Two examples that come to me immediately are Enya and Smashing Pumpkins. If music starts feeling stale, I can put on Enya and music feels new again. It’s such a pleasant departure from the standard pop/rock/RnB etc sounds that dominate (even if I like those artists).
Anybody have their own equivalents?
I think Queen is in this category, cause it’s rock opera.
Yeah I’d agree with that, especially at the time they were active. I remember when You Don’t Fool Me came out and you could tell in the first few seconds that it was going to be a Queen song just from the combined harmonies and guitar riff.