Desert Island Discs - James McKeown

Our moribund Desert Island Discs section has been dragged, kicking and screaming back in to life by James McKeown (of solo, Hi-Fiction Science and Dead Pylons fame).
James is responsible for one of my favorite albums of last year "English Dream" (seriously, check it out here, it's magnificent). He's also got some more Krautrock flavoured goodies coming up through Fruits de Mers new Strange Fish offshoot soon, so keep an eye out for that Dead Pylons release.
But back to the task at hand, James was locked in a dark room until he could commit to the ten albums he'd need to retain his sanity if marooned somewhere that just happened to have a stereophonic device or a very small iPod.

1.       Odessey and Oracle  - The Zombies

“What’s your name, who’s your Daddy ?”

I tracked this down in the mid ‘90’s when pretty much all I listened to was Psychedelia, it was a re-issue in a terrible cover (a weird sci-fi/fantasy castle scene ?!) from the now legendary ‘Revolver’ records in Bristol. I'm now lucky enough to have the 'Zombie Heaven' box set.
I love this album, it so well crafted, baroque pop with a light touch of Psychedelia. Quintessentially English on so many levels. Colin Blunstone’s voice is has such a hushed, airy quality to it, Rod Argent’s keys – Mellotron, Piano, Organ are sublime.
It really is the sound of a English Spring morning or a Autumnal late afternoon, sipping tea and walking through the leafy lanes of St.Albans in the late '60's (I like to imagine anyway!)

2.       Begin - The Millennium

“Take off your shoes and feel the grass, lie back and let the hours pass”….

As you will see I am quite a sucker for late 60’s baroque psych pop and harmonies (The Left Banke are another massive favourite) and this album by the Curt Boettcher lead ‘supergroup’ is no exception. Some of it is twee beyond compare and borders on (Ch)easy listening, but there is enough balance with sheer beauty and groundbreaking studio experimentation to make it worth a listen. Boettcher is criminally underrated as a musician, arranger and studio boffin. This album also has the legendary status of being Columbia/CBS/Sony's lowest selling album of all time!! Also worth checking out are The Ballroom, Sagittarius albums and his solo material although none of it quite reaches this level of brilliance.

3.       Hounds of Love – Kate Bush

"It's in the trees! It's coming!"

I’ve always had a massive crush on Kate Bush. I heard Running up That Hill when I was about 9 years old and felt real sense of eerie attachment . These days I would equate that feeling with Hauntology and Psychogeography – now that may seem a bit strong or over analysed but at that age your mind is a sponge and this went right in and lodged itself. Enough has been said about the mystery and legend that surrounds Kate Bush, but specifically Hounds of Love is the perfect example of intelligent pop. Hooks, melodies and also really off the wall experimentation – for example, the Ninth Wave section - for such a mainstream, essentially commercial album is pretty off the wall -  and once again, very English!

4.       Eye - Robyn Hitchcock

"Hey baby! come on in and help yourself to my soul"

I was a fan of Pink Floyd since seeing the Delicate Sound of Thunder concert on TV around 1988. I had always had a vague (foggy) notion of the name which intrigued me but seeing a portly David Gilmour and a host of mullet headed middle aged men with a crazy light show really did it for me. I loved the Storm Thorgerson's 'cod psycology' artwork and the general air of 'something is a bit weird and different' a head trip - which I didn't really understand at the age of 12. They are still my first love and all time favourite band - like my musical football team - even though the Syd years are hip and post Animals is all a bit half baked, I still love them. This preamble is a means to explain that I have read just about every book or Mojo special about them and thus I came to learn of a man who invented himself, who was a living breathing, modern day Syd Barrett. Robyn Hitchcock.

