I've been looking for more music to start listening to. Maybe I can get some ideas here. I've historically been a fan of video game music moreso than "actual" music, purely due to that nostalgia factor. I have plenty of songs saved on my YouTube account to playlists to listen to, but more options is always nice. I tend to be a lot more into the relaxing and/or old fashioned kind of tunes, as my main use of music is to calm myself down as I work on other projects in my spare time. Anyone got any good recommendations? If you need more specific details, the game music I typically listen to is largely from DS, Wii, 3DS, and Wii U games, as well as a few older Nintendo systems from before my time. While my main areas of expertise have been Pokémon and Mario Kart for as long as I can remember, I've been branching out to more franchises for about a year or two now.
Feeling qualified for this as someone who's been a massive VGM nerd and has recently become more of a general musichead
Daft Punk - Random Access Memories would be my biggest recommendation; while it's certainly not my favorite album of theirs, it
is a very chill album and definitely a throwback to the 70s disco sounds that inspired Daft Punk's music to begin with, with a touch of EDM for good measure. So it's probably going to be the album most up your alley.
Would also suggest:
Kero Kero Bonito - Civilisation: Veeeeeeery video game music-inspired, and a lot less rough and noisy than Time n Place (another great album of their's!). Only caveat is that it is not really "relaxing"...at least it's mostly not. You may also want to try Bonito Generation since I know a lot of people love that album (but iiiiiiii do not)
Kanye West - Graduation: Just my general recommendation if you're a VGM fan trying to get into more popular music (although it is a contender for my fav album ever); it's basically "WOW, THIS IS GIVING ME MAJOR PERSONA VIBES" The Album
Daft Punk - Discovery: Basically Graduation if it was an EDM album, another high recommendation to VGM fans. Much livelier than RAM, and there's
an anime OVA set to the full album if you're interested in that.
Kendrick Lamar - Untitled Unmastered: Basically a rap album made up of lo-fi jazz hip hop beats
The Postal Service - Give Up: Lightweight and head-bopping indie pop with a chiptune flair and some fantastic lyricism, one of my personal fav albums <3
Alvvays - Self-titled: This is mostly just the dream pop fan in me talking, and the album's not really VGM-adjacent, but it
is very warm and feel-good and has an old-school feel, so you might want to try it out (I
would also recommend Japanese Breakfast's Psychopomp since that album is incredible, but I feel like that's going a bit too far down the rabbit hole)