A few tips, for what they're worth

If you wanna get with me, I'd advise you to display evidence of as many of the following as possible, because it really will up your chances (I don't know how well you would fare with Marc, Gossy or Deb, but hey no harm in trying):

Sufjan Stevens. If you have Come on feel the Illinoise it might be enough for me to suggest some semblance of lifetime commitment.

Devendra Banhart. I'm really down with that kind of drifter/hippie thing connoted by the cover of Cripple Crow.

Interpol. Turn me on with a copy of Turn on the bright lights. I'm not quite so into the second album, but it's worth having nevertheless.

Jose Gonzalez. Veneer will get you to at least one of the bases (but which one?).

The Shins. Oh, inverted world puts a smile on my dial and warmth in my heart.

Love. Forever changes – oh hello!

Flavour of the month Antony and the Johnsons are currently being viewed with suspicious ambivalence. Great voice but abysmal lyrics. Might be one for the pile of burnt CDs, preferably buried beneath a few others and without a home-made cover.

Your Unicorn Does Not Impress Me

I think that we might have this covered in previous posts about prog rock and the like but I don't think very much science-fiction or fantasy themed music is particularly good if it's lyrical. I don't like opera particularly, so Mozart's The Magic Flute is lost on me. But apart from this, one should not possess any more than one Pink Floyd/Syd Barrett album. The Jeff Wayne soundtrack to War Of The Worlds is acceptable purely because it is a soundtrack. But groups of grown men (and let's face it, it is usually men) singing about goblins and unicorns and other such nonsense is laughable and makes one think that if such records are in your collection that you are still having a kind of nerdy, extended childhood manifested in Games Workshop figurine painting, or way too much time spent playing RPGs on the internet. And yes, Queen and T-Rex and such do count. The Pixies (all four studio albums) have a get-out clause because it's only on Trompe Le Mode and Frank Black solo stuff (one album, curiosity value only). Also, The Flaming Lips might be a bit of a fine line if the rest of the new album is like "The WAND".