the Xbox Live Indie Games program. While XBLIG is dead and gone, making the game nearly completely inaccessible, the OST lives on.
Having played part of the game, it was fun, but unremarkable. The soundtrack, on the other hand...
2005 math rock EP from the UK. A few early cuts of tracks that would make it on to their first album Critical Meat, and a few tracks exclusive to the EP.
While they don't sell the EP through their Bandcamp, it is available to download on the Internet Archive.
2023 electronic/ambient album from Marseille, France. A bit all over the place, varying from oddball busy yet catchy title track to jazz-funk or ambient.
My picks: "Suburban," "Reach the Lake," "Big band Theory"
1959 modal jazz album. While it's practically become the jazz album of choice for people who don't usually listen to jazz, it's for plenty good reason: a solid, warm, and inviting record with a display of incredible talent by all involved.
1980 prog rock/art rock concept album themed around gambling. So many catchy songs on this album, although "Games People Play" is the real standout for me.
My picks: "Games People Play," "I Don't Wanna Go Home," "Snake Eyes"
2000 experimental rock/electronic album. I was introduced to this album (and Radiohead in general) in 2016 when a friend lent me his CD of it to rip on to my computer. (An activity I've not had to do in some time.) While I'm not really on good terms with that person any more, I'm glad he'd introduced me to this stellar album.
My picks: "The National Anthem," "Optimistic," "Idioteque"
2008 post-rock album from Austin, Texas. More in line with acts like Explosions in the Sky or Mogwai than Godspeed You! Black Emperor or the like. There's a pretty strong keyboard presence in this band that helps separate it from some of the others in this category.
My picks: "We Happy Few," "The Rivers That Run Beneath This City," "Now Those Ashes Are at the Bottom"
Got this for a good price recently. I was certainly an Adrian Belew fan in the 80s. Not obsessive, not enough to listen to a Zappa album. But I had a couple of his solo records, that first King Crimson reboot record, saw him in concert on the Lone Rhinoceros tour and with Talking Heads. This record has a Bowie collab, a redo of a Crimson song. All in all, A-.
1993 alt-rock/jazz rock album from Cambridge, Massachusetts. Morphine's a bit unusual: a three member alt-rock band with drums, bass, and a saxophone player replacing the usual guitarist slot. It's still alt-rock, but with bits of jazz and blues mixed in.