With lockdown in full effect the top ten lists trend has returned to Facebook and, despite having done it before, when I got nominated for the albums one I thought I’d get involved and come up with another 10.
As with the previous one the challenge isn’t to name your favourite records but rather ones that inspired your musical tastes in some way.
With that in mind I’ve tried to look at a wider spectrum in terms of age of records than last time I did this but with the same idea that my current musicals tastes were certainly shaped by them.
So, once again, in no particular order…
Ghost – Meliora
While I probably prefer Infestissumam musically it was on the tour for Meliora that I first encountered Swedish metal titans Ghost at the Warfield in San Francisco.
Following that I promptly picked this album up at Amoeba Records as their mix of theatricality, pop tinged heavy metal and songs about Satan really struck a chord and made the band one of my favourite new bands of recent times.
Tiger Army – III: Ghost Tigers Rise
Rock ‘n’ roll, goth and general aesthetic around vampire movies have long been strong reference points for me so when I discovered Tiger Army, and the song Santa Carla Twilight in particular that directly combines all three of those things, I was grabbed.
From there I’ve explored not just their back catalogue but the wider world of psychobilly but this was my real entry point and the one I keep coming back to.
IDLES – Brutalism
As soon as I heard Zack Sabre Jr entering Alexandra Palace to Mother back at Super Strong Style 16 in 2018 I knew the band playing was one I had to look into further and, as soon as I listened to Brutalism, I realised IDLES were a landmark band.
To say they reinvigorated my interest in new British music would be an understatement as they combined many of the things I love most about music while capturing something of the mood of the time in viscerally raging but honest fashion.
Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. – Chronicles of a Bohemian Teenager
The singer songwriter is far from a new concept but every now and again one comes along who takes the style and does something new with it which is exactly what Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly (aka Sam Duckworth) did.
Back in the mid 2000s he melded elements of the classic acoustic troubadour with trip hop and emo with the aid of a laptop to create an album that, even as a slightly post teenager then, spoke to me and struck a chord like few others and including some excellent live shows too and pre-figured several who’ve followed by several years and to whom he remains far superior.
Dio – Holy Diver
When I first encountered Dio it was via Tenacious D and maybe I didn’t take their ‘tribute’ to him in the right way assuming him to be something of a joke and a relic of bygone era when power metal ruled the roost.
Upon hearing Holy Diver though I realised this was far from the case and on seeing him live in the mid-2000s playing the album in its entirety it opened up a whole new side of heavy metal music to me and even then, only a couple of years before his untimely death, Ronnie James Dio was an iconic and captivating frontman and band leader like few others.
Against Me! – Transgender Dysphoria Blues
Before this album Against Me! were a band I’d tried to get into, having heard many good things about them, but something for me didn’t quite click — when Transgender Dysphoria Blues landed though that changed.
Rather like Brutalism from IDLES mentioned above, upon hearing it this felt like a breath of fresh air and something new within the style of punk rock both musically and in capturing something of the zeitgeist in a way that seemed to push into the mainstream more than usual.
On top of that Against Me! have become one of the best bands I’ve ever seen live making a truly inspiring noise in the best of ways when I saw them at The Electric Ballroom back in 2016.
Oasis – (What’s The Story) Morning Glory?
Back in the mid-90s the press hyped the battle of Britpop between Blur and Oasis and it was expected you’d have a side.
While I didn’t exactly prefer one over the other, both bands being so different actual comparison remains a challenge away from the media hype, there’s no doubting that Oasis’ second album (What’s The Story) Morning Glory opened up a whole new world of British guitar music to me that, ultimately, I would say lead me to The Wildhearts and their brand of so-called Britrock while Oasis at their prime had some great songs… and Wonderwall…
The Beatles – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
While I’d never claim to be a dedicated fan of The Beatles their back catalogue and influence on pop and rock speaks for itself and I remember, when I first heard Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, it was the first time I grasped the concept of the album as a complete product rather than just a bunch of songs on a disc.
Along with that it was the first time I remember hearing songs that had any kind of abstract or psychedelic feel and reference in them something that I’ve come to enjoy greatly since, albeit often in far heavier forms.
Blink-182 – Enema of the State
Back in the late 1990s I was certainly aware of punk rock and had enjoyed what I’d heard but it was all a generation past my experience and had a snarling edge I wasn’t yet ready for — then along came Blink-182 and Enema Of The State.
While far from high brow or dealing with the serious subjects I’d heard in punk before they were fun and almost cartoony in a way I could then engage with leading to them being one of the main reasons I went to my first Reading festival back in 2000 and really my musical journey has just escalated from there.
Thee Jenerators – Jenerator X
Having mentioned punk rock quite a lot so far there’s one related style that has really become a strong part of what I love in music over the last decade or so and that’s garage rock and garage punk, something I was introduced to by Guernsey based band Thee Jenerators.
While they’ve released several albums since it was the 20 or so minutes of unrefined rock ‘n’ roll that is their debut, Jenerator X, that first made me sit up and take notice and led me down a path to The Fuzztones, The Cramps and more.
I’ve put a playlist together of tracks from the albums above and the ones from my previous list which you can hear on Spotify by clicking here (for some reason it won’t embed).
