Seven albums that changed my life

My PC is on the blink this week so I’m having to run it in safe mode just to get the main programs to work. Which doesn’t leave me with much I’m able to do…fortunately most of my music collection is on both CD and my hard drive so I won’t be going completely insane from boredom just yet (although I suspect it’s only a matter of time).

In terms of my guitar geekiness, it’s originally this bloke’s fault. Cheers for that, Nick

Since I want to write *something* to take my mind off the obvious annoyances but can’t watch fansubs or DVDs to write about, I figured I’d do a variant on the ‘favourite albums’ thing. Lists like those are self indulgent and meaningless so I’m outlining albums that have left a big impression on me and have marked important moments in my life as a musician/music fan. Still self-indulgent I guess, but at least somewhat meaningful – I also recommend you listen to them if you get the chance.

The Verve: A Storm In Heaven

This was one of the first CDs I bought, mainly because I liked Urban Hymns and wanted more of the same. Actually, A Storm In Heaven is so different it hardly sounds like the same band at all: it’s an experimental, atmospheric and pretty odd record that, in retrospect, owes more to 60s psychedelia and the early 90s shoegaze scene. Get rid of the lyrics and it could pass itself off as a post-rock record, but that’s because music genre definitions often suck.

This isn’t a collection of Richard Ashcroft’s indie ballads: to me it is, and always will be, Nick McCabe’s (the guy in the pic at the top of the page) album. The guitar work isn’t the fast virtuoso riffery that inspires most kids who learn to play: I can’t emphasise enough that this was THE album that inspired me to learn. I couldn’t care less about the Beatles, Guns ‘n’ Roses or Van Halen; McCabe’s dreamlike reverb and delay-drenched improvisation was the sound I tried to match, and have spent a decade trying and failing but find the very attempt rewarding in itself.

Significant tracks: Star Sail, Virtual World

Depeche Mode: Violator

Which leads me to the point where I realised that good rock/pop music can actually be made with sythesizers. Hearing some friends at uni talk in reverence about them I collected their entire studio back catalogue, beginning with this one.

It’s hard to work out where the guitars end and the synths begin but for me that allows me to enjoy it as music rather than follow the arrangements and try to figure how they’re put together (an annoying habit that occurs whenever I listen to guitar music). It’s simply a perfect album and one I can listen to over and over again without getting tired of it.

Significant tracks: Enjoy The Silence, World In My Eyes

Smashing Pumpkins: Siamese Dream

Another uni pal recommendation, this time happening around the time I was growing out of britpop and starting my policy of listening to pretty much anything I could get hold of. It was also around the time I was considering selling my guitar to pay for student expenses but after hearing the joyous fuzz-laden wall of sound of Cherub Rock, I’d found a new hero to keep my enthusiasm alive.

It’s an extremely guitarist-friendly record because of the countless overdubs and colourful, effects-laden riffs but it’s catchy enough to be a great album in a more general sense. Billy Corgan’s songwriting has become more angsty and, to my ears at least, less accessible in recent years but this is the one that I’d say was his finest hour.

Significant tracks: Cherub Rock, Mayonaise

My Bloody Valentine: Loveless

I’m not sure why I bought this in the first place, unless it was the collective influence of magazines and people I know because I’m sure I got it on reputation as opposed to hearing any of the songs themselves. Again, it’s a guitarist’s dream but is also one a non-musician can appreciate – possibly because it’s very un-guitary.

I mean this in the sense that it is, as an online friend once remarked, one long happy blur. It doesn’t just reinvent guitar rock – it reinvents how a pop record should sound and doesn’t resemble anything before or since (although countless bands have tried to imitate it). After I saw Kevin Shields play at a zillion decibels at an MBV gig two years ago, I’ve wanted a Fender Jazzmaster and stopped caring about solos. An important day.

Significant Tracks: To Here Knows When, Soon

Mogwai: Young Team

This was the moment that I realised how good non-classical music didn’t have to use lyrics. I can’t sing to save my life and often mishear lyrics anyway; I’ve always been into music because it conveys thoughts and ideas that words cannot always do. So then, Mogwai’s first record was my introduction to post-rock.

I’ve actually grown to really dislike that category which defines so much of what I listen to these days…also ironically, Mogwai themselves are keen to distance themselves from it despite their music helping to define the genre. I admired their sound from a distance for the longest time then finally bought this a couple of years ago.

Significant tracks: Yes! I Am a Long Way From Home, Mogwai Fear Satan

Mono: Hymn To The Immortal Wind

I can’t say Mono began my appreciation for instrumental stuff (see Mogwai above) but between this album and my recent experience of their live show I’d say I now owe them a lot. They’ve earned my respect on a number of levels: recreating a studio sound in a live setting while capturing the energy of a live performance on record, using their equipment in inventive ways and simply making beautiful music that stays with you.

I’ve long thought that painstaking overdubbing, trying to do blues scale solos and having a load of attitude is what’s needed in a guitar band but this album best demonstrates how to do even more on sincerity and careful musicianship instead. Inspirational indeed. Also features more epic Fender Jazzmaster win.

Significant tracks: Ashes in the Snow, Follow The Map

Doriko featuring Hatsune Miku: Unformed

An indie electro album amongst a list of guitar classics? What gives? This was actually my first experience of the Vocaloid software being used to make a proper pop record, as opposed to the covers and novelty/comedy songs we’re used to hearing the Vocaloids being used for. Yes, it’s the same saccharine electro J-pop but it’s made by one songwriter and a vocalist who doesn’t technically exist.

The whole idea of a virtual pop idol immediately brings Macross Plus to mind but what Unformed shows to me is part of the true potential of the Vocaloid software. I wouldn’t make a pop album in the same way that Doriko has; I’m sure other similar artists, such as Ryo of Supercell, do it even better…but the possibilities the technology holds is I think something none of us have really grasped yet.

Significant tracks: 夕日坂 (Yuuhi Zaka), モノクロアクト (Monokuroakuto)

Maybe the boredom is getting to me after all. I want to plug my amp into my PC, install some music software and DO SOMETHING with the tonnes of inspiration that the stuff I’ve been discussing here has given me. I don’t want to imitate my heroes; everyone has their own unique something to express, and since music I love has been such an important part of my life I have an overwhelming desire to give something back. I can’t explain it, but it’s something I want to do someday.