All The Records I've Ever Owned

Year released: 1998 Label: iht, ATO Records Year Bought: 2000 Man alive, this album was everywhere wasn't it. Everyone and their mums had this record. Not at first though. At first, it didn't even chart. Initially released in 1998 it did well in Ireland, before being picked up by Dave Matthew's label and getting a new lease of life in 2000. And my god, did it cling on to that second chance. It felt like it was in the chart forever and eventually dragged itself to number 1.  Gray has since said that he believes this album helped pave the way for other "soul-baring" male artists, but remember this record came out at a time when Coldplay, Travis, and Embrace were all knocking about, so it was hardly an outlier. I've not listened to this album in years, but I remember when I got it feeling cheated that the version of Gray's best song 'Babylon' on the record isn't the one that was a chart hit. The radio version has some synths at the beginning and b...

Year Released: 2006 Label: Sanctuary Year Bought: 2006 Released in 2006, 'Ringleader of the Tormentors' in many ways represents the apex of the Morrissey resurgence that began two years earlier with 'You Are The Quarry'.  Whereas that album peaked at number 2 in the album chart (although it did spawn 4 top ten singles), its successor gave Morrissey his first number 1 album since 1994's 'Vauxhall and I'. 'Ringleaders...' raised some eyebrows at the time as Morrissey sang explicitly about something he had previously made a virtue of not discussing. His sex life. "There are exploding kegs between my legs," he sings on 'Dear God Please Help Me' – a tune that swells and grows to a climax with strings written by Ennio Morricone. "Now I'm spreading your legs with mine in between," he later adds.  Perhaps this new found desire of the flesh was due to this album being recorded in Italy, and references to the country season the ...

Year Released: 2007 Label: Mercury Year Bought: 2010 If any of you remember Just Jack, it's probably for his 2007 hit 'Starz In Their Eyes', which hit number 2 in the charts. A song about the dark side of tv talent shows. Very 00s. Indeed, that would probably be where my knowledge of him would have ended had he not played my university's summer party that year. Backed by a full live band, Jack (full name Jack Allsop) delivered a great set of house-inflected tunes which supported his Streets-esque musings on life, the universe and everything. Clearly desperately seeking my approval, he popped up again a few weeks later at a free gig in Nottingham city centre, and again I found myself dancing along. I downloaded some random songs by him at the time, but didn't get this album – his second release – until about 2010. It's a mixed bag, but when it works, it really does take off. The album feels like it's divided into two main themes – optimism and paranoia.  Open...

Year Released: 2004 Label: Spectrum Year Bought: Can't remember Dodgy were one of those bands kicking around in the 90s who weren't really going anywhere until Britpop took over, and then - bam. British? Play guitar? Sound a bit like the Beatles? Here you go lads, welcome to the Radio 1 A-List.  Luckily, Dodgy did have a couple of cracking tunes, the most famous of which is 'Good Enough' - a tune that almost 30 years on is as bright, optimistic, and joyful as ever. The three-piece always sounded like they played with smiles on their faces, with that sense of 'aren't we having a great time' as clear as a bell on songs like 'Staying Out For The Summer', 'Found You' and 'Summer Fayre'. This 18-song release is not a singles collection, as there are omissions such as 'If You're Thinking Of Me' (the group's second-highest charting single), nor is it a best of.  At least, I hope it's not a best of. If the Balaphon-A-Bing ...

Year Released: 2002 Label: Candid Year Bought: Can't Remember Jamie Cullum burst into the nation's consciousness with a performance on Parkinson in April 2003, a showing that was soon followed by the huge-selling album 'Twentysomething'. It was 2002's 'Pointless Nostalgic' that put Cullum on Parky's radar, and shows the jazz singer and pianist beginning to hone the act that would make him such a breakthrough. There's a host of standards here – 'In The Wee Small Hours of The Morning'. 'It Ain't Necessarily So', 'I Can't Get Started' – alongside a couple of originals and a cover of Radiohead's 'High And Dry'. I remember that song being a big deal at the time for some reason. I think it was seen as rare merging of jazz and alt-rock. Cullum's version is not bad, and actually keeps it quite light and subdued without slipping into a dirge. Cullum was just 23 when this was recorded, and perhaps it's his yo...

