# Help a brother out - music recommendations: man vs. machine! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 28, 2015, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-brother-out-music-recommendations-man-vs-machine/732832 "2015-09-28T13:04:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jimmy_Chitwood)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2015, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-brother-out-music-recommendations-man-vs-machine/732832/1 "2015-09-28T13:04:14Z")
I want to try an experiment that will also totally coincidentally help me do a better job of making a road trip CD for my girlfriend. There’s all kinds of engines out there that will take a song or two or three artists you like and spit out a list of songs or artists that either people who like what you like also like, or that have some kind of taxonomic classification in common. What I want to see is whether that approach is more useful than just getting an impressionistic reaction from a few people who really like what you really like, because my experience has been that if I think she’s gonna like something, even if it doesn’t really make sense categorically, that’s a better predictor than something that does make sense categorically. So: I’m gonna give you a list of artists. I’ve already seen what the computers think. I’ll only list a few but then I’ll give feedback on known hits. If a person really really likes these artists, then that person would also want to hear what (preferably) song or maybe artist? Shakey Graves (and Esme Patterson) St. Vincent Nathaniel Rateliff Sufjan Stevens ---
**Author:** ![Richey84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Richey84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richey84)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2015, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-brother-out-music-recommendations-man-vs-machine/732832/2 "2015-09-28T17:00:37Z")
If you like Sufjan Stevens, you’ll probably like Jens Lekman. ---
**Author:** ![Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jimmy_Chitwood)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2015, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-brother-out-music-recommendations-man-vs-machine/732832/3 "2015-09-28T17:26:55Z")
> [@Richey84](#): > > If you like Sufjan Stevens, you’ll probably like Jens Lekman. OK, sweet. Do you have a favorite song? ---
**Author:** ![Lowdown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c57346/32.png) [@Lowdown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lowdown)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2015, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-brother-out-music-recommendations-man-vs-machine/732832/4 "2015-09-28T18:26:59Z")
Try: Angus and Julia Stone Brown Bird The Devil Makes Three Leon Bridges St Vincent sounds like the 80s to me, so start there. ---
**Author:** ![Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jimmy_Chitwood)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2015, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-brother-out-music-recommendations-man-vs-machine/732832/5 "2015-09-28T19:17:00Z")
> [@Lowdown](#): > > Try: > > Angus and Julia Stone > Brown Bird > The Devil Makes Three > Leon Bridges > > St Vincent sounds like the 80s to me, so start there. Awesome. Leon Bridges I know is right on target, so the others sound promising! ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2015, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-brother-out-music-recommendations-man-vs-machine/732832/6 "2015-09-28T19:26:03Z")
Modest Mouse ---
**Author:** ![gallows\_fodder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8c91f0/32.png) [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2015, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-brother-out-music-recommendations-man-vs-machine/732832/7 "2015-09-28T20:07:27Z")
Do you or your girlfriend have Spotify accounts? 'Cause I’m gonna be dropping some links on you… 🙂 A Sufjan Stevens fan would probably like **My Brightest Diamond** (aka Shara Worden), who has collaborated with him a lot and sung on a few of his albums. Her albums are kind of all over the place in terms of their sound (some more avant garde than others) – here are Spotify links to her two most accessible albums (IMO): [Bring Me the Workhorse](https://open.spotify.com/album/0EFmkGs1PlpGnzmR7iqxR7) and [A Thousand Shark’s Teeth](https://open.spotify.com/album/18teTUDpZqXGzu5OImGXQV). **Neutral Milk Hotel** (brainchild of genuine oddball genius, Jeff Mangum) put out two albums in the 1990s which sound like things Sufjan Stevens may have been inspired by, featuring odd instruments and elaborate fairy-tale-like lyrics. The best one is [In the Aeroplane Over the Sea](https://open.spotify.com/album/5COXoP5kj2DWfCDg0vxi4F). [Note: his voice is an acquired taste] **Bat for Lashes** is a little St. Vincent-esque – her album [Fur And Gold](https://open.spotify.com/album/0MBMbIshl7jfto6yWs8BFN) is a good place to start. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2015, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-brother-out-music-recommendations-man-vs-machine/732832/8 "2015-09-28T23:11:39Z")
> [@Jimmy\_Chitwood](#): > > Awesome. Leon Bridges I know is right on target, so the others sound promising! Have you checked out other “new R&B” bands like Kings Go Forth, Eli Paperboy Reed, Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears, Aloc Blacc? If you like Leon Bridges, you’d love these guys, too. Or Ray LaMontagne - try You are The Best Thing by him. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2015, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-a-brother-out-music-recommendations-man-vs-machine/732832/9 "2015-09-29T02:02:55Z")
> [@gallows\_fodder](#): > > **Bat for Lashes** is a little St. Vincent-esque – her album [Fur And Gold](https://open.spotify.com/album/0MBMbIshl7jfto6yWs8BFN) is a good place to start. If you like that sort of sound, you might also like The XX and Imogen Heap.