A is for Albums

nyone who knows me even vaguely should know that I love music. I've loved it since I was fairly young, and at one time I had a huge (bootleg) music collection on cassette tape, which I only recently disposed of. I don't remember exactly what my first album was, but I think it was either Now That's What I Call Music 5 or Hits 3 (The Tape), both of which came out in 1985. The latter album is undoubtedly the best album ever made, but sadly I no longer have a copy. Just check out this playlist... there's not a single bad song, and so many excellent ones. "Life in a northern town" by Dream Academy? Awesomeness! Listen while you read:

I would like to take you through eleven of the best albums of my life. It's been fairly straightforward choosing these, unusually... they're simply the albums that I'm still listening to 10 or 20 years after they were released. Also, since I'm fairly musically fickle, at a later date I'll take you through five of the albums I'm listening to now that I think might stand the test of time.

A bit of background: I grew up in the 1980s, by religion we listened to the Top 40 on BBC Radio 1 pretty much every Sunday night. My family drove around quite a lot... long road trips to visit distant family were dominated by my parents' taste in music. If my dad got his way it was Chris Rea, the Beach Boys, Tom Petty, Dire Straits and the Travelling Wilburys. On the rare occasions that my mum won, it was Cliff Richard, Tina Turner, Madness and The Doors. A fair mix, which probably had the effect on me of aversion therapy. With that in mind, let's dive in to the top albums, listed chronologically:

Bat Out of Hell -- Meat Loaf (1977). This is the fifth best-selling album of all time, having sold about 43 million copies. That means there's about one copy for every 160 people on the planet. It came out in 1977, before I was even born. Every track is a rock-opera style belter, and I am proud to be able to belt the lyrics out alongside Meat himself. This album never fails to lift my mood. Favourite track has to be "All Revved Up with No Place to Go", entirely for the baseball commentary at the end.

Whitney -- Whitney Houston (1987). Whitney Houston's first album has a few good tracks on it, but this, her sophomore album, is packed with powerful ballads and rhythmic and catchy upbeat numbers. I am fairly embarrassed to say that I probably know all the lyrics to this album, but even more embarrassed to say that I lifted many of the lyrics to include as lines in love poems to girlfriends. I was young, what can I say?

Appetite for Destruction -- Guns'n'Roses (1987). For many years I wasn't allowed to listen to this album, the "Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics" sticker being heeded to the letter. One of my parents got it as part of a CD club deal... I'm not sure why. It really wasn't their taste in music at all, although my mum's penchant for Thin Lizzy makes her the prime suspect. What an excellent debut album though, surely one of the best ever? This album is packed with so many memorable songs. I probably know the lyrics to every single one. "Sweet Child O'Mine" and "Paradise City" are the most well-known, but "Nighttrain" and "Mr. Brownstone" stick in my mind.

Out of Time -- REM (1991). Now for something less embarrassing and more critically acclaimed. This was probably REM's first big album. The band from Athens, Georgia put together a jingly-jangly album evocative of sunshine, cornfields and the American midwest. "Shiny Happy People" and "Losing My Religion" were the songs picked up by the radio stations at the time, but the song of the album for me is "Near Wild Heaven". "Low" is also a big favourite. For a long time if anyone asked me, I would say that this was my favourite album ever. Clearly better than any other album REM have put out, except maybe for their retrospective which also came out in 1991, "Best of REM".

The Definitive... -- Simon and Garfunkel (1991). This is a bit of a cop-out since it's a "Best Of" album, but it holds a place dear in my heart since it was my first ever CD -- part of a Christmas present with my first ever CD player. There are loads of good tracks, from the broody "Sound of Silence" and "The Boxer" to the foot-tapping "59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)" and "El Condor Pasa (If I Could)".

Achtung Baby -- U2 (1991). To round off the hattrick of albums from 1991, this early U2 classic. For a couple of years I kept hearing great songs on the radio, and I'd never figured out who they were by (this was way before Google). Then one day I was visiting my uncle with my family and he put on a CD... and the stereo played iconic rock song after iconic rock song: it was all the songs that I'd been hearing for the past couple of years. I managed to steal a look at the CD cover, and the mystery was revealed: Achtung Baby. So many good tracks.

Rage Against The Machine -- Rage Against The Machine (1992). This is another one of those albums, like Bat Out of Hell and Achtung Baby, that fits together so well you just have to listen to it in its entirety every time. It's definitely a magnum opus, and it marked a change in my musical listening to a heavier sound.

August and Everything After -- Counting Crows (1994). After REM's "Out of Time" was released, I struggled to find anything I liked as much musically. Their follow-up album, "Automatic for the People" was a disappointment... it sounded a little too "produced". And then along came this beauty, which blew my socks off. It had everything that "Out of Time" had, including the delicate little ballads. But with "August..." there wasn't that hint of country twang which came with "Out of Time", which made it better in my books at the time. Great album, with some great tracks: "Perfect Blue Buildings", "Anna Begins", "Raining in Baltimore".

Tragic Kingdom -- No Doubt (1995). I kind of hate this album because it reminds me of Sundays, and Sundays for me were the most painfully boring day of the week when I was growing up. I really really really hated Sundays. No shops were open, there was nothing to do, it was a day of chores and "getting ready for school". Musically it was a day of listening to Dave Lee Travis, Fluff Freeman and Ken Bruce on BBC Radio 2 (kill me now), and occasionally parts of this album would be on. Years on from then, though, those associations have somewhat worn off, revealing an album that is a cracker. Loads of bouncy, quirky, funky songs to sing along with.