So I took a gamble on this album and on first listen was disappointed that it wasn't off the wall early floyd, it was closer to Nick Drake in a tube station. After many plays it has grown to be one of my most cherished albums and I have a large collection of Hitchcock's output. - See also The Soft Boys! - He is whimsical, Pythonesque, raconteur and a bit like a less obvious Vivian Stanshall. I met him with Peter Buck after a gig in Bristol a few years ago and got him to sign a copy of Ole Tarantula. Eye has a handwritten/drawn cover and when he signed my album I said "Wow! the Robyn Hitchcock font" to which he replied "Its just my handwriting"

5.   Spirit of Eden - Talk Talk

"Spirit of Eden has not dated; it's remarkable how contemporary it sounds. It's the sound of an artist being given the keys to the kingdom and returning with art." Alan McGee 2008

Beautiful. To those who know, this album is the equivalent of being a member of the Freemasons. A nod, a secret handshake and sense of knowing. Such a special album and the mystery and journey that the band went on to get here is all the more intriguing.

Spirit of Eden recording engineer Phill Brown's book "Are we Still Rolling" talks of music being "recorded by chance, accident, and hours of trying every possible overdub idea." of intense sessions with studios in near darkness and the clocks and watches removed so that everyone lost sense of time and became lost and entranced by the music. It's influences range from Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Béla Bartók, and Claude Debussy and are about as far removed from the Duran Duran synth band they arrived as.

Music can be useful in many ways and whilst it seems a portentous statement, this should be regarded as a spiritual experience.

6.    Scott 4 - Scott Walker 

“The Angels of Ashes, will give back your passions, Again and again”

Whilst I love Tilt, The Drift and what I have heard of Bish Bosch I would class those albums more as works of art that you pay a visit to, reflect on and then return to again when the time feels right or you want to be moved, amused, shocked or need to pay a visit to the outer reaches of abrasive tonality. In short, it’s not an everyday listen in the same way you may enjoy a film several times, but it wouldn’t feel right to watch it every day.

Again in the same way that Talk Talk’s latter day output is nothing like their genesis, here we take the reverse journey.

The thick fug of late ‘60’s studio session musician professionalism hangs over this recording. Yet it is anything but stale and feels like a warm and accessible journey. Lovely big upfront clicking ‘60’s bass, big sweeping strings, plucked harps and nylon stringed guitars combined with Scott’s poetry noir, croon-a-thon make this an absolute jewel in the canon of Noel Scott Engel. It failed to chart.

7.    Histoire de Melody Nelson - Serge Gainsbourg 

“En anglais, surnomma Spirit of Ecstasy”

If anyone balks at the proposition of a concept album, conjuring images of Torpid Tales from Topographic Drudgery play them this. At just under 28 minutes this is a sweet breeze of a ‘concept album’. Stylistically close to Scott 4 yet with a almost ‘post –punk’ aesthetic in places (particularly noticeable in the guitars on the title track – played by Alan Parker who also played on The Walker Brothers No Regrets). It's sexy and sassy, hypnotic and tidy all at once.

I first heard the funky/clunky bass loop from ‘Melody’ used as a sample by Massive Attack on ‘Karmacoma’ so there is a nice, if somewhat tenuous, Bristol connection too.

The lush, deep string and choral arrangements were composed by Jean-Claude Vannier in collaboration with Gainsbourg which really work to either stab in dramatically or deftly float over the top of the dry rhythm section. Gainsbourg’s near spoken delivery provides a wonderfully strung out storytelling rap to Jane Birkin’s coquette sweetness despite the fact that she’s just been knocked off her bike by a miscreant Frenchman.

8. Musik Von Harmonia - Harmonia

"the world's most important rock band" - Brian Eno

That's a fair bold statement but a very fair one.  Everyone knows, loves and namechecks the Kosmische Klassics Can & Neu! but Harmonia - basically being Cluster + Michael Rother for me always feel a bit neglected. In the days before the internet I found out about these obscure Krautrock bands through Julian Cope's Krautrocksampler in which he includes Musik Von Harmonia in his top 50 (and rightly so)

This album fits passive listening as 'Ambient-rock' or immersive engagement and is a real trip from start to finish. Michael Rother's guitar is clean or razor-like but never lacking feel and precision. Mani Neumeier of Guru Guru is drumming and captures perfectly the Klaus Dinger Motorik Apache beat - it's in the blood for these guys - see also Michael Rother's 'Katzenmusik' where Jaki Zeibzeit's minimal drumming fills out the bass parts of this beautiful, melodic, instrumental guitar music.

