All The Records I've Ever Owned

Year Released: 1995 Label: Parlophone Year Bought: 2000 Some records I'm going back to for the first time in a while. Others, like 'The Bends', are still in my regular rotation. What to say about this album? The crashing piano chords of opening track 'Planet Telex' give an immediate indication that this is not the same band that made 'Pablo Honey'. The album is a quantum leap from that record, which – while it has its fans, including me – is by-and-large the sound of just another guitar band. 'The Bends' is different. From the slowing-down-time intro of the title track, to the how-high-can-you-go guitars on 'Just', the album constantly delights. 'Fake Plastic Trees' is a magisterial effort, while 'Black Star' contains one of the great opening lines:  "I get home from work and you're still standing in your dressing gown, well, what am I to do?" The recording process for this record was inspired by seeing Jeff Buck...

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: 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: 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...