Desert Island Discs - 10 Albums
1. Stone Roses - Stone Roses: It reminds of my best mate who's still dancing to 'I am the Resurrection' on a beach somewhere, I guess. And it's a perfect album. Not a fault.
2. Pixies - Trompe Le Monde: It doesn't remind me of anything special at all but it's just the epitome of cool, I think. And, oh yeah, Motorway to Roswell reminds me of Babyatom's copy on which that song was right at the end of side 1 so he repeated it at the beginning of side 2. Could be a false memory, but I'm pretty sure that's where it was. When I learnt to drive in Dad's Nissan Micra, that was the tape I used to listen to, hurtling down the road at 25 mph! The album as a whole is kinda uplifting too, even though I have not a clue what he is singing about. Often the way with good albums, I reckon.
3. Ride - Carnival of Light: When I started uni in 1994 I wore a Carnival of Light T-shirt. A good friend I made at uni later said that he had tried so hard to not like me because I was wearing a 'very 'indie' T-shirt'. Fair enough. But that album was fantastic. Again, I remember exactly where I was when I listened to it the most - in the back seat of Mum and Dad's car on the way to France for our perennial summer holiday. A very uplifting sort of album full of great melodies.
4. Badly Drawn Boy - The Hour of the Bewilderbeast: I listened to this on my MP3 player in Japan almost religiously on the way to teach tiny kids, English, in the hills and valleys of the Kanto region of Japan. To me, the whole album is forever linked to trains and views of paddy fields and rolling mountains.
5. Jimmy Hendrix - All Along the Watchtower: I don't know whether I'm remembering this because it sounds cool or not, but this song accompanied the most joyful nap I've ever had. It's not an album, but I remember being sprawled out on my bed at home and listening to this song on tape and just falling into a wonderful afternoon nap as the sun shone on in approval. It was nice. Don't know what I dreamed, but I think it must have included angels and rainbows and unicorns.
6. Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream: The first band I adored! This album was given to me for my Birthday by my best mate. I loved it to bits even though he tried to convince me The Stone Roses were better. At that time, in my bedroom in France, I was most taken by Spaceboy. I recall not really being able to hear Billy's voice for most of the album. Weird, because now that's all I can hear when I listen. To coincide with the release of Siamese Dream, they did an interview from Biily's home in Chicago (I'm guessing) and the centre page interview had a picture of Billy and Co. in the snow looking nice and friendly. I liked that interview and picture. After that, I started sounding like Billy Corgan when I sung. Which was annoying.
7. Radiohead - Pablo honey: At school there was another kid who liked Indie music. Nope, that's not right. At school there were loads of kids that liked Indie music. I didn't like anything at first. I hadn't developed properly. I could barely walk. Nope, that's not right either. At school lots of kids liked Indie music and after my brother forced me to like The Cure, I too developed an obsession with bands that no-one had really heard of. I used to read NME and I think one week they had a review of Lemonheads', It's a Shame About Ray. It got a good review so I quickly bought the tape. Turned out it was cool. I told a kid at school who was keen on music too and when I told him, he happened to be listening to Pablo Honey on his CD player. I listened to that, then dumped Lemonheads for Radiohead. Just a different kind of head really. Stop Whispering and Talking About You stood out. Creep, for some reason didn't.
8. Wedding Present - Bizarro/Seamonsters: I think those are the albums. My copy was from said Radiohead fan/discoverer. I was instantly hooked by the tales of lost-love. Nope, that's not right. I was instantly hooked by the great melodies - didn't have a clue what he was singing about!
9. Bright Eyes- Lifted: This is another Japan album. I saw the Bowl of Oranges video on Sky and loved it. And this time it is for the lyrics. I love his lyrics. Honest, poetic, and full of wisdom.
10. Ben Folds - Songs for Silverman: Japan, Japan, Japan. We used to sing a lot of these songs at Karaoke and we went and saw him in Nagoya. He's great and again his lyrics are what stand out - clever, funny, and heart warming.
Hey, that's 10! I don't think they'd be any good on a desert island. And they're mostly records I used to listen to. These days I'd just take 10 copies of Vampire Weekend!!
Oh, well. It's a weird thing though, how much memory is attached to music. Maybe without music we wouldn't have memory...
