15 Albums

I saw a meme on Facebook the other day: in 15 minutes think of 15 albums that are important to you and list them. Well, we love lists don't we?

Actually, 15 minutes is a long time so I decided to do it in 5 minutes. I sat down during a break at work today, with no access to my record collection or t'internet and wrote down the first albums that popped into my head. Did it in 4 minutes.....

1. Never Mind The Bollocks by the Sex Pistols

2. London Calling by the Clash

3. Born To Run by Bruce Springsteen & the E-Street Band

4. The Band by The Band

5. Psychocandy by the Jesus & Mary Chain

6. Surfer Rosa by Pixies

7. Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys

8. New Day Rising by Husker Du

9. Searching For The Young Soul Rebels by Dexy's Midnight Runners

10. Are You Experienced? by the Jimi Hendrix Experience

11. Exodus by Bob Marley & the Wailers

12. Physical Graffiti by Led Zeppelin

13. Deserter's Songs by Mercury Rev

14. Abbey Road by the Beatles

15. The Soft Bulletin by the Flaming Lips

That just seemed to scratch the surface of my collection, so I jumped straight into list 2, my only rule being not to include any artist from the first list, or there could be another 3 or 4 albums by Springsteen, Zep etc. Again, done in 4 minutes.

16. Introduce Yourself by Faith No More

17. Master Of Puppets by Metallica

18. Harvest by Neil Young

19. Purple Rain by Prince & the Revolution

20. Element Of Light by Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians

21. Surrender by the Chemical Brothers

22. The Blueprint 3 by Jay-Z

23. Is This It? by the Strokes

24. Crossing The Red Sea With... The Adverts

25. This Is The Sea by the Waterboys

26. If I Should Fall From Grace With God by the Pogues

27. Rave On by Andy White

28. The Dark Side Of The Moon by Pink Floyd

29. Otis Blue by Otis Redding

30. Supernature by Goldfrapp

It's funny seeing this list and seeing the random connections my brain was making between artists. Crossing The Red Sea made me think of This Is The Sea, and the Waterboys in turn made me think of other "Celtic" 80's bands like the Pogues and the underrated Andy White. How I went from Neil Young to Prince I don't know.

It amazes me that I got as far as no. 28 before I shouted out "Dark Side!" Phew - almost left it out! But I also unforgivably left out these: Everything Must Go, The Stone Roses, Blonde On Blonde, Songs In The Key Of Life, Ziggy Stardust, Rocket To Russia, Automatic For The People, Raw Power, ( What's The Story ) Morning Glory?

Maybe I ought to do a 15 Albums series of posts, setting down my thoughts on each album and what they mean to me. Or maybe another blog? Hmmm.....