All The Records I've Ever Owned

Year Released: 1992 Label:  MCA Year Bought: 2001 You know a film or TV soundtrack has done it's job when you can't hear the songs from it without thinking of a particular scene. Reservoir Dogs delivered two such iconic moments, thanks to Quentin Tarantino's ear for matching the sublime with the ridiculous. Is there anyone out there who doesn't wince a little when they hear 'Stuck In The Middle With You'? Has there been a group of lads wearing suits since 1992 where one of them didn't start singing the opening bars of 'Little Green Bag'?  The rest of the songs on this compilation are pretty much all spot on. 'I Gotcha' by Joe Tex is a brilliant slice of soul, Blue Swede's cover of 'Hooked On A Feeling' sounds as bonkers today as it did when it was released in 1973, while 'Fool For Love' is a yee-haw country song. Bedlam's cover of Steppenwolf's 'Magic Carpet Ride' isn't particularly one for me, but even...

Year Released: 1978 Label: Polydor Year Bought: Unsure When I first started learning to play the guitar, my school mate Daniel took me under his wing and made me some cassettes with songs I had to know. Daniel could already play the guitar, was good at football, and had a cool haircut. Therefore, I trusted his judgement.* One cassette was filled with early Beatles stuff, and the other was songs by The Jam. Both blew my tiny mind.  While I loved the melodies and musicianship of the Beatles, the Jam spoke to the angry young man persona I had fallen into as a teenager. All Mod Cons, the Jam's third album in two years, is the moment Paul Weller really finds consistency with his songwriting. The standout track is album closer, 'Down In The Tube Station At Midnight', which even nearly 40 years since its release sounds contemporary, with the protagonist being beaten up by men who "smell like pubs, and Wormwood Scrubs, and too many right-wing meetings". There's gems a...

Year Released: 1999 Label:  Independiente Year Bought: 1999 'Twas the year before the new millennium, and all through the country, everyone just wanted to have a sit down and a cup tea. Britpop was over, inoffensive pop and pop artists were back dominating the charts, and Radiohead had gone missing. In this vacuum, Travis - out of nowhere - became huge. The Man Who was the group's second album, coming two years after debut Good Feeling barely made a splash. Trailed by two singles – 'Writing to Reach You' and 'Driftwood' – it was clear the group had moved to a more contemplative, acoustic direction. 'Why Does It Always Rain On Me?' was the big single, and propelled them to the A-List, while 'Turn' was a bit more U2, with a suitably arena-sized chorus. I tried really hard to love Travis, but I just couldn't. To be honest, I was pretty annoyed that they were the biggest guitar band in 1999. I was 14 and really wanted a new Oasis to emerge. I...

Y ear Released: 1996 Label: Hallmark Records  Year Bought: 2011 Thanks to men old enough to know better sporting long shorts, dyed green hair and dodgy piercings, ska music has something of an image problem. When some hear the word 'ska', they think of bands doing HILARIOUS cover versions of pop songs or unwashed teenagers in a field who think Jackass is funny. True  ska is, of course, nothing like that. Developed in Jamaica in the 1960s, it enjoyed a revival in the late 1970s through groups such as The Specials, Madness, and The Selecter. This compilation album, released in 1996 (I bought it off a market stall in Braintree in 2011), focuses very much on the first wave of ska. I'm no expert on this genre, but according to short essay in the CD sleeve, the genre name comes from "the scat singing often adopted by vocalists simply to keep up with the chugging instrumental rhythms." The iconic ska attire – suit, braces, boots – came about thanks to Desmond Dekker, who...

Year Released: 1966 Label: Columbia Year Bought: 2001 "You don't have it? That is perverse! Don't tell anybody you don't own fucking "Blonde on Blonde". It's gonna be okay." - Barry, High Fidelity And so, thanks to High Fidelity, I went to HMV on Oxford Street one afternoon in the summer of 2001 and bought Blonde on Blonde. I already had an early greatest hits collection that spanned Bob Dylan's output up until 1967, but this was my first album by the great man. Many consider Blonde on Blonde to be the first album - the first time an artist had thought about the coherence of a record as a singular art form, instead of a collection of songs. It is also thought to be the first double album - although the CD version that I have erases that presentation.  Recorded in Nashville by someone who was more at home in New York, Blonde is Blonde is seen as the final record in Dylan's folk rock trilogy - after Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revi...

