Well, that had been kind of strange. Richard wasn't sure if he had seen anyone have that kind of reaction to Roald Dahl before. Still, the fact that Adam had recognized the book, and approved, made up for any strangeness. He would have commented on it, but Adam went on to the next topic and Richard followed willingly, putting the book onto its shelf and going for another handful as he listened.
Talking music had gotten complicated for Richard over the past few years, and he considered what stance he should take as Adam talked. His own collection cut off rather abruptly at 1990, not because he hadn't listened to things past that point, but because there was enough that he loved before then to keep him busy collecting for the rest of his life. As a consequence his musical knowledge after a certain point was incredibly patchy, limited in a large part to what showed up on the radio and who won which Grammys. So, while he recognized the first two names that Adam mentioned, he couldn't have named anything they had recorded.
Cave, on the other hand, was well inside his realm of knowledge. Richard remembered hearing about the edgy musician early on, and he had tried to keep up on the odd career. "Cave and I have an on again off again thing," he said, honesty winning out as it always did in music conversations. "I'm not a big fan of The Birthday Party. They were just trying to do too much at once. But his later stuff, especially the stuff when he's pulling on traditional folk music? Some of that is legitimately great. 'Murder Ballads' and 'The Boatman's Call' especially." He didn't own either of the albums, but the songs he had happened across had made enough of an impression for him to hunt down the tracklists and listen to them on youtube.
He wondered where else Adam's tastes went. Towards the dark end of the musical spectrum, that was clear from Cash and Cave. It was a little early to mention or recommend anybody else, though, however much Richard wanted to. And he found he did want to, for some reason. Talking music was fun in and of itself, but getting someone to discover an artist that they really liked, that was always more exciting. Souxsie and the Banshees might work here, he thought, but he would wait to bring them up until he was sure. Adam had probably already heard of them, anyway.