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Stars Pick Their Top Five! This Week: Sugar Candy Mountain

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Much like a summer sunset, the music of Sugar Candy Mountain melts into something more rich and comforting with every passing moment. And when you infuse that with some serious psychedelia and space-age pop, you get music as lush and uplifting as a mixed drink with some other substance swirling inside. Ash Reiter's vocals are reminiscent of Jefferson Airplane, but the clean-cut pop makes it sound like Phil Spector was their sound engineer. Fun for every walk of life!

Get a taste of Sugar Candy Mountain at Club Congress. 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 10. Free. 21+.

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Os Mutantes

self titled

This was my introduction to Brazilian music which has since become a love affair with tropicalia, bossa, and the rest of what was coming out of Brazil in the '60s, '70s and '80s. But before I dug deep into the rest of Brazilian music, I first had a healthy year-long obsession with this one album. Os Mutantes are so playful and free. They experiment in the studio much like the Beatles at the time but somehow seem even more liberated and exuberant.

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J.J. Cale

Oakie

I fell in immediate love with J.J. Cale from the very first song I heard. His scratchy whisper of a voice spoke directly to me. On "Rock and Roll Records" you can literally hear him breathing, it feels so warm and lively.

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Stereolab

Margerine Eclipse

I love how they mix Krautrock with lounge and Brazilian influences. The way Laetitia Sadier arranges her relaxed vocals to float and weave between all the other competing melodies is just perfect.

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Ashra

Blackouts

This album was a gateway to Krautrock for me, something I have only just gotten into recently. It's definitely changed my idea about how to write. Through listening I have become much more comfortable with writing repetitive parts and creating a subtle growth and transformation within a song.

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Talking Heads

Talking Heads: 77

I am a runner. I usually run with headphones. For a while I was doing the exact same run everyday trying to improve my time. I found when I put this album on I could just fly—I could just go faster and faster and it felt completely natural.