I once shook hands with Michael Rother after watching a 'Harmonia' show with him and Mobius performing. He was very unassuming, spoke perfect English and was impeccably polite. A great player, a real guitar hero.

9. The Return of the Durutti Column - The Durutti Column 

"The melodic genius of Vini Reilly"

Life is an unfair business. Vini Reilly's lack of millions and rock star credentials are essentially a trade off for him being one of the greatest ever guitarists in a Mancunian/Hacienda version of the Robert Johnson sell-your-soul-to-the-devil-

at-the-crossroads-pact. I've already express my love for The Pink Floyd and David Gilmour's string bending, rooted in the blues is a rich, thick double cream of sound. Vini is the polar opposite. His thin, bony hands chime and pick the most heartbreakingly melodic phrases you could ever bless your ears with. Martin Hannett's production whilst purposely cold and detached captures Vini's sound perfectly "...he more or less got sounds for me that no one else could understand that I wanted. And he understood that I wanted to play the electric guitar but I didn't want this horrible distorted, usual electric guitar sound and he managed to get that."

I saw Vini and The Durutti Column live once in Bristol and it was a profound, cathartic and spiritual experience for which I can only thank Aidan Searle and Jeff Green for being my post-punk mentors. If push comes to shove - Vini Reilly is my favourite guitarist of all time. Such an inspiration.

10. Snow Borne Sorrow - Nine Horses

"We will lie back, on a pillow of the whitest snow, and the silence we were promised, will engulf us"

David Sylvian - The most beautiful man in the world, yet so much more than just a pretty face. This is an album I return to time and time again. It's steered me through all kind of emotional turmoil and serves as a perfect lament to the human condition. Recorded in 2005 with his brother Steve Jansen (also of Japan) This melds high Art-Rock, fragmented, skittering electronica (from Burnt Friedman), jazz, pop and introspection. Coming off the back of Sylvian's improvised and experimental 'Blemish' this feels like a return to pop but with all the weight of a war-torn world, a personal life in crisis and worn emotions.  There are subtle hints of the final Japan project the 'Rain Tree Crow' album but this feels contemporary, yet timeless. Slowcore, melancholic and companion album to No-Man's 'returning Jesus' of 'Schoolyard Ghosts'.

Desert Island Discs Selected By Dodson & Fogg

Today's Desert Island Discs have been chosen by Chris Wade a.k.a Dodson & Fogg.

Check out Dodson & Fogg's excellent debut here.

"I tried to choose 10 albums for this challenge, but then there were others I just couldn't miss out. I have also cheated a bit really, as I've got 2 albums by some bands and put them in as 1. Naughty I know... I basically chose the albums I am playing most regularly through the average week. Lately I've been listening to a lot of Incredible String Band and Simon and Garfunkel, so they could have made the list too. Also been loving Gong lately as well, but I think I might go mad being stuck on an island with a load of Gong albums."

1. Trees - On the Shore and Garden of Jane Delawney

As a kid I always heard the two title tracks from these albums. my dad used to play them off his Fill Your Head with Rock and Rockbusters samplers. Classic records. We both got the Trees albums a few years back and I really got into them. On the Shore is my favourite, I just love the moody atmosphere of tracks like Fool and Murdoch, while Sally Free and Easy is just amazing stuff. It was a thrill to have Celia from Trees on my Dodson And Fogg album as she is one of my favourite singers. Always listening to On the Shore in my office.

2. Jethro Tull - Aqualung

I love a lot of Tull, especially the Living in the Past compilation, but Aqualung is a masterpiece. Weird really, as Ian Anderson often says he doesn't think it sounds like a great record, as they had some difficulties getting it recorded. Listening to it now though, it's just an absolute classic. There's the epic greats (title track, My God and Locomotive Breath) but I love the weird little ones like Wondering Aloud (a lovely song), Moother Goose and Cheap Day Return. Cross Eyed Mary really conjures up some images too. The lyrics are so strong, he's a great lyricist.

