REM - Automatic For The People
It’s a toss up between this and Out of Time, which may be more consistent as an album, but Automatic wins out for the closing one-two-three punch of ‘Man on the Moon’, ‘Nightswimming’ and ‘Find the River’. Every REM record has something to recommend, but they were really on fire in this period. Automatic has some of their best-sounding songs live too. I’ll never forget ‘Man on the Moon’ practically blowing the roof off Brixton Academy when I saw them in 2003.
"This record will always make
me think of the pandemic"
Taylor Swift - Folklore
Taylor Swift is the writer’s pop superstar. I’m including this one partly to make sure there’s a selection from this century, but mostly because it’s just a great album. One of those records where every song works individually and as part of a whole. The lowercase-styled folklore encompasses everything from blueblood biopic ‘the last great american dynasty’ to country-tinged teen melodrama ‘betty’. ‘cardigan’ is one of her best singles to date, but doubles as the centrepiece of a trilogy of songs about a fictional relationship. Swift is such an evocative storyteller, and her style meshes perfectly with co-writers Aaron Dessner and Jack Antonoff. It’s all the more impressive considering the collaborations were done over Zoom. Released at the height of the lockdown summer, this record will always make me think of the pandemic year.
The Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers
The choice came down to this or Let it Bleed, but any of the Mick Taylor era Stones records would be a worthy addition. Sticky Fingers is one of those studio albums that sounds like a greatest hits. Everyone knows the setlist fixtures, but Sway and Sister Morphine are underappreciated gems. From the peerless riff of Brown Sugar to the gothic country of Dead Flowers via the blues of Can’t You Hear Me Knocking, the highest praise I can give is to say that this album sounds like a Martin Scorsese movie.
Weezer - The Blue Album
Technically it’s self-titled, but Weezer have more self-titled albums than any other band in history, so everyone calls it the Blue Album. The first time I heard lead single Buddy Holly, the description that surfed into my head was ‘grunge Beach Boys’, and I still think that was a pretty good summation. So many of Weezer’s best songs are on Blue that it might as well be their greatest hits album. In amongst some of the greatest three-minute pop songs of the nineties, Say it Ain’t So and Only In Dreams take their sweet time, to great effect.
John Barry - On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
A handful of the Barry Bond scores could be on this list, but this is possibly the best of the bunch. The title track is one of the series’ best action cuts, and Journey to Blofeld’s Hideaway makes you long for an alpine holiday. And, of course, We Have All the Time in the World with Louis Armstrong is, appropriately enough, timeless. Hans Zimmer referenced Barry’s work here extensively in the new Bond film, but the tribute only served to emphasise how much better the earlier film and its score were.
Bon Jovi - These Days
Exercises like these can be undermined by trying to make yourself look as cool as possible. To avoid that, I’m not going to pick Miles Davis or Sigur Ros, I’m going to pick Bon Jovi. This isn’t the Bon Jovi album that people think of when it comes to their big hits, but every song on it is great. It helps that it came out when I was 16 years old and experiencing the longest, hottest summer of my childhood. It marked a turning point for the band, evolving into a more mature, bluesy sound, and it’s why they still stride the stadium rock landscape like a colossus when their hair metal brethren have long since fallen by the wayside.
Jimmy Eat World - Futures
Bleed American is most people’s favourite Jimmy record, but I prefer this one. Every song is catchy yet melancholic, introspective as well as anthemic. It’s a brilliantly paced album, something that becomes more evident as the careful sequencing of songs becomes a lost art in the streaming age. Futures opens up with a barrage of perfect pop rock on songs like the title track, Work and Kill, slowing down for Drugs or Me, then building to the majestic 23. It’s fantastic.
Nirvana - Unplugged in New York
Nevermind is my favourite of their studio albums, but this is something special. Recorded months before Kurt Coban killed himself, it’s a surprising selection of songs - most of their biggest hits are missing, and nearly half of the tracks are covers. The last track on the last Nirvana record, a blistering cover of Lead Belly’s Where Did You Sleep Last Night, takes some beating as an artist’s sign-off to the world.
Bio
Mason Cross is a British novelist whose debut novel The Killing Season was longlisted for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Book of the Year 2015. His second novel, The Samaritan, also featuring his lead character Carter Blake, was selected as a Richard & Judy Book Club pick, and Presumed Dead was longlisted for the McIlvanney Prize.
Mason has written a number of short stories, including A Living, which was shortlisted for the Quick Reads 'Get Britain Reading' Award and 'Expiry Date', published in Ellery Queen.
He also writes standalone thrillers under the name Alex Knight, including Hunted and his latest book, Darkness Falls.
He lives near Glasgow with his wife and three children.
Web: www.masoncross.net
Twitter: @masoncrossbooks
