I'm not so good at writing about or describing music, but i can relate how much they affect me. Some of these tracks i'm going to mention have the power to melt my spine, i find music can change the way my mind works, for good or for bad. It can get right inside, to fix or to break. I have a huge collection of individual tracks from random bands on my computer, but occassionally i find a group that seems to get nearly every track right for me. Those are the bands i've listed here, with some track recommendations if you feel like trying them out. I'd recommend LimeWire for finding tracks to download, i can always find what i want and downloading times are always efficient. I tend to just sit on there some nights and tap in random words i like the sound of, and download all tracks that are kicked up in the search results. I normally find one or two tracks i adore from a night like that, and it's good fun. Yahoo LaunchCast is good for finding new tracks too, you build a profile by rating songs and basically construct a radio channel that plays song it thinks you'll like. Not so good for the obscure stuff though, although i got it to play Guster once.

Guster is one of those bands i found and couldn't believe i'd not heard of sooner. They have a haunting sound often, very big orchestral moments, and some really plaintive sad tracks. Two Points For Honesty is a good example, and a great place to start. Also try Either Way, which is pretty heart wrenching, and maybe So Long.

The Faint and The Servant i found at the same time, and actually i find them hard to seperate. Mainly, i think, because both their names start with 'The'. :P I found The Faint's track Birth at the time my best friend was having a baby, so as well as being an excellent track it was also perfectly timed. Their track Take Me To The Hospital has this wonderful throbbing beat to it, and a real dark gritty feel. Plus the lyrics are whumper heaven, rawr. Oh, and check out Erection too, it has a wonderful intoxicating sound (makes me feel like i have one, and i'm a woman!!), and Posed To Death.
I was introduced to The Servant with their haunting, torturous track Body, which Wistful used for one of her Supernatural videos. Definitely try that one, and Orchestra which just sounds so huge, another haunting one really, too. You might wanna try Driving At Night too.

Peter Gabriel hardly needs an introduction, and has some brilliant sounds. Sledge Hammer always bouys me up, and i'm desperate to set a vid for the tv show Sledge Hammer to it (duh). For happiness, When You're Falling is another joyful one, it reminds me of ireland, makes me wanna jig! I Have The Touch is a fantastic track, and so is That Voice Again - he just creates such fantastic sounds. A collaboration with Robertson, Broken Arrow, is also worth a listen - very sad, very beautiful.

Oh, definitely time to mention Depeche Mode, as i love these guys. And it seems that if you mention them as a starting point, you can guarantee to find people with similar music tastes based on their love of this group. They're a whole genre really. Hednoize are a great place to move on to, if you love Depeche. But i'll get to them in a sec, a good place to start with Depeche is Enjoy The Silence, which has a tremendously apocalyptic feel. John The Revelator is perhaps the most wonderfully enpowering song, i play it damn loud and it fills me with strength - i feel i can punch holes in concrete when this song plays. Home, Dream On and Shake The Disease also sound great. It's hard to be selective with these guys, i love everything, and i don't think i've even heard all their tracks yet!

Billy Joel is a memory for me, someone i've loved since i was 13 or younger. With a fantastic voice and a real talent for playing the piano and creating songs, he has some really spunky tracks. Things like Only The Good Die Young have such a young sound for him, and later tracks like Downeaster Alexa can just break my heart. Stiletto has fantastic evil lyrics, and Blonde Over Blue is my all time favourite for a mix of sound and words. This is the only musician for whom i have all albums, i think.

P!nk has to be mentioned now, she's kinda my only pinup music love. :P I've never been into loving bands for who they are, i'm interested in whether their music makes me shiver, not how their hair looks. But P!nk's kinda different, mainly because she has some great tracks and i think she's damn hot. Best of both worlds, woohoo! >:D I actually kinda prefer some of her earlier albums, and songs like My Vietnam and Family Portrait were favourites of mine. Loving Stupid Girls though, especially the music vid. She released a duel sided album (I'm Not Dead) with some vids and making-of docus, which are great fun.

Hednoize i discovered when their track Woven was used on a Forever Knight video by the very talented Knight Vision webmaster Kristin. The next step from Depeche Mode, they create some amazingly emotive sound, the kind of music that can make me feel invincible, or hopeless. I really would recommend listening to Woven for the first time with Kristin's Forever Knight music video. It's just such a powerful combination, even if you don't know the fandom (you'll end with both a new band and a new fandom to find out about, i guarantee!). Go here and go to the Nick Knight section to find Woven. Their song Immortal is brilliant too. They only have one album sadly, quite a loss, i'd have to loved to hear more tracks from these guys.

There are planty of other bands i've encountered and listen to quite regularly: Gåte, Marillion, Aslan, U2, Sarah MacLachlan, Fish, Paddy Casey, Counting Crows, Royksopp, Tori Amos, ELO, The Eagles...

If i went into detail with them all though, i'd be here for years. The ones above are the ones that immediately came to mind for an indepth recommendation, so i guess they're just what's in my mp3 player at the moment.