That Spiritualized album is rather enjoyable.
That and the Malkmus + Jicks record are ones that I somewhat regret leaving off my list.

















As my dad has gotten older, he has increasingly listened to almost nothing but singer/songwriter acoustic stuff. He's easily annoyed by dissonance, anything heavier than Thin Lizzy and bands being 'weird'. My dad is a pretty awesome guy, but I suppose it was somewhat comforting to realize that as I stared down 30, I didn't follow down that same path and start craving more sad acoustic ballads and Eric Clapton Unplugged. No - I craved more dissonance, more noise, more things that made girlfriends give me the "what is this, serial killer music?" look. I grew even more sick of seeing guys in their Wes Anderson character costumes and beards peddling their acoustic guitars and reverbed vocals. I didn't want to hear men being wolves and foxes. I wanted bands to be the grizzly.
In 2008, Harvey Milk was the fucking grizzly. They lured people in with gentle, clean post-rock guitars and Christmas carol vocals and then they scared old ladies into swallowing teabags. They slayed you with doom and thick sludge all while being the most melodic classic rock thing ever. The best game in town has guitar solos that you actually look forward to hearing over and over again, a classic-punk cover, amusingly dark lyrics & references to the rock canon ("Woke up/got outta bed/put a pistol to my head"), the chugging guitar stomp of "Motown" and it ends with a cover of the Looney Tunes theme and a gong hit! So don't tell me that this is a pile of depression. There are plenty of reasons why this album didn't just appeal to metal fans. Hipsters, metal fans, old ladies and useless rockers alike played this thing to death in their cars since they first heard it because it's a thrilling, punishing, exhilarating, brilliantly produced, fun-as-hell rock' n' roll roller coaster without any bullshit attached.