Jeff Lynne wrote “I’m Leaving You” (which is on his 2015 ELO album Alone in the Universe) as a tribute to his friend, Roy Orbison, and it has the feel of something that Roy would have recorded in the early '60s.
The first time I heard the Violent Femmes (late 90s?) I thought they were contemporary alternative rock. Not so much. 1983
MGMT sounds like an 80s band.
Walk the Moon sounds like an 80s band.
Pulp’s Common People is 80s in every conceivable way. Their other stuff reminds me of sleazy lounge music (in a good way.)
That Madcon song sounds old because it is.
Robin Thicke got sued because “Blurred Lines” sounded like and/or borrowed too much from Marvin Gaye.
When I first heard Leon Bridges, I did wonder if I was hearing an old song. He even used the kind of clicks, surface noise and distortion I was used to on old vinyl.
And of course, he nailed that 60s soulfulness…
The Spongetones (an '80s group out of Charlotte, N.C.) specialized in original and often very good songs that recreated the sound of the '60s British Invasion.
The La’s - There She Goes.
They can give it a copyright date of 1988, but it’s a Sixties song…
La Roux and Amy Winehouse are good for this type of music.
Bulletproof:
Back to Black:
Everything Michael Kiwanuka does will transport you back to the late 60s/ early 70s.
If you’re not already familiar with his work… you’re welcome!
Specifically, this song.
Iris DeMent usually gets compared to people who have been dead for over half a century, like The Carter Family and the Skillet Lickers.
A few years ago, there were a whole bunch of bands (Mumford and Sons, Of Monsters and Men) that sounded a bit like Woody Guthrie.
Dee-Lite was aggressively retro.
This R&B song was NOT recorded in 1968. Or 1978. Or even in the 20th century.
Nor was this heavy rock song:
or this not-Sabbath tune:
Lyle Lovett and George Straight were at the vanguard of the new Texas Swing movement from the late 80s. Bob Wills had been dead since 1975 and inactive since 1973. His career was mainly in the 1930s and 40s.