Rosalía - Los Ángeles (2017)
Official | RYM

Raw, intense, gothic flamenco. The wandering guitar tones and enormous vocals on here are just perfect.

Ryo Fukui - Scenery (1976)
Could not find official source. | RYM

Energetic and lively hard-bop piano jazz.

Ryuichi Sakamoto - Thousand Knives of Ryuichi Sakamoto (1978)
Official | RYM

Jaunty, bubbly synthpop/electronic with some inexplicably savage guitar solos. Sounds like the coolest video game music for the coolest video game that never existed.

Shannen Moser - You Shouldn't Be Doing That (2015)
Official | RYM

There are a million low-fi gen-z bedroom pop tapes that all have pretty much the same sounds and aesthetics. But there's got to be one that's better than all the rest right? I think it's this one.

Sigur Rós - Ágætis Byrjun (1999)
Official | RYM

Otherworldy amalgamation of modern classical, post rock, ambient, and dream pop. Sigur Rós is an all-time original and this is my favorite of theirs.

Sleater-Kinney - Dig Me Out (1997)
Official | RYM

I think Sleater-Kinney is the most underrated rock band of the '90s and 2000s. Incredible songs and performances all through this thing. Janet Weiss is also one of my favorite drummers ever. She's got that messy, swampy, Ringo Starr style but way heavier.

Sonny Rollins - Saxophone Colossus (1957)
Official | RYM

Extremely fun hard bop jazz with some of the coolest grooves ever and crazy musicianship. Production value is also amazing for how old it is.

Spanish Love Songs - Brave Faces Everyone (2020)
Official | RYM

Perfect modern pop-punk/emo with mature songwriting. Taps into the zeitgeist of economic pessimism most American millenials and gen-z folks are feeling.

Stars of the Lid - and Their Refinement of the Decline (2007)
Official | RYM

Stars of the Lid's twin albums The Tired Sounds of and and Their Refinement of the Decline were I think the first music I ever really loved. As opposed to music I thought was cool or fun or interesting. Those two albums shaped me as a person more than any other art I've ever consumed.

Sufjan Stevens - Javelin (2023)
Official | RYM

Sufjan Steven's music has always been a combination of brilliant indie Americana songs and eclectic, textured instrumentation. His album Carrie and Lowell leaned heavily into the songwriting aspect and the eclectic instrumentation wasn't included as much. Javelin is the opposite. The instruments, production, layers, and textures here are so vast and fascinating and Sufjan's songwriting is as good as ever.

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