Musical journey (part two)

(Read Part One first)
Although I enjoyed catchy pop / rock tunes you could sing along to as much as the next person, by the time I got into my 30's, what I really craved was music that you had to pay attention to. The kind of music that was packaged in layers that had to be carefully unwrapped to fully appreciate the depth, skill and boundary-pushing experimentation inside. I finally had the patience to actually hear the inner beauty in works by among others, Steely Dan, Led Zeppelin, Supertramp and of course Pink Floyd. Yeah - I know. What is that boy's obssession with The Floyd? They were pioneers. Few other bands have come close to matching their originality, sheer audacity of style, the bizarre range of instruments and ground-breaking recording techniques, using vocals as an instrument (Great Gig in the Sky) and spoken word too, the list goes on. I'm obviously not alone - the album Dark Side of the Moon spent 741 weeks on the Billboard Top 200 album charts (591 of those weeks were consecutive). Well, the past is the past and The Floyd have had their last hurrah at Live 8. It's time to find the next big thing. I had actually found it a few years ago, but I wasn't sure if it was just a flash in the pan. I needed to wait for follow up albums and a few repeat listens to decide if I would put the same emotional support behind this new group as I had The Floyd. Go on to Part three .........