3. Donovan - A Gift from A Flower To A Garden

I know a lot of folk people dont like Donovan, and some people find him too quaint, but I think he's bloody great. Saw him at Varieties in Leeds a few years ago and he did some tracks off this album, which has always been my fave of his. Enchanted Gypsy and the rest of the second vinyl (or the second half of the Cd edition) is just sheer perfection. The simple songs, arrangements and Donovan's voice put you into a trance. I can always listen to this, as well as Open Road and HMS Donovan too.


4. Black Sabbath - Paranoid

This was my favourite album when I was very young, like 9 or 10, and I still play it a lot now, on my old vinyl copy and the CD. It's the one album I love to play along to as well. The flow of the songs is just sublime, the crashing of War Pigs, to the iconic title track, the chilled out oddness of Planet Caravan to Iron Man's epic clashes. And that's just side one. Ozzy never sounded better and Iommi proved he was master of the metal riff.


5. Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon and Piper at the Gates of Dawn

It's much cooler now I think to like the Barrett stuff, but you can't deny the brilliance of Dark Side... I used to shun the post Barrett stuff when I was younger, trying to be cool I suppose, but when you listen properly to DSOTM it's easy to see why the album has connected with so many people and continues to do so. Gilmour's solos just send shivers up your spine.


6. Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention - We're Only In It For The Money

I love all the early Zappa and Mothers albums, as well as Hot Rats, but this Beatles parody really does it for me. The cover alone grabs you (even though it was originally placed on the inner sleeve due to legal nonsense) and that weird start, Are You Hung Up? with Eric Clapton muttering away fires you into Who Needs the Peace Corps? and you're off on a mad high speed journey! Some of the lyrics are so savage, especially when he's having a go at the cops, but I also love the little piss takes of flower power and the weekend hippies. He even ends it all with an avant-garde piece too. Amazingly clever album.


7. King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King

This was another one I heard growing up, in particular 21st Century Schitzoid Man, which was on another of dad's old samplers. It's just a masterpiece and no wonder it's so acclaimed. It has a doomy but emotional feel to it, gorgeous stuff. I Talk to the Wind is one of my favourite songs at the moment. But the massiveness of the title track is really something too, really powerful.


8. The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour

I love Revolver and Abbey Road too, but I play this more often. I love the weirdness, the imagination of it, the fact that nothing was impossible for them in this phase. I love other bands but I'm not sure you can be honest and say they're not the greatest band we've ever seen. Just listen to this album. If it were out today people would go ape shit. I think people take the Beatles for granted a bit these days.


9.  The Kinks - The Village Green Preservation Society and Arthur...

Cheating I know. Village Green used to be my absolute fave. Ray Davies was at his peak here, writing for himself and no one else. The title track is now a well deserved classic, but I just adore the Englishness of Do You Remember Walter and my all time fave Kinks song Animal Farm. It's such a sad album but totally beautiful as well. Thankfully it's the band's best selling original album now, greatest hits aside. The follow up Arthur... is also a strong album, totally English and eccentric. Funny to think they were at their lowest commercial dip here. Shangrila is a masterpiece, tragic that it didnt chart as a single.


10. Cat Stevens - Mona Bone Jakon

I love all the early Stevens albums, Tea for the Tillerman and Teaser and the Firecat, but I always come to this one more often. Lady D'Arbanville is one of the best opening tracks ever and I love how Mona Bone Jakon sounds like something from Jesus Christ Superstar soundtrack. He is such a great songwriter and his voice is one of the best for me.


11.  Leonard Cohen - The Songs of Leonard Cohen

The songs! I just love this album. Anything that starts with Suzanne is going to be good. It's so bare and haunting and perfect. He never got it this good again, I don't think. You could tell he'd been writing novels, the words are just so full, not a syllable is wasted.



12. Amy MacDonald - This is the Life

Maybe not too cool a choice, but I loved this album when it came out and still think it's one of the best albums of recent years. She's a great songwriter; Run, LA, Poison Prince, all haunting melancholy sounding stuff and her voice is fantastic. The follow ups weren't as good but this stuff is hard to beat.