Year Released: 1993 Label: Nude Year Bought: 2005 Although I was a massive Britpop fan growing up, I didn't really get into Suede until I was at university. My mind had always been fixed on Oasis and Blur, and then Radiohead (not Britpop, I know), and other than the big singles wasn't much across Anderson and Co. At uni I read John Harris's book on Britpop, and while it was pretty shocking on the Oasis stuff, the details about Suede intrigued me. I finally got their debut album in 2005 and didn't look back. What a record. Sleazy, sexy, overblown, 'Suede' has it all. Is there any more more glorious bit in 90s music than when the chorus kicks in on 'Animal Nitrate', and Bernard Butler's guitar line sounds like hips wiggling?  The big singles – 'Animal Nitrate', 'Metal Mickey', 'The Drowners' – still sound great today, and there's some other epic moments. 'Animal Lover' is pure glam, and 'Pantomime Horse' soun...

Year Released: 2005 Label: NME Year Bought: 2005 Released to coincide with the 2005 NME Awards, this compilation focuses on the big acts from the previous year. Kaiser Chiefs, Franz Ferdinand, the Killers, the Libertines are all represented, as are Bloc Party, Babyshambles and Graham Coxon. Actually, that's a pretty good line up, isn't it? There's a mixture of album tracks and b-sides, and as such there's some great glimpses into bands at the beginning of their career. Bloc Party's 'Tulips' is not one of their best but you can hear elements of other songs from them in there, the same with 'Missing You' from Franz Ferdinand. Both tracks are decent little b-sides. 'Change Your Mind' by the Killers wasn't on the UK release of Hot Fuss so is here for those who didn't buy the 'Mr Brightside' single where it found a home. Pete Doherty is represented twice - first on the Libertines' 'Can't Stand Me Now' and then on Ba...

Year Released: 2012 Label: Cooking Vinyl, eOne Music Year Bought: 2012 Coming onto the scene at the end of the 00s indie boom, the Enemy quickly turned into a critical punching bag.  I always felt that was a bit unfair, as I thought their 2007 debut album was pretty great for what it was – straight down the line kitchen sink dramas told through boisterous melodies supported by no-frills indie-rock guitars. I bought this album in 2012 from a market stall, but never actually listened to it. For years I thought it was their second album, but that was a record called 'Music For The People' which completely passed me by. Anyway, this album sets off at a breakneck pace and pretty much stays there.  Whereas the first album seemed to have something to say, this just feels like a not-as-good retread of the same territory. It is a bit full on. All the guitars sound the same, which are often too Bonehead and not enough Noel, and it's all very one tempo. As a result, the songs all mesh...

Year Released: 2006 Label: Source Year Bought: 2006 On the TV show 'Lost', there's a notion that the way to stop your brain from haemorrhaging because of time travel is to locate a 'constant' - someone in your life that you can go to at any point on your travels that will essentially ground your mind and enable you to get a grasp on reality. Weirdly, Gemma Hayes is the musical equivalent of mine. I always seem to get her album or see her live at a transitional period of my life, and I always go back to her when I need to be grounded. 'The Roads Don't Love You' is her second album, following her from her Mercury Prize-nominated debut 'Night On My Side'. Released in 2005, the record is more radio-friendly than her debut, not that that meant her tunes got any air time. For some reason, she's always been an underground artist with a cult following, despite having a beautiful voice, great songs and a very marketable image. (Apparently Louis Walsh ...

Year Released: 2000 Label: Apple. EMI, Parlophone Year Bought: 2000 What is there to say about this? It's the Beatles. It's their songs that hit number 1 either here or the US. This compilation has sold over 30 million copies. It doesn't have any songs from Sgt. Pepper on it. It's the greatest run of singles of all time. It's a shame that 'The Long and Winding Road' ends this CD. Like everyone else I got it for Christmas. You could pull together another 27 songs from the Beatles over the same period and it would be just as brilliant. 10/10

Year Released: 2002 Label: Taste Year bought: 2002 I bought this after seeing Muse at Reading Festival in 2002, where they put on a helluva show, complete with giant grey inflatable balls being launched into the crowd - which we all loved for some reason. A collection of b-sides and a concert recording, 'Hullabaloo Soundtrack' plugged the gap between 2001's 'Origin of Symmetry' and 2003's 'Absolution'. B-sides can sometimes act as arenas for bands to try something a bit different, but seemingly not in the case of Muse. The vast majority of tracks on CD1 are just not particularly remarkable Muse songs. There's lots of Matt Bellamy starting songs singing low and then ending as high as his falsetto will take him, and most of the tunes are awash with arpeggios – as is Muse's style. There's some pretty heavy rock tunes here, particularly 'Yes Please', which has Marilyn Manson style vocals that are distorted and barely audible. 'Forced ...