If You're Feeling Sinister -- Belle and Sebastian (1996). I first heard this album sitting in a friend's room in a hall of residence in my first year at university. It blew me away, because it was like nothing I'd ever heard before. I consider this to be my first ever "grown-up music". At times it's painfully awkward, at other times it just runs away with you, like a lanky boy stumbling through a cross-country race on Games afternoon. Each track is individual and finely crafted; stand-out tracks for me are "Get Me Away from Here, I'm Dying", "Like Dylan in the Movies" and "Judy and the Dream of Horses".

Word gets around -- The Stereophonics (1997). To round off the top 11, what feels like a modern album... still! I seriously have to limit how much I listen to this album because the songs will just be stuck in my head for weeks to a painful extent. Even thinking about it now, phantom singers in my head are keening "Billy Davey's second daughter // threw herself to dirty water // Billy's left with nothing but a dream." There's not a single bad song on this album, it's pretty much perfect.

A little bonus, but I can't add this to the top 11 since I don't own this album any more:
The White Room -- KLF (1991). 1991 was clearly a year of good music. This classic album from the KLF is jam-packed with good tracks. From the opening "What Time Is Love?" to the Tammy-Wynette-free "Justified and Ancient", the album is a very funky listen.

E is for East Coast

very once in a while you come across a music artist who just seems completely different to anyone you've heard before, and they just blow your mind. That's kind of what happened to me when I discovered Jenny Owens Young's song, "Fuck was I". It was a song that spoke to me for its simplicity and its sheer truth. It came at a particularly poignant time in my life (see "D is for Divorce".) It was also the song that lead me into discovering a whole new movement of music, primarily coming out of the East Coast states of the US -- New York and New Jersey. Check it out:



I was watching a show called "Weeds", from Showtime. It was fairly big in the States at the time, and all the cool kids were watching it. The first show of Season Two contained J.O.Y.'s song, "Fuck was I", and its haunting and anguished refrain just had me hooked. I immediately found out who the song was by, and listened to the rest of her songs (on Myspace, I think, such were the times!). That song came from her first studio album, "Batten the Hatches", which was an independent release back in 2005. I ordered it, along with her "The Scrappy Demo" EP, and received both from the fair hand of Jenny herself. In 2007, she re-released "Batten the Hatches" under the Nettwerk label, and then in 2009 released her current studio album "Transmitter Failure". I have to say, I didn't like it at first. It was a lot more poppy and upbeat compared to the stripped-back, relaxed tone of Batten. I think I probably listened to it a couple of times, and then let it fester on the shelf. I went back to it later that year, though, with fresh ears, and was just blown away. The songs are definitely growers, and the whole album is really packed full of gems. I think it is probably one of the most listenable albums I own. Check her out playing some old and newer songs, courtesy of the SXSW music festival and Roxwel.com:



Jenny, along with many of her modern singer-songwriter kinfolk, plies her trade extensively through the internet. As well as being active on Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, Ustream/Livestream and I daresay, Myspace, she uses the internet to her advantange, advertising shows and merchandise, and even raising money for her next album. Through Kickstarter, Jenny asked her fans for $20,000 to record and release a new CD. Within *28 hours* she had that, and more, such was the devotion of her fanbase, and the power of internet-based word-of-mouth. On day 2, she upped the goal to $30,000 and that was reached too. Currently, the project has been funded to the tune of $38,543 by 646 people. Most of these people will receive a copy of Jenny's new album, effectively buying it in advance and easing the financial nightmare it must be to record and produce an album.

But Jenny Owen Youngs is not out there fighting the good fight for singer-songwriters on her own. Oh no, she is surrounded by a veritable commune of folky friends... Brooklyn is bursting at the seams with blossoming talent. A similar tale of success belongs to Ingrid Michaelson, who found fame through an episode of Grey's Anatomy. Her songs are now heard all over the US, she has performed nationwide TV and she even wrote Cheryl Cole's recent UK hit, "Parachute", widening her renown. She recently duetted with Sara Bareilles at the White House, for President Obama. Ingrid's regular band contains two talented artists in their own rights, Allie Moss and Bess Rogers, both of whom have solo releases. Her drummer (Elliot Jacobson), bassist (Chris Kuffner) and keyboard player (Saul Simon-MacWilliams) also play with other singers, including Allison Weiss, another internet phenom who has raised money for her musical projects through her fanbase. Of course, musical collaborations abound. The last couple of years have seen joint tours by Jenny, Bess and Allison; Allison, Bess and Lelia Broussard; Allison, Lelia and Lauren Zettler. Allison also plays with the band Field Mouse, comprised of her roommate, Rachel Browne, and friend Andrew Futral (who is also known as the solo act, Age of Rockets). Jenny, Bess, Andrew and Saul make up The Robot Explosion. Lauren often teams up with (accomplished solo) guitarist Cameron Mizell. Many others have cameo roles: Hailey Wojcik, Julie Peel, Mercy Bell, Amanda Duncan, Joanna Burns, Dannielle Owens-Reid, Alexa Wilkinson, Maryanna Sokol, Katie Herzig, the list goes on. The endearing, and enduring, thing about all these talented musicians is that they're personable, they're personal, they're regular people with amazing skills, all willing to share them with you via internet updates, online webcasts, or if you're really lucky, at a show near you. Oh, and by the way, their music ROCKS!!