12 Albums.

I was going to do a 'Top 10 albums of all time' but not only is this incredibly hard - to choose favourites and the hierarchy of them, it inevitably raises debates of taste with some narrow minded people refusing to accept the fact that you like 'The Darkness' (That didn't mean to sound catty but I think you get the jist of what I mean).

Anywho, the following list is of 12 albums that, for me, I can always come back to listen to, triggering memories and events,  as well as shaping my musical taste and my creative side to some extent. A favourite hobbie of mine used to be to lie on my bed, listen to an album on my CD player with the volume quite loud, drawing away in my sketchbooks.
They're not in any particular order at all, that would be way too hard. I'll say a bit about each and have a hyperlink so you can sample the album if you haven't come across it already.


1) Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin II - This was the first Zeppelin album I ever listened to, Dad got it for me when I was about 11 I think? It was immense with 'Whole Lotta Love' being the opening track which I did recognize instantly from the old Top Of The Pops intro. Solid album with 'Moby Dick', 'Living Loving Maid (She's just a Woman)' and 'Bring It Home' being my favourites, the rest of them are really good too don't get me wrong. I've always come across people saying 'Led Zeppelin IV' is the best album, but for me this is the best by far.

2) The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Electric Ladyland - Oh he has to have a Jimi album doesn't he! How typical! Shush. Have you listened to this album?! Amazing album, truly is. My Dad had this one back from day so I used to ask if I could listen to it, run upstairs and be amazed by the 'talking' guitars and just raw passion of it. Phwoar.

3) Foo Fighters - One By One - If an album could describe an age in my life, this would be my 16th for sure. This first got my attention when I saw the video for 'Low' with Dave Grohl and Jack Black which came on a a Creative Review DVD - great video, so dark and funny, hadn't quite seen a music video like it before. So I bought the album based on that song, and to my amazement it was just full of rockin' songs, their best album by a mile.

4) LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem - A few of you that know me well will know I really like LCD. Or more recently, I've getting annoyed at all the 'Hipsters' starting to like them
just because it's 'cool'. I hate you hipsters! LCD is all about layering in my opinion, building upon a slow tempo and adding another layer of music onto the next, not in an obvious manner either, that's the great thing it's very subtle. Throughout all their songs, repetition is a key element (as is with most songs out there but hear me out) this is how they're able to build their layers and progress from from one tempo to the next, creating a rhythm and manipulating it. More popular songs such 'Daft Punk Is Playing At My House' and 'Tribulations' have a great bass-y and electro feel to it. Very uncommon style to hear of when they first came and only a few have been able to mimic something similar. Also, on top of all this with the unconventional vocals of James Murphy makes for memorable tracks, just because they're so different.

5) Stereophonics - Just Enough Education To Perform - A really nice album with a bunch of their classics before they got 'over-rocky' in my opinion. The song, 'Mr Writer' is really under-rated as one of their bests I think, it's really different from a lot of their stuff because it's a bit more dark. Although everyone does enjoy 'Have a nice day' and 'Good to be out'.

6) Franz Ferdinand - Frank Ferdinand - This was another album where I came across their music videos first then bought the album. 'Take Me Out' is an amazing video and I remember being awe-struck at the creative effort that had gone into it, really stood out from the rest with it's clever use of animation. Plus it was a tune, the whole album is, and I do agree, they definitely made girls dance to indie music. I also think that they have always been ahead of their time. I've been listening to their albums again recently and I do think they could of easily come out now and still be a hit. Great second album too, it's almost like a narrative, a story does flow from song to song. Owh they should release another album.

7) Juliana Hatfield - Only Everything - Another from the 'Dad collection', an American singer/songwriter, had a couple of albums out and was quite popular for the US Indie scene in the early 90's. I started listening to her when I was about 15, I really liked the punk attitude of the guitars and her voice ( I don't mean like proper punk, just a slight edge to it, ya know?). It's enjoyable and it was great at the teenage angst stage. I do feel 15 when I listen to this album. Time traveling album!

8) Gorillaz - Gorillaz - I remember this coming out when I was in Year 7 (so when I was about 12). 'Clint Eastwood' was an amazing hybrid of a song and yet again I was amazed at the music video animation and this Cartoon band  who were designed by the legend that is Jamie Hewlett, I loved it. I remember for an Art project we had to design a theatre poster a la Toulouse Lautrec and I did mine for Gorillaz. I still have it, it's behind me as I type this. Although the album is fairly good I think I was more in love with the idea of cartoon characters coming to life to make songs, with my vivid imagination just taking over. In a way I wish Damon Albarn didn't make himself known through them, I liked the mysterious element of knowing it was him singing, but it wasn't him, it was 2D of Gorillaz. As soon as he made it more obvious it was him, it became about him. Like 'Damon Albarn and Friends'. So it became his elaborate project, and he has taken it far by all means and done well with them, making a theatre production, various other projects and solid albums, the newest, 'Plastic Beach' is pretty good. I just get too attached to my cartoon characters!

9) Linkin Park - Hybrid Theory - I actually first listened this via my younger brother, his friends were getting into 'Papa Roach' and 'Linkin Park' so he got their latest album, and it was unlike anything I've heard before in terms of mixing genres of music. Great rapping over heavy and melodic tunes, it's just clever music.

10) The Killers - Hot Fuss - Pioneers in 00's Indie rock music, developing from Franz Ferdinand in the sense of making music that could be danced to and be good, enjoyable rock music too. I think they've only be labelled as 'Indie' because it's not full on rock, which is fair enough but a some-what misleading tag for them if you ask me. Another album where all the sings are great, powerful songs with memorable lyrics (always good really isn't it?). Almost said ballad-eque there but that could be exaggerating a bit there! Hopefully you know what I mean. Plus Brandon Flowers is quite the cool chap. Although no the new solo stuff, just sounds like Killers Mk. II and not in an exciting way.

11) Sum 41 - All Killer No Filler - This is probably my proper teenage angst album, so full energy and 'punk' with a 'yeah rock on!' type attitude. This album really sold the idea of America to me for some reason, when I was a young teenager I really wanted to live in America because it seemed so cool at the time in High Schools with all the necessary shinnagens that you would get up to, Sum 41 mainly fueling this for me. Like I said it's a lively album with catchy tunes, anyone who really likes any sort of rock would of love this album when it came out.

12) Velvet Underground & Nico - Velvet Underground - Ha another 'Dad' one, I was about 13 I think and this came about when I heard the opening of 'Venus in Furs' on 'Never mind the Buzzcocks' when they were doing the guess the song bit, when they revealed the real song, I said to my Dad I really wanted to hear the rest. He said he had the album, and brought it to my room upstairs saying "Don't tell your mum you're listening to this" I didn't quite get why he said that at the time. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Velvet Underground and in particular the song 'Venus in furs' written by Lou Reed actually, it's based on a book about sadomasochism, bondage and submission. At that age I didn't quite get that, mainly because I had a habit which I still sometimes do of just listening to the music and not the lyrics at all. But yeah, I caught the REAL meaning behind the song when I was about 15 and I was like "Ooooooooooooh". The rest of the album is really interesting, some creepy songs and some chilled out songs, 'Black Angels Death song' is particularly good.

So yeah, those are probably my favourite 12 albums that I would come back to each time and (touch wood) never get bored of.

TTFN

Jamie