Year Released: 1988 Label: Creation Year Bought: 2024 It is a truth universally acknowledged that the only reason to start an independent record label is to put out your own music. I present as evidence, Love is Forever, the fourth album from Biff Bang Pow! You might not have heard of the group, but you've heard of their singer and songwriter: Alan McGee. Released on his own Creation Records label - obviously - the album sees McGee indulge his love of 60s guitar pop. Side A (tracks one to five if you're streaming) has hints of The Smiths, The Byrds and other wall-of-sound guitar bands, but nothing really sticks in the mind. 'She Paints' is the pick of this side, with a guitar intro that sounds a bit George Harrison. An acoustic ballad, McGee delivers the tune in a sort of hushed style, a bit like an early Bobby Gillespie (whom McGee had known since school). "Country girl, you're my obsession," he sings at one point, beating his old friend to the topic by a...

Year Released: 2003 Label: ISO, Columbia   Year Bought: 2003 The 1990s was a strange time for David Bowie. Venerated by Britpop greats such as Brett Anderson and Noel Gallagher, and honoured by Kurt Cobain during Nirvana's Unplugged set, it could have been a decade of him carrying out endless nostalgia tours and cashing in on his place as the Grand Dame of alternative music on both sides of the Atlantic. The trouble was, Bowie had done the whole be-your-own-tribute-act schtick in the late 80s with the Glass Spider tour - a period so unfulfilling it led him to forming Tin Machine. And no one needed that to happen again. So Bowie spent the 90s doing pretty much the opposite of what people wanted him to do, and refused to bring back Ziggy or the Thin White Duke, instead focusing on experimental music (which is actually a very Bowie thing to do). As the century ticked over, Bowie started making albums that were a bit more radio friendly, and after a well-received Glastonbury set a...

Year Released: 2014 Label: Reprise, Warner Bros Year Bought: 2014 When frontmen/women make solo albums, there's always a question of whether the final product could have just been an album by their main band, or does it stand up in its own right? My Chemical Romance's Gerard Way released Hesitant Alien in 2014, a year after his band split up (and five years before they got back together). One of the leaders of the mid-00s emo scene, MCR hit it big with The Black Parade, a rock-opera album that channelled Meat Loaf, Queen, and Bruce Springsteen. Way was always an ambitious front man, and the former comic book artist was open about his love of British music - be it Bowie, Britpop, or shoegaze - long before he made this album. Those influences are splashed around Hesitant Alien, alongside the expected overwrought stylings so associated with MCR. The album kicks of with 'The Bureau', which has a real Berlin Bowie vibe. It's more interesting than many would expect, but i...

Year Released: 2003 Label: V2, XL, Third Man Year Bought: 2003 April 2003. The month I turned 18. I had a car, enough money for petrol, and was heading to the end of my time in sixth form. Driving round Bishop's Stortford with a couple of mates, doing not much, there were a handful of CDs in the glovebox - with the player plugged in of course via one of those cassette adaptors.  Elephant by The White Stripes was without doubt the most played. I'd seen them at Reading Festival the year before in a late afternoon slot sandwiched between The Dandy Warhols and Weezer, and it was probably the greatest set I have ever seen to this day. More on that when we get to White Blood Cells, but that gig made me fall in love with this duo - who seemed to come from another time, another world. The early 00s was the beginning of the hyper-processed. auto-tuned, sterile music that dominates the chart now, and to hear a band that were so analogue was, ironically, a breath of fresh air. Anyway, the...

Year Released: 1977 Label: Cleveland International, Epic Year Bought: 2024 I DON'T CARE. I know it's not cool or credible, but I DON'T CARE.  I LOVE THIS ALBUM. It's camp, ridiculous, over-the-top, pretentious – all the things I love. Rescued from the embers of a musical about Peter Pan (although this album was later turned into a musical), Jim Steinman wrote the songs, while Meat Loaf delivered the vocals. Numerous labels turned the album down - with many believing it only worked as a performance piece, with the heavy-set presence of Meat Loaf a captivating spectacle. Eventually released by Cleveland International - a subsidiary of Epic - Bat Out Of Hell found popularity in the UK and Australia before the US, but now it's one of the best-selling albums of all time. A mix of rock songs and ballads, much of the record is like a campier version of a Bruce Springsteen album – just listen to that saxophone on 'All Revved Up With No Place To Go'. This album is fu...

