It's a little bit disconcerting when you realize that you actually like Stereolab. Have you really become so soft that you find this lush, easy-listening music pleasant -- and, even worse, interesting? Is something wrong with you? Most likely, you simply have a Baroque sensibility. For behind the su

Euphoric, Layered, Lush, Rhythmic, Smarty arty pop, Social revolution, Sophisticated

Car accidents, spider bites, and head wounds are just a few of the subjects at the center of the Flaming Lips' 1999 album "The Soft Bulletin." But the album isn't dark, jarring, or the least bit disruptive. In fact, it's nothing if not light. This kind of light might be "chemically derived." Or is it

Bright, Death, Euphoric, Event, Expansive, Grand, Psychedelic, Quirky, Smarty arty pop

The context for Malcolm Lowry's masterpiece, "Under the Volcano," is simple: a single day in the life of Geoffrey Firmin. It happens to be his last. The place is Quauhnahuac, Mexico, the day the Day of the Dead. As the locals celebrate the souls of the deceased, Firmin (also known as "the Consul"), h

Death, Dense, Euphoric, Hallucinatory, Modernist literature, Sprawling, Tragic

"The one important thing I have learnt over the years is the difference between taking one's work seriously and taking one's life seriously. The first is imperative and the second, disastrous." So decreed the legendary ballerina who was born Margaret Hookham, nicknamed Peggy, and eventually became kn

Bright, Classical, Ebullient, Elegant, Euphoric, Glamour