I love the Gorillaz "Escape From Plastic Beach" album

I just love this album; I never thought I would come to admire Damon Albarn. I keep playing "On Melancholy Hill".

I haven't heard the whole album, but that song is amazing.

I am in my 50s and I keep having arguments with people of my own age who spout stuff like "They stopped making good rock music in 1972/when Cream split/whatever". I have always felt that the best popular music is the music of NOW.

I have always felt that the best popular music is the music of NOW.

I halfway feel like this (though I was born in 1976, so the date may be different) but I appreciate a lot of different music, including many things that came about long before I was born. I think some people miss out if they don't look back to influential music like The Beatles or Led Zeppelin, etc, and many of those bands can be so revolutionary the first time you truly listen to them. I haven't heard the new Gorillaz, but I think El Manana on Demon Days is one of the best and most overlooked songs on that album. Love it! I've been listening to the new Placebo album Battle for the Sun lately. 

I've been listening to the new Placebo album Battle for the Sun lately. 

They are one of my favo(u)rite bands; I adore Brian and his style - it's interesting that they have another Steve as drummer. I particularly like Placebo because Brian has collaborated with my absolute favourite band in the whole world, which is Indochine. (I am a rabid fan, and so is Madame Trémula.) The track "Pink Water" on the Alice et June album is an example.

I'm 99% sure most people believe that "pop" music is top 40s music but it's so much bigger than that, I'm a big fan of pop music, but that doesn't mean I worship at the altar of Lady Gaga.

Pop music to me is a sound which is represented by the auto-tuned Ms.Spears but more happily represented to me by pop bands like Rilo Kiley, Belle and Sebastien, Passion pit, Alphabeat and Postal Service. There's been amazing pop music throughout  history, and I couldn't pull out an era which had the best "pop" there's some great pop now, but theres almost an endless catalogue of classic pop. It depends on your sensibilities, like I'm a huge wall of sound fan (oh dear Phil Spector) so that era is a great source of music for me (especially anything Larry Levine worked on *swoon* - Pet Sounds! )

I liked the last Gorillaz album (well actually I thought it had some great high points, but was over collaborated in several places, a touch of self indulgence I guess) and I think On Melacholy hill is  a good song, I'll have to spotify the album

P.S Passion Pit's Sleepyhead is my summer of awesome song right now  

Two other newish albums I am listening to currently -

Florence and the Machine - Lungs (love it!)
Stereophonics - Keep Calm and Carry On (love them)

and I just downloaded the new Gorillaz so I can give it a listen. So far, I'm liking it. 

Two other newish albums I am listening to currently -

Florence and the Machine - Lungs (love it!)
Stereophonics - Keep Calm and Carry On (love them)

and I just downloaded the new Gorillaz so I can give it a listen. So far, I'm liking it. 

I wondered just the other day what happened to the Stereophonics. I now have my answer. I think I will not be able to buy any music until I figure out how to transfer my cassette tapes to the computer to CD.

But those look like they may need to go on my 'Buy' list. 

I wondered just the other day what happened to the Stereophonics. I now have my answer. I think I will not be able to buy any music until I figure out how to transfer my cassette tapes to the computer to CD.

But those look like they may need to go on my 'Buy' list. 

The new Stereophonics is awesome! You should definitely check it out.

Maybe you could get a recordable cd player with a cassette deck in it so you can record the tapes to cd then upload them to the computer? But truly, the quality would be much better if you just downloaded them or replaced the cassettes with cds, though I know that can be expensive and take a lot of time to do. 

We have a machine that converts tapes to PC and then we can burn them to CD. 

The problem is some of these tapes are so obscure: I will never find them on iTunes or whatever. I seem to be too lazy and too technologically challenged to figure out the machine and I have no idea where the book of words is. 

Two other newish albums I am listening to currently -

Florence and the Machine - Lungs (love it!)
Stereophonics - Keep Calm and Carry On (love them)

and I just downloaded the new Gorillaz so I can give it a listen. So far, I'm liking it. 

Lungs is a good album Dog Days has a great beat and some nice orchestral moments.
What about something like the Noisettes? I know they're everywhere at the moment, but you can't beat the opening bars to "never forget you" to get you on your feet.

I'm not keen on the Stereophonics, I find them really derivative for some reason I just don't "get" that aesthetic.

MLG - Maybe try the free version of spotify - http://www.spotify.com/uk/new-user/ you can download and install it, as long as you have an internet connection you can search and listen to music (with the occasional advert) so you can see if you can find some of those tapes without paying anything, and listen to some new music for free

I <3 Spotify!

Right now I'm listening to Laura Marling's new album which is lush, I can't believe she released "Alas I cannot swim" when she was 17, no wonder I speak because I can sounds so grown up in comparison.

MLG - Maybe try the free version of spotify - http://www.spotify.com/uk/new-user/ you can download and install it, as long as you have an internet connection you can search and listen to music (with the occasional advert) so you can see if you can find some of those tapes without paying anything, and listen to some new music for free

Thanks - I'll give it a go!