All The Records I've Ever Owned

  Year Released: 1997 Label: Hut Records / Virgin Records Year Bought: Can't remember It's hard to critique this album as it's just one of those albums that everyone universally considers to be great. I'll be honest, I've never really listened to it properly. The singles are ace, and I'm sure I gave it a spin way back when, but when it came out I was still on my Oasis trip, and then shifted to Radiohead and Jeff Buckley, so Urban Hymns just sort of lived in my peripheral vision. I knew the singles, that was enough for me. As album openers go, Bittersweet Symphony is up there with Smells Like Teen Spirit on Nevermind and Rock n Roll Star on Definitely Maybe as the perfect encapsulation of a band's ethos. It's the perfect headline. You can read on, but it tells you everything you need to know. When I saw Richard Ashcroft playing this at Wembley last year supporting Oasis, the whole stadium got to their feet like it's the national anthem. Let's be h...

Year Released: 1997 Label: Food Year Bought: 2012 AND WHEN SHE LETS ME SLIP AWAY.... The opening track of Blur's fifth album is undoubtedly one of their best. I remember when "Beetlebum" came out that it felt like a gear shift from the band. Later in the same year, Radiohead did the same with 'Paranoid Android'. Oasis's big comeback single in 1997, "D'You Know What I Mean" didn't have the same vibes. Anyway, the self-titled album from Blur sees the band pretty much withdrawing from the Britpop battle. The chopping guitar of "Beetlebum" in many ways tells you everything you need to know about the record. Lo-fi, rough, a bit aggressive, the album sees Graham Coxon's love of US alt-rock, particularly Beck, dominating the sound. Take "You're So Great", a Coxon penned and performed tune that sounds like it was recorded on an old tape player. This is no "Country House". "Country Sad Ballad Man" sounds...

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: 1997 Label: EMI Year Bought: 1999 My love of Bowie started as a wind up. There was a rumour round our school that one of the French teachers used to go out with Bowie, so as part of my ambition to be a cocky little shit I decided to try to sneak some Bowie song titles into our lessons. "I don't understand how this verb ch-ch-ch-changes, Miss" – that sort of thing. It turned out that not only had she dated him, she was still friends with him, and even had side-of-the-stage tickets when he played Glastonbury in 2000. She might still be the coolest person I've ever known. In my bid to learn some more Bowie tunes I dug out my mum's old vinyls and fell in love with 'Hunky Dory'. For Christmas 1999, my mum got me 2 CDs, this one, which covers 1969/74, and the next one which goes up to 1979.  That Christmas, I had them both on repeat as I played FIFA 2000 on the PC (which had a picture of pre-Judas Sol Campbell on the cover). This compilation reall...

Year Released: 1997 Label: A&M Year Bought: 1999 When I was a wee lad of 14 and starting to learn guitar, I loved the Police. Their tunes were a mixture of sparseness and virtuoso, and you could spend hours picking apart what Andy Summers was doing - or not doing - on the guitar. Same with Stuart Copeland's drumming. And Sting was involved as well. This collection was a regular fixture on my CD walkman - and then MiniDisc player - when I would walk to and from school, but I've not listened to it in many, many years. The first four tracks – 'Message In A Bottle', 'Can't Stand Losing You', 'Englishman in New York', and 'Every Breath You Take' – are all brilliant. Yes, even 'Englishman in New York'.  The next song, 'Seven Days', I was obsessed with when I was younger as it's in 5/4 time - which is the same time signature as the original Mission Impossible theme. Ah I am loving listening to this again. The drums are so goo...

Year Released: 1997 Label: Reprise Year Bought: 1999 It is a truth universally acknowledged that being a 14-year-old isn't easy. I decided to make it more difficult for myself by not only being one of only three kids in school to learn the trumpet, but by shunning most musical touchstones of the time in favour of older music. And it doesn't get more of a throwback than Sinatra. This was 1999, so before Robbie Williams made his 'Swing When Your Winning' album and TV talent shows were stacked with kids doing Dean Martin impressions. I felt like an outlier. Indeed, I remember borrowing the money from a friend I was with in town the day I got this record, and when I gave her the money back she muttered to herself "I can't believe I lent someone money to buy a Frank Sinatra album." Anyway, I loved this CD. Well, the first CD of the set. The first disc is just stacked with classics. It kicks off with funeral favourite 'My Way', then goes on to 'Stran...

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...