13. The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Electric Ladyland

Another favourite of mine since I was very young. I was obsessed with Hendrix as a kid and this was one I bought on CD, with the different cover of course, the close up of his face rather than all the nudies and boobs. It's just an amazing album, so epic, and ending with such iconic tracks, Voodoo Chile and Watchtower... he was amazing, god what a waste!

 If you want to share your Desert Island Discs e-mail them through to me at nford150@gmail.com

Desert Island Discs Selected By The Solar System

This week's Desert Island Discs selections have been made by Chris Oliver also known as the psychedelic one-man-band spectacular "The Solar System". Check out the latest Solar System album "Lysergic Summer" here : http://thesolarsystem.bandcamp.com/releases


Says Chris "The concept of Desert Island Discs is quite a challenge. I have a huge music collection and I'm always searching for new sounds so to choose just ten albums was a bit tough but after much thought, Here are ten albums I know I can't live without."

1. John Frusciante-Niandra Lades And Usually Just A T-shirt.
This album blew my mind and opened doors for me to what music could be and the feelings it can bring to a human. The album is just John with his guitars on his 4-track with very little extra instrumentation but what John brings is one of the ultimate psychedelic albums in my opinion. As I write, I'm having a hard time coming up with the words to describe all the feelings this album gives me. If you are open minded enough, I highly suggest taking the trip!

2. Syd Barrett-The Madcap Laughs.
Just like the Frusciante album, This record blew my mind. This album is like walking into Syd's fragile mind. He is beyond open and honest with the listener here. You are sucked into his world. It's also an album i've listened to thousands of times and with each listen I discover something new with each listen.

3. The Beatles-Revolver.
Pretty tough to pick just one album by the fab four but I seem to always go back to Revolver. The beginning of the Beatles exploring and breaking the boundaries of rock music at the time. Tomorrow Never Knows is one of the most tripped out songs ever recorded, Still till this very day. The album also showcases George Harrison's amazing ability as a songwriter. He is truly finding his voice on this album with great songs such as "Taxman" and "Love You Too".

4.Beck-Mellow Gold.
As a kid growing up in the 90's, Hearing Loser for the first time was a trip. I've never heard music like that at the time and after the first listen to Loser I had to hear the rest of the album. This album for me I can honestly say is one of the biggest influences on me as a musician as well as Revolver by the Beatles. Every song on Mellow Gold finds Beck experimenting with every musical genre you can imagine. Taking Folk, Hip Hop, Disco, Drone, Psychedelic, Rock and so much more and throwing it all on top of each other. It still blows my mind when I revisit the album and if anyone has listened to a Solar System album you will see the influence this album has had on me as a musician.

5.Olivia Tremor Control-  Dusk At Cubist Castle.
When I discovered this band and The Elephant 6 Recording Company it was like meeting a long lost friend.  It gave me complete comfort. Dusk to me is the perfectpsychedelic album. The production blows my mind and when I found out most of it was recorded on 4-track cassette and all the crazy tape splices etc etc it tripped me out as I too was recording on a 4-track. Olivia opened my minds to what was possible with limited equipment. Will Hart is probably the most psychedelic songwriter ever, If you didn't know any  better you would for sure think this  album comes straight out of 1967.Sadly Bill Doss recently has passed away and they were in the midst of making a new album. Such a shame to have lost one of the nicest musicians ever and someone who I was lucky to have met and have a few really great conversations with.

6. Neutral Milk Hotel- On Avery Island.
People will probably flip out seeing this album over the classic In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, an album I love dearly but On Avery Island just does it for me. The emotions are at an all time high on this one and again the production on this album amazes me. My ears are attracted to the more dirty, low-fi sounds and this album is just that. Jeff Mangum is one of the best songwriters ever. After hearing the first song "Song Against Sex" you will agree with that statement. Jeff has recently started playing shows again and I hope one day he will give us all new music!

