Playlist with a song from every record

The Best Of - James

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

Life For Rent - Dido

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

The Velvet Underground & Nico - The Velvet Underground

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

All The Records I've Ever Owned

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