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Urban Hymns - The Verve

  Year Released: 1997 Label: Hut Records / Virgin Records Year Bought: Can't remember It's hard to critique this album as it's just one of those albums that everyone universally considers to be great. I'll be honest, I've never really listened to it properly. The singles are ace, and I'm sure I gave it a spin way back when, but when it came out I was still on my Oasis trip, and then shifted to Radiohead and Jeff Buckley, so Urban Hymns just sort of lived in my peripheral vision. I knew the singles, that was enough for me. As album openers go, Bittersweet Symphony is up there with Smells Like Teen Spirit on Nevermind and Rock n Roll Star on Definitely Maybe as the perfect encapsulation of a band's ethos. It's the perfect headline. You can read on, but it tells you everything you need to know. When I saw Richard Ashcroft playing this at Wembley last year supporting Oasis, the whole stadium got to their feet like it's the national anthem. Let's be h...
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Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand

Year Released: 2004 Label: Domino Year Bought: 2004 January 2004. I'd just quit uni. Was back at the family home in Bishop's Stortford. The place I'd been so desperate to get away from, and I was back and already bored.  And then things got a bit less boring. I remember this so clearly. I was having a shower and the radio was on, and on came 'Take Me Out'. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. At first I thought it must be an old tune that had passed me by, but no, it was announced as a new song by a band called Franz Ferdinand. It sounded glorious. It sounded interesting. After the staleness of the post-Britpop years, and beigeness of Coldplay, Travis et al, there was actually a British band doing something interesting. I loved it, and when the album came out the next month, I gobbled it up with glee. Listening back now, and I still love it. The hushed opening of 'Jacqueline', the sleaze of 'The Dark of the Matinee', the homoeroticism of 'M...
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Coming Up – Suede

  Year Released: 1996 Label: Nude Year Bought: 2011 I know lots of people love this album, and it has got some great songs on it, but I just can't love it. It's too trebly, too thin, too cold. It kicks off with 'Trash', which is an absolutely brilliant tune with fantastic lyrics. Brett is at his absolute best here, with talk of "nowhere towns" and "cellophane sounds", and being the "litter on the breeze". I love it. But, alas we go from one of Suede's best songs to one of their worst. 'Filmstar' feels incredibly lazy. The riff is nothing, and as for the lyrics:  Filmstar propping up the bar driving in a car it looks so easy Filmstar propping up the bar driving in a car tonight These are Noel Gallagher-on-an-incredibly-bad-day lyrics.  I hate the riff, I hate the chorus, I hate the lyrics. I hate how shiny it is. It's lazy ... which is the title of the next song. This tune sees the first use on the album of the "here the...
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Blur — Blur

Year Released: 1997 Label: Food Year Bought: 2012 AND WHEN SHE LETS ME SLIP AWAY.... The opening track of Blur's fifth album is undoubtedly one of their best. I remember when "Beetlebum" came out that it felt like a gear shift from the band. Later in the same year, Radiohead did the same with 'Paranoid Android'. Oasis's big comeback single in 1997, "D'You Know What I Mean" didn't have the same vibes. Anyway, the self-titled album from Blur sees the band pretty much withdrawing from the Britpop battle. The chopping guitar of "Beetlebum" in many ways tells you everything you need to know about the record. Lo-fi, rough, a bit aggressive, the album sees Graham Coxon's love of US alt-rock, particularly Beck, dominating the sound. Take "You're So Great", a Coxon penned and performed tune that sounds like it was recorded on an old tape player. This is no "Country House". "Country Sad Ballad Man" sounds...
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Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge – My Chemical Romance

Year Released: 2004 Label: Reprise Year Bought: 2012 Yes it's been a while but fear not, I am back on my odyssey to listen to all the records I own. Today it's a hit of emo from one of the titans of the genre. 'Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge' is the second album by My Chemical Romance, and reached my ears when it was released via my younger sister, who was massively into all this. Back in 2004 I acted all aloof about this whole genre, which seemed to me to be the aural equivalent of throwing a teenager tantrum after your mum had told you to clean your room. Yet there were some good tunes. 'I'm Not OK (I Promise)' was the big radio/video hit, and I did like it even back then — even if I kept that to myself. I really got into MCR when they released the follow-up to this - 'The Black Parade' - but never got round to getting this album until 2012. It kicks off with 'Helena', which is an absolutely rollocking, ridiculous, over-the-top start to an ...
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Like You Do – Best Of The Lightning Seeds

Year Released: 1997 Label: Epic Year Bought: 1997 (cassette) - not sure about this CD  This album is so 90s. I had it on cassette when it came out and played it to death. Literally, it broke. I loved it. It reminds me of playing football in the park, Euro 96, hours on Championship Manager. Glorious youth. I'm not sure when I bought the CD but I do know that when my car was broken into in Colchester in 2010 the thieves took the CD player but removed this from it first and left it on the seat. Everyone's a critic, aren't they. It's a collection I still listen to and it takes me back to my early teenage years every time.  'Life of Riley' will always be the Goal of the Month soundtrack, 'Sugar Coated Iceberg' is still delightful, and 'Three Lions' is the best football song ever made. Ok, some of it is a bit too candy floss. 'Brain Drain' has nursery rhyme-level lyrics in the chorus, and the extra long intro to 'Marvellous' kills the p...
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Bowie at the Beeb – David Bowie

Year Released: 2000 Label: EMI, Virgin Year Bought: 2002  Bought in February 2002 as my Bowie obsession was in full swing, this double CD of his BBC sessions from 1968 to 1972 is one for the purists. CD1 CD1 is full of songs that never entered the public consciousness, and you can see why. They are perfectly fine, but nothing memorable, and show that Bowie was still very much working out his art at the end of the 1960s. That's not to say it's not worth a listen though. "In The Heat of the Morning" is pure 60s pop, while "Silly Boy Blue" and "Let Me Sleep Beside You" are decent. Bowie's only 60s hit, "Space Oddity", is missing from these sessions, with Bowie explaining in one of the interview clips you'd need three orchestras to pull it off. What you do get though is Bowie bringing together some of his most important future collaborators.  Frequent producer Tony Visconti pops up with the Tony Visconti Orchestra for the first sessio...
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