7.The Apples In Stereo- New Magnetic Wonder.
It was very hard to pick just one Apples album as I love them all but I had to go with this one. Robert Schneider is easily my favorite producer ever. I love his production style. He has produced pretty much all the classic E6 releases and to me his production style is a mixture of Joe Boyd, Jeff Lynne, Brian Wilson and Shel Talmy. Pretty much all of my favorite producers as well so to be able to put them all together is just amazing. Robert is also one of the best songwriters out there. If songs like "Open Eyes" "Same Old Drag" and "Beautiful Machine Parts 1-4" don't blow you away, I don't know what will!

8. Sean Lennon- Into The Sun.
This album just like Mellow Gold by Beck manages to take every genre possible and put them all together.  I think this is Sean's Masterpiece and has yet to top it. Sadly most wont agree or have even heard this album. I always go back to this album and it never ceases to amaze and inspire me.

9. King Crimson- In The Court Of The Crimson King.
This album introduced me to Progressive rock. Finding this album in my dad's record collection and seeing that album cover tripped me out and I had to hear what that album cover sounded like. The first song "21st Century Schizoid Man" did just that! Robert Fripp is a genius and has gone on to produce many other great Crimson albums and it was indeed hard to pick just one but this is the winner. Moonchild still gives me chills to this day. A true masterpiece!

10.Black Sabbath- Paranoid.
This album is one of the best rock albums ever, Pure and Simple. I think the band itself doesn't get enough
credit for how great of musicians they are. Geezer Butler and Bill Ward are easily one of the best rock  rhythm sections. Listen to any song off this album and tell me otherwise. This album contains elements of progressive rock, psychedelic and of course heavy metal and what was to become known as doom metal. Every song on it is a classic and should be in everyone's collection.

Got your own Desert Island Discs selections that you'd like to share? Send them through to nford150@gmail.com

Desert Island Discs Selected By Michael Toland

We've got another Desert Island Discs selection for you, with selections today painstakingly chosen by Michael Toland, writer for Blurt, The Big Takeover, The Austin Chronicle, Trouser Press & High Bias.

"When I look at this list now, I’m almost distraught at what’s been left out. Where’s the Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main Street? Or the Clash’s London Calling? Or Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue? Jeff Buckley’s Grace? Last Exit’s Iron Path? Sly & the Family Stone’s Greatest Hits? Something by CCR (my first favorite band)? Why aren’t there more women on my list? Or African-Americans? Or world music artists? Why could I not find room for the Hedwig & the Angry Inch film soundtrack? Or the Aretha Franklin box set? Where’s Nikki Sudden, of whom I’ve grown inordinately fond over the past decade? Seriously, no David Bowie or Richard Thompson?

Ten slots seem like too few, but let’s face it: if the limit wasn’t imposed, the list would go on forever. What music I listen to depends on so many factors that to put together a collection for a desert island would be an impossible task, anticipating my every mood while the surf flowed between my toes. Not to mention where the artist sits in my current listening mode – Grace didn’t make the cut solely because I’ve gotten a little burned out on the younger Buckley, but I know that status won’t last. So I made the list with as little thought as possible and it is what it is – a list of records I never tire of and return to frequently. Today, anyway."

The Beatles – Abbey Road (1969)

It’s become popular in certain circles to bash this record, and I’ve never understood why. To me it seems like the culmination of everything the band had accomplished thus far – great writing and playing, imaginative production and arrangements. For me this has held up much, much better that the more celebrated Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

The Bevis Frond – New River Head (1991)

I adore Love’s Forever Changes, the Beatles’ Revolver, Hendrix’s Axis Bold as Love, Pink Floyd’s Piper at the Gates of Dawn and all the other acid classix. But Nick Saloman’s double LP explosion of sensual guitar freakouts and high songcraft is my favorite psychedelic rock album. Saloman’s facility with the pen is almost supernatural given how many songs he cranks out. He’s made a bunch of great records, but this one, to me, has always felt like the one on which his vision hit its most perfect execution.

Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On (1971)

It’s tempting to say that this record is significant because it’s the point where soul/R&B most overtly manifested a social conscience. (As long as you don’t dig into pre-war blues, that is.) But that’s not the real reason I love this record. In truth it’s because I love the melodies, the lush production (setting a precedent throughout the 70s) and the way Gaye’s wonderful voice soars, swirls and floats in and around the arrangements. His intricate vocal interplay – mostly with himself – puts a unique stamp on an already exemplary album.

