Radiohead - Kid A
Hardest decision was which Radiohead album goes in. OK Computer could of been selected and I'd of been absolutely ecstatic with it's inclusion. In Rainbows I think my be a better constructed album in it's entirety for full end to end listening, it has incredible energy and rhythm and I remember buying the limited edition LP set when it was released on the special website that allowed fans to pay what they wanted for their music.
I had discovered OK Computer, sat alone, at 1am, in the small spareroom of my mothers house, just the glow of my old, hand me down beige PC illuminating the room. I had been waiting hours for my dial up torrent download to finish so I could open the file in my WinAmp program. I had spent the last few years gorging on Nu-Metal and after many purchases of Q Magazine here in the UK, realised there was a huge world of music I had yet to discover. As we all know, young teenage boys measure the currency of cool in music, trainers and girls. Well, mainly girls but you know what I mean. I had just finished the top 100 albums of all time issue of Q Magazine and saw "OK Computer" and sought out downloading it as I couldn't afford the CD.
Finally the torrent ends and I grab my old headphone cans and plug them into my PC aux port and click play. In that dark room, I cannot explain how the first 20 seconds
Airbag affected me and do it any justice to the moment. This totally alien noise, seemingly bereft of instruments I could name, swallowing the entire room, myself and everything I knew about music into it. I felt enveloped, frozen and it was equally parts terrifying and exciting. A doorway into something other, something strange and new. I would kill to have that moment again to be honest. And luckily I did, when I downloaded Kid A a few months later and heard
Everything In Its Right Place.
So it's a toss up between the two but I went with Kid A as I just couldn't have an album with
Idioteque on it, which to my mind is one of the greatest songs ever committed to tape.
Kanye West - MBDTF
I had liked some of Kanye's work before, mainly listening the
Through the Wire on repeat at any opportunity. But this album helped me immeasurably, working in a job I despised where my only respite was that I had to drive to different locations in between being in the office. Honestly, surrounded by some utterly contemptible human beings and being paid less than minimum wage was enough to send me insane. Now I am older and life isn't what I thought was promised, driving a beat up old car and struggling to make enough money to put fuel in the car to sustain a job that barely covers my rent. F*cking ridiculous.
But as soon as I heard this album and got the CD and driving to and from the office, nothing could touch me. Nothing could hurt me. I felt invicible, I felt ten feet tall, like a
Monster, I felt like there was more and that I didn't have to settle. It took me another three months but I left that job and things picked up. Whenever this album comes on I am transported back to my old car, driving, singing the lyrics badly and never skipping a track. A pure, front to back album where every song is a banger and you fall in love with music all over again.
Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life
This is the first LP I bought, (well part of a group of LP's in Brighton (Led Zepp/Revolver). It's also the first album I played in my first house. I had no furniture yet, just a mattress, a kettle, a few boxes of clothes and possessions and no broadband installed so no TV. I did have an old LP though and this album always reminds me of that time, sitting in my first house, a tiny one bed affair but feeling like the King of my own Castle.
Sitting on a mattress but with
Sir Duke, I could of been on a beach in St Tropez, I also contest this a great album for putting on when you ahve chores to do around the house or are decorating. It's a record full of life, soul and love and I couldn't not have it in the list.
I cannot decide on the final two at the moment! Some considerations:
Neil Young - Harvest
Thursday - Full Collapse
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
Max Richter - Memoryhouse
Finch - What it is to Burn
Nirvana - Nevermind
Ornette Coleman - Shape of Jazz to Come
MF Doom - Operation: Doomsday (Complete)/Madvillainy