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| The Beatles |
| Rubber Soul |
| 1965 |
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The Beatles were in essence a singles band (45 rpm that is) like T Rex and Madness later on.
But contrary to those two bands they managed at least to release one very good album.
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| Red House Painters |
| Down Colourful Hill |
| 1992 Review |
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Recommencing where L.Cohen left off two decades ago, these songs sound rather bare and
simple at start but take your grip in the end. Desolate and sad, of course, but never hopeless.
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| Simon & Garfunkel |
| Bookends |
| 1968 |
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A bit uneven and confusing this one but not as much as their multi-million selling album
released two years later. However 'America' and 'Mrs Robinson' are eternal classics without question.
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| Kraftwerk |
| Radioaktivität |
| 1975 |
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Between albums about cars, trains and robots they made this collection of strange sounds and
hidden melodies. Even in 100 years time this will sound like the future.
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| The Byrds |
| Turn, Turn, Turn |
| 1966 |
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This was their last song based work before they started experimenting. First
with drugs, then with their music. Both with rather mixed results.
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| Embrace |
| The Good Will Out |
| 1998 Review |
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Not a guilty pleasure but a real classic. This is the tragic case of a
band that spawned a movement but lost the plot before the whole thing
gathered momentum.
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| Manic Street Preachers |
| The Holy Bible |
| 1994 Review |
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One of the most analysed, dissected, examined and reviewed albums ever. A monument,
a provocation, an enigma.
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| Bright Eyes |
| I'm wide awake, it's morning |
| 2005 |
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A child prodigy which to this day has assembled a creative output vaster and more diverse than other
achieve in a lifetime. This is his quiet folk album for which it seems he has saved his best compositions.
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| My Bloody Valentine |
| Isn't Anything |
| 1988 |
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The album that started the whole shoegazing scene. The basic idea of a guitar wall of sound with
some unintelligible vocals mixed underneath has been copied extensively. Three years later they
returned to complete their mission.
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| Roxy Music |
| Roxy Music |
| 1972 |
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The first really great album by a British band. Effortlessly cool and ridiculously hedonistic.
And the (belated) inclusion of maybe the best debut single ever rounds this off perfectly.
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| Six By Seven |
| The Closer You Get |
| 2000 |
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The record Radiohead should have made after 'OK Computer'. How a bunch of no-hopers could
come up with something this elaborate and polished is still a mystery.
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| Codeine |
| The White Birch |
| 1994 |
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One accord. Silence. Another accord. More silence. Yet another accord. Music in slow motion.
Little did they know that this type of music would be labelled "Slowcore" later on.
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| Cocteau Twins |
| Blue Bell Knolls |
| 1988 |
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Clouds of sound floating through the air beautifully. And on top some vocals which have once
famously been described as the 'voice of god'. And rightfully so.
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| Soft Cell |
| Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret |
| 1981 |
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This brought a certain party vibe to the otherwise slightly austere synthipop scene.
And what a strange and kinky party that was.
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| The Only Ones |
| The Only Ones |
| 1978 |
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They could have been heroes if they had come from New York. But making New Wave music #
in England at the end of the 70s wasn't such a good idea. However, the singer - what a voice.
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| REM |
| Automatic For The People |
| 1992 Review |
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A rare case of a band where the most successful album is also the best. Bleak and
uncompromising but rewarding and comforting at the same time.
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| Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds |
| The Boatman's Call |
| 1997 Review |
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After nearly twenty years in the business this is his first throughout quiet and calm album.
Whatever caused him to mellow down is unclear but who cares if the result is as pleasing as this.
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| The Strokes |
| Is This It |
| 2001 |
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A record that at this point in rock music nobody expected. A greatest hits condensation of
New York rock history so dense there's hardly a second superfluous.
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| The Langley Schools Music Project |
| Innocence & Despair |
| 1977 |
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A bunch of schoolkids singing songs by the Beach Boys, Bowie and other 60s and 70s artists.
Particularly fascinating is how they grasp the essence of these songs without being fully able to
understand the meaning of the lyrics.
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1988 was the year that punk broke irrevocably. And partly due to this half hour
of pop & noise that saw the Pixies sound reduced to its barest essentials.
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