I was driving to work this morning, listening to music (when my iPod broke...grrrr) and I began reflecting on the music that moves me; that qualifies a group as being one of my favorite. I developed a criterion; would I buy their next album, unheard? In other words, see it/buy it with no previous exposure to it.

My current listing:

Jimmy Eat World, OK Go, Nightmare of You, Dream Theater, Queensryche, Guster, The Decemberists, The Mars Volta.

That's it. I'm pretty discriminating in my tastes. Bands come and go. Bands can put out a great album (Self-titled 30 Seconds to Mars album) followed by a mediocre one (Attack by 30 Seconds to Mars) or vice versa. So it's hard to buy albums from those groups without prior sampling. Depeche Mode and The Charlatans recent albums disappointed me and bumped them from my list. Collective Soul's last album was quite good and moved them closer (though I doubt they'll make the list ever again). There are a lot of bands who make my Hall of Very Good listing: like Rush, The Shins, Ash, and dozens more...but for the tip-top, cream of the crop...the Hall of Fame bands...those have a very high floor.