I quite liked This Is Your Brain On Music, by Daniel Levitin, as it illuminated me to the idea that nearly all humans have similar responses to music. Plus all the studies that try to understand which parts of our brains are being triggered with music and so on.
I find it hard to articulate the music that's had such a massive impact on me, because often it's not entirely about the music. I have to want to be moved, I have to "try" to feel something, and so often that feels like I am betraying myself. Why force yourself to feel something with this music, but not that music? I'm back to that primeval "choice" situation again, aren't I?
On a more analytical level, I get a lot of pleasure from staying with an album, a band, an artist for longer periods of time, where the music will have an instant impact on me, where I can tell that it's dense and complex enough so that I can chip away at it, and uncover more in it with each listen. So things like Autechre or energetic guitar based stuff like Three Trapped Tigers - stuff that's basically going into interesting places, structurally, harmonically, rhythmically - Prog rock - unpredictable time signatures etc. - Ambitious arrangments and such...
At the same time, I can get easily bored with that shit too. I was listening to the most recent Alarmist album and thought to myself, "wow there's so much going on here, this is clever shit..." several songs later I just felt like it was a boring load of wank... Lots of clever notes and musicality and musicianship, but zero attention to presenting a complete piece of work that has any sort of intriguing evolution or narrative. Also why I don't listen to a lot of "standard" rock music: albums just go nowhere, all the songs sound the same. I like a bit of drama and story, I suppose.
Electronic music seems better at this, at times. For example, Jon Hopkins won't have 14 songs that are all the same tempo, he'll have some more ambient moments and how things evolve in and out of these different grooves, feels very conscious and intentional. Aphex Twin doesn't seem to do this so much, but each song can be anything from a funny pisstake journey through silly beats and noises, to moving piano recital, to technical mastery and chaotic experimentation ...
But ... I have found myself being more impressed by music from the 40s and 50s over recent times, where musicality was everything, all the little clever ways instruments come in and out, the little trills and flourishes around relatively simple grooves and chords ... the nostalgic way we hear it all now, through crackly wax cylinders. It feels social and connected and real in a very pleasing way to me, that a lot of modern music doesn't.
I can't listen to a lot of modern music, because I can instantly hear the hours and hours of boring perfection every element has gone through to the point where it might as well just be an 8 bit chip inside a christmas card.
Something very life affirming and uplifting, that I heard recently was, Congrats by Holy Fuck and Vaetxh / Rob Clouth kinda blows my mind with everything he's done. Err.... A lot of the (pretty much all the) stuff you cunts post in Oscillations will get me excited, it reminds me I should really do more digging.