Favourite albums. Now here is a very tricky one, and undeniably one that has taken me a few weeks, no scrap that, months (although I really mean years) to generate. Music has always been very important to me both in an active musician's and passive listener's sense, so the stance I'm taking to create this top-five, is somewhat biased - but not really. When thinking about these kind of things, it seems almost impossible not to include the music that you were brought up listening to or to include those first 'finds' you made as a teenager in record stores (or in my case over the internet). So, without further ado, here we go...
1) Blink-182 - Enema of the State (1999)
From when I was about nine, I've always loved skateboarding. When I was about eleven, I was in a skate shop where this album was playing and that was pretty much it. I've always said it was like hearing the music my ears were built to listen to. In reality, if it wasn't for this band, I would probably not listen to half the music I listen to today, or been in half the bands I've ever been in let alone picked up an electric bass. Whilst I love and appreciate everything this band has done before and since, Enema of the State tops it for me mainly for the influential age I was when it came out but also just for its awesomely perfect collection of pop-punk.
2) Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago (2008)
As I've already said, only the truly time tested albums will find themselves in this list, yet here is Bon Iver's 2008 full length in all its glory. Again, this list is not a hierarchical top five and each look in deserves an equal share of the glory but I do feel like if I had to choose, I would never regret calling this album my all time favourite. To put it simply, for me this is music. Self recorded in a Wisconsin cabin over three months with vary basic gear, 'For Emma' is drenched in songwriting genius. Ghostly, layered vocals and melodies that I could only ever dream of writing. Deservedly, this album has been featured in countless best albums of 2008 or 2009; even becoming the Guardian Newspaper's best album of that former year.
3) Jimmy Eat World - Clarity (1999)
When the band's 2001 album 'Bleed American' came out in 2001, I wasn't overly impressed (I have since become so, though, don't worry). It wasn't until about four years ago that I first heard Clarity, pretty much ignoring the fact that the band had done anything prior to their first commercially big release. Now regarded as pretty much the 90's emo record, Clarity without doubt deserves a place in my all time top five. It's mainly a great record to relax to, or drive to, with tracks like 'Just Watch the Fireworks' and 'For Me, This is Heaven' ultimate mellow outers. I still absolutely love everything else this band has done (and even more so for the fact that their lineup has never changed) but Clarity will always be my favourite.
4) Name Taken - Hold On (2004)
Let's go for something a little more obscure shall we? As a band, one of my great internet finds of the early 00's, Name Taken's first and final full length is alternative pop rock at its absolute best. An awesome vocal with instrumentals that I will pretty much call perfect music, Hold On has it all. This album meant so much to me from the age of sixteen it would be wrong not to put it in this list. Standout tracks for me, 'A Year Spent Cold' and 'Drive Drive Drive'. Please go listen to it now!
5) Steely Dan - Aja (1977)
This last one's a little bit more tricky, but I think I've got to broaden the range and go for something slightly different and of course, older. Without doubt, the best album production ever (it actually won a Grammy for the Best Engineered Non-Classical Recording of 1978) and an ensemble cast of musicians that is, to put it bluntly, nuts. Steve Gadd's performance on the title track, 'Aja' is what got me into playing drums (long before my Blink-182 electric bass days) and in that same way, Chuck Rainey's bass playing on 'Peg' is jaw-droppingly, and flist-clenchingly good. Although this is very much an album of my parent's generation, it has to be in my top five not only for its production but also because it is just awesome music, played awesomely well.
So there we go. There are countless other equally awesome and influential albums that could easily be here but these are what came to mind and didn't leave and probably never will.
Jonty x