Year Released: 2014 Label: Columbia Year Bought: 2014 For some reason, and I genuinely can't remember why, I was anti-Kasabian when they first came out.  Perhaps I was too enthralled by the more post-punk vibes of their contemporaries such as Bloc Party and Franz Ferdinand, and I dismissed the lads from Leicester as nothing more than Oasis wannabes. Anyway, I was wrong, and Kasabian have not only outlasted many of those bands, they clearly have a great back catalogue. 48:13 was their fifth album, and I bought it after watching them headline Glastonbury in 2014 (as in, I was actually at the festival). They were brilliant that night. The crowd - full of flags and flares - were totally enthralled, and it was one of those sets where you were reminded of just how many brilliant songs a group has written. They really are the perfect festival band. This album - the only Kasabian record I own - is a synth heavy record with proper boisterous bangers. It is peppered with electronica and hip-...

  Year Released: 2000 Label: Warner Bros Year Bought: 2000 Taken from the album of the same name, this single was further confirmation Red Hot Chili Peppers were back on track after the disappointment of One Hot Minute. John Frusciante was once again on guitar duties after the band's experiment with Janes Addiction's Dave Novarro, and everything was a bit more melodic. You all know this tune. It was huge at the time, as was the whole album. I've never been a huge fan of the Chilis, but the Californication album does have some great songs - 'Scar Tissue' and 'Otherside' in particular.  This single got to number 16 on the UK chart in 2000, although it feels like it was a much bigger hit as the video was seemingly constantly on MTV2. B-sides on this CD are a live version of 'I Could Have Lied' from Blood Sugar Sex Magik and an 8 minute track called 'End of Show Brisbane' which I assume is just that. It's mainly just Flea playing something on...

Released: 1977 Label:  Elektra When I Bought: 2012

Released: 2006 Label: Locked On When I Bought: 2006 When the lead single from The Streets' third album was released, it suggested Mike Skinner was about to shine a light into the dark cave of mid 00s celebrity culture and show us all the worms and rats wriggling and scurrying just out of view. The track detailed his dalliance with a crack-smoking pop star who managed to keep it nice and clean for her CD:UK appearances. The tale was couched in the typical Skinner everyman sensibilities, letting us know that yes, when you're a famous boy, it gets really easy to get girls. But we can still identify with him as "when you try to pull a girl who is also famous too, it feels just like when you wasn't famous." When the album was released, I looked forward to hearing more tales from the darkness, but actually, the pervading theme of the album is that Skinner was lost in the cave with no light to guide him, 'Prangin Out' is a brilliant opening track. Paranoid, nasty...

Released: 1979 Label: 2 Tone When I Bought: 2008 The Specials debut album, a mixture of covers and originals, is one of those records that has transcended music to become a part of the zeitgeist.  A revolt against racism and divisiveness, released as the country began its long journey into Thatcherism, it is very much a snapshot of the time. The group were part of a 2 Tone movement alongside Madness, The Selecter and The Beat that managed to marry West Indies vibes to inner city life in the UK.  There's something about the cover that is so striking. The group are the embodiment of 2 Tone in every sense and them staring menacingly up into the camera conveys the sense that they are looking up at the establishment, and are ready to fight. Not that the album opening gives that impression. 'A Message To You Rudy' is a warm and laid-back tune. with soulful brass and a relaxed rhythm section inviting you to fall into the groove. The track, which probably has the best use of a harm...

  Released: 2013 Label: ISO, Columbia When I bought: 2013 David Bowie is one of my absolute favourite musicians of all time. I'll probably go more into that another time, but suffice to say I was delighted when in 2013 the first new Bowie album for 10 years appeared. Ushered in by the sublime 'Where Are We Now?', The Next Day had no press campaign ahead of its launch. One day there wasn't a new Bowie record, then, the next day, there was. The album kicks of with a drum whack and we're straight off into the title track. A short intro and there's the Dame, sounding as vibrant and mischievous as ever. The track bounces along before winding up and up into a chorus that demands to be shouted: "HERE I AM! NOT QUITE DYING!"  Ah it's exhilarating. And, as we know now, depressingly apt. It's a hell of way to kick off your 25th studio album. And so the record rumbles on, filled with urgency, nostalgia and life. Many of the tracks on The Next Day would fi...

Released: 2014 Label: Self-released When I bought: 2024 ( Listen to the album here ) This is another record I picked up in She Said Boom in Toronto. As I said when writing about 1977 , I wanted to get albums from local artists and small labels.  This record was sitting in the local artists section, and came as a vinyl/CD package, which is pretty good value for CA$6.99 (£3.90). I know nothing about Jonathan Billings, and can't find too much online (there's no information on his Spotify page) but it is clear there are two wolves inside the man - one is Dave Gilmore, and the other is Rory Gallagher. The majority of the album is solid, good old fashioned blues rocks.  '78 Buick','Yorkville', 'No Sympathy' 'When You See Me' are no nonsense tracks, with crunchy riffs and searing guitar solos. This is where the Rory Gallagher (and other blues player) influences are really on show. It sounds good on the record, but I reckon the best place for this music ...

