I'm glad for recommendations like this to look into. I have a hard time finding new music to enjoy these days. For one, less of it is being made, and two, the avenues of discovery aren't what they used to be. The latter is ironic to me considering the technology for delivery is wider and allows for more than ever.
About 10 years ago utee94 and myself were talking about record companies and the future of music. One of his opinions were that record companies could go to hell for being the soulless bastards they are. He wasn't wrong, and I didn't disagree with him. And they were in the process of doing just that. They trapped good people in horrible contracts for decades so it's hard to have sympathy for what's happened to those companies.
The side of that coin is I was worried about several things that would result from the death of the old model, and unfortunately for me, much of it has come to fruition. It has killed an entire industry, one I once aspired to work in, and it's undone a lot of music I enjoyed.
There's still a ton to like, but certain types that I really, really liked are hardly done anymore and I may never hear about them when they do come out. I always loved production, the right sort of it, anyway. What some people call inauthentic, I called a group effort as opposed to a single artistic effort. Somebody writes a great song, an arranger figures out how to pimp it out, musicians are hired to do more with the parts, and a producer keeps all the visions from getting too far away from each other so it stands as a coherent piece of work. It creates something very different than the more stripped-down song you'd get with just an artist putting their music out there. And there was room for both, and I loved both.
But a well-produced album cost money, and money came from the record companies. Now that they're not around, the $ for those kind of projects isn't available, and it's hard to find music that like anymore (though it is out there, in small doses). Additionally, I used to aspire to be a session drummer--and did pick up work here and there in Austin in my former life--and of course the major hubs were the main destinations there. Nashville is the only one left standing, and even it is not a hotbed like it used to be. The L.A. and NYC studio scenes are dead. Finito. Most of my heroes I grew up wanting to be like are either stuck on the road touring or retired. There is no living to be made as a session/studio musician anymore.
Which means the work of guys like that appears on very few albums compared to yesteryear. And I really miss that. And for the music that still out there....the internet is vast, but maybe that's more of a problem than a help as far as me ever finding out about stuff. So recommendations and scouring youtube for gems in the rubble are how I stumble on things these days.
Mildly related--if anybody has Netflix, watch Wrecking Crew sometime. Great stories and interviews with a core group of musicians who played on everything back in the 60's. That crowd invented the studio musician profession, and even though people didn't know who they were, their playing inspired a ton of musicians after them.