All The Records I've Ever Owned

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...

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...

  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 ...