  Released: 2001 Label: Immortal / Epic When I bought: 2001 The turn of the century was a pretty uninspiring time for the UK indie and alternative rock scene.  The Britpop party was over, and other than Radiohead it didn't feel a lot was going on.  That vacuum was filled with landfill US heavy rock bands - which I really hated.  Korn, Papa Roach, Limp Bizkit, Puddle of Mudd, System of a Down, Slipknot, Marilyn Manson - what an absolute torrent of tuneless, self-important, unimaginative crap. Unfortunately, this what a lot of people at my school listened to. I ploughed a bit of a lonely furrow, still clinging to the hope that Oasis would take over the world again, or the Stone Roses would somehow reunite and baggy would be our salvation. I tried my best with that US nu-metal, funk metal, rusty metal nonsense, and the only band I got close to liking was Incubus. They had more melody than the others, less screaming and feeling sorry for themselves because their mum had ...

  Released: 1994 Label: Nude When I bought: sometime around 2010/2011 Poor old Suede. They did all the Britpop stuff first didn't they, but they just don't get the credit. Mercury Music Prize win, failing to break America, lead singer breaking up with Justine Frischmann. They did it all first. And, as their second album shows, even Be Here Now. Yep, that's what Dog Man Star is. A ridiculous, overblown, self-indulgent record that is essentially egos run amok. Every idea is taken to the nth degree, every song has layers upon layers upon layers, and the lyrics are full of so much melodrama it would make Morrissey wince. But my god, it absolutely works. 'Introducing The Band' kicks things off with huge sounding drums, while it takes Brett Anderson mere minutes to start singing about "the tears of suburbia". 'We Are The Pigs' gets things going properly, and in comes that epic Bernard Butler guitar tone that helped make Suede's debut album such a glo...

Released: 1998 Label: Hut Records When I bought: 1998 In 1998, The Verve could do no wrong. Urban Hymns had dominated the zeitgeist, Richard Ashcroft was the very definition of cool, and seemingly everyone wanted to parody the 'Bittersweet Symphony' video. Nailed on for that year's Mercury Music Prize, surely? Indeed not. Instead, another group of northern young men with guitars walked away with the gong, and a cheque for £25,000. Gomez hailed from Southport, played their first gig in Leeds, and signed to Hut Records (a subsidiary of Virgin Records) in 1997. Their debut album, 'Bring It On' came out in March 1998, but it's fair to say it didn't set the world on fire. The Mercury Music Prize win - which came a year to the day of signing their record deal - gave the album a burst of publicity and sales. I bought the record off the back of that win, but was so deep in my Britpop phase I didn't really connect with it. So that was that. I didn't listen to...

Released: 2022 Label: Fuzz Club When I bought: 2023 Ok, I'm going to declare my interest very early with this one. Tess Parks is a really good friend of my wife, so objectivity will probably go out the window. She's a really lovely person - warm, generous of spirit, engaging and thoughtful. And Tess isn't bad either. Tess is Canadian born, but after moving to London she was signed by one of Alan McGee's post-Creation labels, before ending up on Fuzz Club (along with seemingly millions of other amazing artists). I first met Tess at an in-store gig in the Notting Hill branch of Rough Trade, and she definitely has a loyal following - the place was rammed. 'And Those Who Were Seen Dancing' is her second solo album. Her first, 'Blood Hot' came out in 2013, and then she made two albums with the mercurial Anton Newcombe from The Brian Jonestown Massacre.  You can see why those two were a natural fit for a collaboration. Tess's music plays in the psychedelic...

  Released: 2007 Label: Parlophone,  Honest Jon's When I bought: 2007 Damon Albarn plus Paul Simonon from The Clash plus Simon Tonge from The Verve plus Tony Allen who helped create the Afrobeat genre. A pretty strong 'supergroup'. I listened to this album perhaps twice when I bought it in 2007 and remember being really bored by it.  Now I'm older, greyer and generally less angry at the world, would a re-listen spark joy? No. Urgh. This album is just so dull. First of all, the mix is terrible. I get that when you have the bass player from The Clash you want to hear him, but the bass just dominates the sound.  As a result, Albarn's vocals are buried for much of the album, and the melodies aren't strong enough to hold the attention. The album is primarily led by piano and acoustic guitar, and Albarn is trying his full 'I'm an authentic geezer' act, but it feels likes no one is really pushing themselves. This album was adored by critics at the time. I d...