"the most memorable experience
i've had listening
to an album"
Radiohead - In Rainbows
This may still be my favourite album, but it’s here because it’s the first record that I bought before hearing it first. I have the strongest memory of putting it on and laying on my bed in the dark, astounded at how each song was just as beautiful as the last. It’s definitely the most memorable experience I’ve had listening to an album at home. It has informed my guitar playing more than any other album I can think of, if I could have written Weird Fishes then I would die happy. I was talking to a friend the other day about having a comfort album, I think this is that for me, it’s so warm and heartfelt, complex yet open, it reminds me of being sixteen and lying in pillowy pitch black, it makes the hairs all over my body stand up.
Erykah Badu - Baduizm
As well as being an incredible neo-soul record, this one reminds me of my mum. It played around the house a lot when I was young; she’s a huge disco and soul fan, and it really stuck out from the rest of her taste as something more hip hop led, which I was very into at the time. I don’t think I’ve ever heard this album without thinking of her, I listened to it a lot when I first moved out of home and I didn’t realise until pretty recently that was because of the association. Erykah Badu is cool as hell and the production on the whole record is incredible, there’s not a single bad track on here, but On & On has one of the best vocal lines I’ve ever heard.
Talking Heads - Speaking in Tongues
The most fun Talking Heads album! This Must Be The Place is the most perfect love song ever written and I don’t think anyone will ever convince me otherwise. I’ve had many a secret boogie round the kitchen to this, it’s one of the first albums that made me realise that the best music can also be the most joyful and carefree while managing to retain an earnest quality. It feels completely honest in its own joy and that is such a rare quality in both art and people. My dad is a big Talking Heads guy and something from this album goes on every single birthday playlist. A lot of my current music taste is linked to the adults I knew growing up and my family is a huge part of that.
"it just feels like
you're listening in
on musicians"
Neil Young - Everybody Knows This is Nowhere
Whilst arguably not the best Neil album, it is the first one that I ever heard, and it still feels as fresh as that to me now. Every time I listen to this I’ve forgotten how good it is. I worked in a guitar shop as a teenager and the guy who ran it was extremely into Neil Young, I learned to play a lot of his songs and definitely adopted some of his playing style through that. What I love specifically about this record is how rough it is, you can hear the band falling away from each other a little, making mistakes throughout- it’s just so human, it feels like you’re listening in on musicians who are there just to have fun playing together. The looseness of it definitely empowered me to start making my own music in earnest. I’m a guitarist and I basically dabble in a bunch of other instruments, but record everything myself. I guess listening to this you can hear that everything doesn’t need to be perfect in order to be perfect.
"the best break-up album
i've ever heard"
Bess Atwell - Already, Always
Sometimes you come across music that is unequivocally what you need at the time of hearing it, this was that for me. So many of the lyrics felt like someone had looked into my brain, made sense of it and then untwisted my thoughts into incredibly well-crafted indie-folk songs. This is the best break-up album I have ever heard, I’ve cried to it a whole bunch, the lyrics go from vague metaphor to hyper-specific simplicity from line to line, it’s absolutely stunning to listen to if you’ve just come out of a relationship. This is the newest album that’s on this list, but I know it’s one that I will keep with me for a long time, I so strongly associate it with the time period around when it was released, it feels a bit like it was made to get me through last autumn. I’m very grateful for the existence of these songs.
Broken Boat / Peace and Quiet
When I was about fifteen I went to a tiny music festival with my grandma and it was one of the only things that we really ever did together. My parents were away and she needed to keep me entertained somehow whilst I was staying with her. I can see the marquee that these guys were playing in if I shut my eyes and think. I immediately bought a CD, which I still have, and I stayed up late to listen to it every night until I went back home again. These are simple, sparse folk songs with naïve, yet very honest lyrics. It’s twee as hell and it will always remind me of my grandma. I well up in a happy way when I hear it. It’s not on Spotify but you should try to find it somewhere because it’s really very pretty. I messaged the singer when I was moving to Brighton and he said they aren’t a band any more, I pretty much made up my mind to try to make music with the same principles there and then.
The Microphones / The Glow Pt. 2
Tape recording! Warm and scuzzy and rough and euphoric. These songs changed how I write and how I want to create in general. They call back to each other, they sprawl all over the place, they harness some kind of frantic need for meaning, for a home, which is something I feel all the time. Phil Elverum’s song writing absolutely kills me, especially his newer material, but those albums are so personal that I couldn’t put them in my list. They mean more to him than they ever will to anybody else. I wish I was brave enough to write music so pure in its intent and its execution. The influence of The Microphones is all over my first album and continues to stick with me, every single song that Elverum has written sounds true, and that is such a rare thing, all I’m ever looking for is honesty, really.
"It's absolutely mind
boggling"
Talk Talk - Laughing Stock
Without being too bold, I feel like there’s music before this album, and then music after. It’s such a landmark for me; it pretty much invented post rock (the good kind), but I also hear it across modern classical, indie, jazz, experimental and even some stuff rooted in soul like Moses Sumney. It is absolutely mind boggling that anyone was able to create this, I’m pretty sure it drove the band and engineers insane, took years and got them booted off their label. It’s exquisite. It changed not only how I think about making music but how I listen to it, so intricate yet so hushed, the only loud section abruptly cuts out. It manages to consistently play with your expectation of what’s coming next, and what does come is always miles better than what you thought was going to, even after many, many listens. It makes you listen to silence, which is used like a ghostly band member, keeping tension through a delicate balance of sound and no sound. This record is so important to me artistically, there’s no real personal sentiment or memory attached to it other than how wildly good I think it is. It might be the only actual masterpiece on this list, and one of the best pieces of music ever made.
Bio
Jamie Moore (he/they) is a musician and producer based in Brighton, UK. They perform as Winnipeg, MN and write sad, weird folk music. They may or may not have some stuff being released in the near future but are playing shows pretty regularly in the mean-time. They love to love and try to always be kind. They like biscuits marketed at grandads, and should read more than they do.
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