House of Freaks – Monkey On a Chain Gang (1988)

I can’t remember now what turned me on to this record – I think it was a review in a magazine. But I’ve loved this album from this Richmond, Virginia duo since it first came out. Predating the White Stripes, the Kills, the Black Keys, etc., the Freaks sound like none of them, instead mining a vein of richly melodic Americana, but with enough rock & roll passion to put in more in line with John Fogerty than anything that No Depression would cover. The layered production belies the fact that only two guys made all this sound, and the late Bryan Harvey was a great singer and guitarist.

Paul K – A Wilderness of Mirrors (1998)

Detroit-to-Kentucky singer/songwriter Paul K(opasz) has been making excellent, often stunning records for 30 years, self-releasing most to a handful of devotees. But for a while in the 90s his remarkable body of work was discovered by a larger audience, first in Europe, and then in America, where a succession of indie labels signed him up. Ever the iconoclast, his music – which reveled in traditional rock & roll song structures even as it traveled into territory not usually visited by mainstream rockers – never quite fit in anywhere but on critics’ best-of lists, which is truly a shame. A Wilderness of Mirrors, a concept album that filters the Roswell UFO legend through the Book of Job, is his most fully realized work, a collection of intelligent, literary, heartfelt songs set in some of the most accessible production of his career. I’d put the title track on any shortlist of the best rock songs ever.

Bob Mould – Workbook (1989)

Mould’s music has had such a huge impact on me that it’s really difficult to choose one record – this slot could have just as easily gone to Sugar’s Copper Blue or Hüsker Dü’s Warehouse: Songs & Stories, or even his most recent record Silver Age. But this is the first LP I heard of his music (yes, even before I heard the Hüskers), and thus the first one to draw me into his world of passion, craft and guitars, guitars, guitars.

The Music Lovers – The Words We Say Before We Sleep (2004)

When I got turned on to this record a few years ago by a Nikki Sudden-penned review in Bucketfull of Brains, I had been under the assumption that I’d never find another songwriter as powerful and skilled as Pete Townshend, Bob Mould, Lucinda Williams, Elvis Costello and all the other pre-millennial icons. I was wrong. Matthew Edwards is just as good as any well-known writer you’d care to name, and better than most of them. This CD lived in my various stereos for a good three years, and I still return to it regularly.

Porcupine Tree – In Absentia (2002)

PT is probably the most psychedelic progressive rock band going, in large part because of leader Steven Wilson’s painterly production style. That’s not to give short shrift to his songwriting, mind you, which is always smart, emotional and supremely melodic, and this album – the band’s first for a major label – is a particularly strong set of tunes. But the production is such that I never fail to discover something new every time I spin it. And I’ve played this record more times than anything else in my collection – no kidding.

The Who – The Kids Are Alright (1979)

Admittedly, this is cheating, as it’s more of a compilation than an album. But I can’t live without the Who, and more specifically, I can’t live without these versions of “Baba O’Riley” and “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” which are definitive, as far as I’m concerned. Besides, this record to me fully unites the two sides of the band that diehards (the 60s loyalists who think the band took a wrong turn with Tommy and the 70s fans who don’t get the Who’s 60s pop side) fight over in a stream of brilliance that proves more than any other LP what a great, great band they were.

Lucinda Williams – s/t (1988)

In the late 80s, when I was reading a lot of music rags, I noticed that critics couldn’t pin this album down. I saw it called the best country album of the year, the best rock album, the best folk album and the best blues album, depending on the publication. If music writers couldn’t definitively describe it, I knew I had to hear it. Sure enough, it doesn’t fit comfortably in any box, adding strains of nearly every American style of music into a well-crafted but straightforward, unelaborate tapestry that proved the perfect setting for Williams’ remarkable songs. She’s since made more popular albums, even more acclaimed ones, but I think this is far and away her best, and it’s set a standard few, if any, of her contemporaries have reached.

Want to tell us about your Desert Island Discs? E-mail to nford150@gmail.com