That guy from The Dirty Three --his guitar is just so beautiful on that whole Moon Pix album. Still, If I heard this fresh now, I'd probably just be like "meh". Which is my response to nearly everything new that I ever hear.
What can I say? We are what we are, and what I am is OLD
There's something I've noticed about these lists of songs. I suspect I'm about average age for a FOT but 5-10 years older than most of the people who have posted on this thread. The more recent stuff people mention, like Belle & Sebastian, Iron & Wine, and Cat Power, strike me as "sad," but don't actually make me sad. And my own sad songs are all from the 70s and 80s. I suspect that sad songs are mostly sad by personal association, maybe nostalgia for a period of time that will never come back.
I also have a sad feeling surrounding the music I was listening to in 1996, which was a particularly rough time in my life, but none of it was sad-sounding: Bjork, Red Hot Chili Peppers, White Zombie, The Wu-Tang Clan. And I've got a hopeful feeling surrounding other music, anxiety around still other music, etc. etc.
I'm not going to compare pop music to Proust's madeleine here, in case anyone's wondering.