All The Records I've Ever Owned

  Released: 2001 Label: Parlophone When I bought: 2001 If you needed proof that Radiohead really were ploughing a lonely furrow for alternative music in the early 00s, you only have to look at the singles chart for the week ending June 2 2001. Number 1 that week was 'Do You Really Like It?' by DJ Pied Piper, while number 2 was 'Don't Stop Movin'' by S Club 7. Other acts in the top ten included Dido, Blue, Geri Halliwell, and Nelly ft City Spud. And there at number 5, in what was the band's first single release since 'No Surprises' three years earlier, was 'Pyramid Song' by Radiohead. That must have been a hell of a gear change on the Chart Show that week when they went from the R&B pop sounds of 'No More (Baby I'ma Do Right)' by 3LW (yeah I had no recollection of this group either) to a mournful, suspenseful, on-beat-to-off-beat piano led art-rock tune. Coming a year after 'Kid A', 'Amnesiac' represents the lef...

  Released: 2004 Label: NME When I bought: 2004 In ye olde days before streaming, and even YouTube, it wasn't possible to hear within a matter of moments pretty much every song ever released. Therefore, compilations like this by the NME actually had a degree of value. Take 'Paperbag Writer' by Radiohead, a b-side from 'There There', the lead single from 2003's Hail to the Thief. I bought the album but not the single, so I'd never heard this tune. It's a brilliant track, with its electronic shuffle beat and muffled vocals making it sound like a left over from Kid A, or the starting point for Thom Yorke's debut solo album which would be released the following year. Likewise, 'See You Soon' by Coldplay. A true delight from a 1999 EP, with delicate guitar playing, scarce production, and honest vocal delivery. It's a reminder that once upon a time Chris Martin et al were able to operate with that oft-neglected trait: restraint. As a snapshot o...

Released: 2009 Label: Self-released When I bought: 2024 I've only just started buying vinyl records so don't have a massive collection.  My self-imposed rule is that, where possible, I should buy records made by obscure or up-and-coming artists and label. Do I really need Pink Floyd, David Bowie etc on vinyl? Maybe, but they - and their record companies - all have enough money. As someone who runs a small record label, I know what a difference it can make to your bank account and morale when you sell something you've put out into the world. With all that in mind, I was in Toronto this summer visiting my wife's friends and family. Toronto has some incredible record shops, and I stocked up. I bought albums by acts I'd never heard of because they were local artists and I wanted to hear something completely unexpected (plus hopefully accrue some karmic points which would lead to someone taking a risk on something from my label one day). So here we have this album: Ninet...

  Released: 2003 Label: Arista When I bought: 2003 See, I *told* you this would be every record I own picked at random by my daughter. Otherwise, in the name of credibility, I might have conveniently forgotten to include this record.  Look, I've always been a pop music fan. I grew up with three sisters, and a father who thinks Pete Waterman is a musical genius. Pure pop was always part of my musical palette. So yes, there are pop albums in my collection. It's easy to forget just how huge Dido was. Around 2003/2004 she was, for a time, the biggest pop singer in the UK. Her debut album was the second biggest selling record of the 2000s, and follow-up 'Life For Rent', is seventh on that list. I bought this album in 2003. I have strong memories of listening to it when I was briefly at University of Glamorgan studying English. I dropped out after a few months, partly because I was going a bit mad, and partly because I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, but being i...

Released: 1967 Label: Verve Records (this CD, Polydor) When I bought: Received as a present in 2010 What is there left to say about an album that is so revered it has an almost mythical status? Famously low-selling on its initial 1967 release – although every one who bought a copy went on to form a band, according to Brian Eno - the record pretty much invented art-rock. Produced by Andy Warhol, who of course did the art work, without this record there wouldn't have been Bowie, Jesus and Mary Chain, The Strokes etc etc etc. It's a cult classic, but does it still hold up? Track opener 'Sunday Morning' is perhaps one of the most beautiful and delicate beginnings to any album ever, and provides a contrast to the album closer 'European Son', which ends the record with a cacophony of a-tonal guitars. These two tracks really show the album for what it is: the come up and the come down. The party and the hangover. There are songs on this album that lesser bands have bui...

Released: 1998 Label: Fontana When I bought: Can't remember James are one of the great under-appreciated UK bands. Sure, 'Sit Down' will pay their pension, but there's so many great tunes that have been swallowed up and forgotten. When people talk about the great UK bands of the 80s and 90s, they never get a nod. Early in the band's career saw an involvement with Factory Records, but they rarely get a mention when that label is talked about. I remember very clearly when this singles collection was released. It was one of the records that made up the soundtrack to my summer of 1998. I was 13 years old, and into two things: football and music.  At that age I used to spend most of my non-school time in a park at the end of the road I lived in in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, playing football with a bunch of lads about 3 or 4 years older who lived in the neighbourhood. They always had cool CDs, and one of them was this. Seemingly endless games of headers and vo...