Year Released: 1997 Label: Polydor Year Bought: 1999 Kicking off with 'In The City' – which still sounds just as urgent as it did in 1977 – this collection brings together all of the The Jam's A-sides before Paul Weller broke up the band in 1982. I remember buying this CD in 1999 with money I had earned from my paper round, and I played it constantly. I knew every lyric, every bass fill from Bruce Foxton, every machine gun snare roll from Rick Buckler.  I was pretty into 70s punk as a teenager, but The Jam appealed more than most as they seemed to look beyond the nihilism.  "What's the point in saying destroy,  I want a new life for everywhere," sings Weller on 'All Around The World'. The Jam's early singles are pretty good, but all feel a bit derivative of 'In The City'. I t's not until you get to 'Down In The Tube Station At Midnight' that you realise this is a band – and a songwriter – that can deliver something truly special...

  Year Released: 2006 Label: XL Year Bought: 2006 Thom Yorke's debut solo album came at a time when Radiohead was slightly in limbo. After the four-album run that stretched from The Bends to Amnesiac, 2003's Hail To The Thief saw the band not receive near-universal praise for the first time since their debut album ten years earlier. Having released three albums in four years, the group went on a break, but Yorke did not stop writing, hence The Eraser. For Radiohead obsessives like me this record was a lovely surprise when it came out, and it seemed to be released without a huge marketing campaign. It just sort of appeared.  The nine songs that make up The Eraser feel like the electronic album Radiohead had been threatening to make for years. The album is full of muted drum machines and electronic loops, with barely an analogue instrument to be found. Even the piano chords on the title track - played by Johnny Greenwood - are processed. Yet over the top of this very cold and ar...

  Year Released: 2007 Label: Universal Year Bought: 2007 If you came across this collection of songs today, it would be as a Spotify playlist marked "Indie Barbecue". It's easy to be dismissive of compilations, but in the days before streaming they were a good way of hoovering up scenes or moments in time, and sometimes would introduce you to bands you'd not paid much attention to or even heard of. The theme of this seems to be "chartable guitar music", which is why you get Fall Out Boy's 'This Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race' on the same disc as Happy Monday's 'Kinky Afro'. There's bands you'd expect to hear – Oasis, Stone Roses, Kaiser Chiefs – alongside some songs that have become indie staples – 'Chelsea Dagger' by the Fratellis, for example. There are some tunes and bands I'd completely forgotten about. Remember The Automatic and their single 'Monster'? Well this compilation has their other tu...

Year Released: 2022 Label: Dash The Henge Year Bought: 2023 Down in Camberwell is London's greatest record shop. It's not the biggest, doesn't have the most in-depth stock of wax (although it does have loads of great discs), but it has the most important thing of all - a sense of community. Dash The Henge opened its doors in October 2022 and puts on free gigs throughout the week, stocks vinyl, CDs and cassettes by local acts and labels, has friendly and approachable staff and owners, and gives so much back to the grassroots music scene. I popped in early 2023 to have a look, and got chatting to Tim, one of the owners. He is part of a team of investors which have links to various South London groups including Fat White Family and Meatraffle. Before it was a shop, Dash the Henge was a label, and one of its first releases was 'Innit' by Scud FM - a sort of left-wing supergroup made by various members of South London's creative community. A mixture of drum machines,...

  Year Released: 2002 Label: B-Unique Year Bought: 2002 In ye olde days, before TikTok and memes, artists had to use different ways to "go viral" (not that we called it that then). One of those was getting a song in an advert. Not that it was without risks. Andy Bell's post-Ride group Hurricane #1 lost what little credibility it had when it allowed a track to be used in an advert for The Sun. However, a song in an advert could rescue a band's career – just ask Dandy Warhols about Vodafone using 'Bohemian Like You'. With Aqualung, the appearance of debut single 'Strange & Beautiful (I'll Put A Spell On You)' in a Vauxhall ad in 2002 was the start, and high point, of the group's career. I say group, Aqualung is actually just musician Matt Hayles. 'Strange & Beautiful' is a great tune, a mixture of twinkling piano chords and a booming bass. Listening to the rest of the album, it's clear Hayles found a groove and stuck to it.  A...