*Your favourite record and what it means to you!

[Dubversion]

I agonised over this, and decided there were actually 3 possible criteria for your favourite album: the one you’ve played the most (which due to age and such, would either be The Smith’s The Queen Is Dead or Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks); the one you’re most impressed or amazed by in some way (this time, I’d probably go for Astral Weeks again); or the one that simply means the most to you, even though you know its flaws and its problems and its peculiarities.

In which case, I have to go for Sparklehorse’s debut album Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot…

I’d had the album for a while – when I was a journo, things had a habit of ending up on a shelf while I got around to them – and while I knew it was good, it hadn’t really taken up residence in my brain in any significant way… and then, in the winter of 1997, all my shit hit the fan at once (rather like now, in fact)… Walked out on a home and a girlfriend and promptly lost my job as well… and just lost myself in a blizzard of base speed and coke and pills and bad techno..

But then.. But then.. at 4am. Or 8am. Or whenever I crawled home, I started listening to the Sparklehorse album. Over and over and over…and realised I had never heard anything like it… Recorded by a jaded, disillusioned recovering smackhead, in a shed recording studio, it seemed at times to flirt with the alt.country tag (whatever that is!) but was really something other.. scarily slow, stilted ballads where the singer/mainman Mark Linkous sounds like he’s about to nod out.. caustic, blaring guitar numbers that could sound like 1980s Tom Waits and 1970s Neil Young, often at the same time.. the most intriguing and elliptical lyrics, which rarely made any logical sense but had an amazing sense of mood and at times had a kind of Bunuel/Dali quality (“you play great keyboards of horses’ teeth)…

The mood, overall, being one of desperate sadness. Songs like ‘You Are The Most Beautiful Widow In Town’, ‘Sad And Beautiful World’, ‘Someday I Will Treat You Good’..

Saturday is a fine example.. over a desperately sweetly melancholic backing, Linkous claims that

“you are a car
you are a hospital
I'd walk to hell and back
to see your smile
on Saturday”

But in the end, as great as all this is, it’s the production that gets you. I’ve never been someone hung up on production – Steely Dan make me puke my ring and I’ve never been one to obsess about snare sounds – but this is different. The care, the love, the attention to detail is just breathtaking.. every spare moment has little squiggles of noise, little distortions and jerks that surprise you even on repeated listenings. There are brief track segues of toy trains and men discussing guns and barely heard answerphone messages.. ghosts in the machine and things slipping in through the ether..

And on those horrible winter mornings where I wondered what the fuck I was going to do to get off my friend’s sofa and back into the world, this album took over my brain and became like part of my DNA, part of how I looked at things…

A few Sparklehorse live shows added to the wonder and the awe. Then two more albums – Good Morning Spider and It’s A Wonderful Life which were great, but not as great.. I hear he’s working with Fennesz now, which would be interesting.


But that album, it will never let me down.

Sad & Beautiful World

sometimes I get so sad
sometimes you just make me mad

it's a sad and beautiful world
it's a sad and beautiful world

sometimes I just won't go
sometimes I can't say 'no'

it's a sad and beautiful world
it's a sad and beautiful world

sometimes days go speeding past
sometimes this one seems like the last

it's a sad and beautiful world
it's a sad and beautiful world

 

[hammerntongues]

You bastard Dub , I wasn`t planning to go out lunchtime !

 

[Dubversion]

You bastard Dub , I wasn`t planning to go out lunchtime !

i hope you like it. it's not a quick fix album, you really have to get into it i think.. but i reckon it'll get you


excellent headphones album as well

 

[Wolfie]

I've got it on now - Shirl's verdict - "it's a bit fuckin' weary"

 

[hammerntongues]

i hope you like it. it's not a quick fix album, you really have to get into it i think.. but i reckon it'll get you


excellent headphones album as well

my local store didn`t have it unfortunately so I`ve got to wait 7 days for Amazon £5.97 S/hand copy to arrive but it still cost me £17 , placed comfortably in between two other Sparklehorse cd`s right in the S (for skag ?) section was Land - Patti Smith 1975-2002 compilation just begging to be bought.

 

[liberty]

Painted Black - Fits the time

 

[rorymac]

I've got it on now - Shirl's verdict - "it's a bit fuckin' weary"

I played it to Mrs Ferik and she said ... 'that's bloody shit .. Sparklehorse you say ..bloody mad name lol ... bloody awful rubbish' .

Yeah right .. like she'd know

I think Low is my favourite album .. it's the only one I have left.
That and Snowy White's Bird of Paradise. I think that's shite ..I used to have hundreds of reject copies of that and a Back Street Crawler album. Thief mates just thought .. aah I'll just take some of these .. rory doesn't even know how many of them there are ..if I ask him he'll just say no ..would you look at the dough in that piggybank etc
I fuckin do know how many there are ..fuckin one Snowy White, One Low and No Back Street Crawler. I still have loads of copies .. of Graham Parker's 'Heat in Harlem' .. I'll give you one Wolfie cos I just know you like that x
I used to have Spiral Scratch too and 'There's the rub' by Wishbone Ash and a very rare Mahavishnu orchestra record. I'm getting pissed off now.
The Mekons 'where were you'... fuckin hell I had that too and a Fischer Z single. I asked Paul Morley once if he liked Fischer Z thinking he'd be well impressed and his exact words were .. 'No I think they are unbelievably shit' .. and get this .. I was stood next to him watching U2 at the Leeds Futurama and I said something like 'Fuckin shit them eh Paul .. do you remember me BTW ?' and he looked at me like I was an idiot and his exact words no kidding were 'I think U2 are one of the best bands in the world ..they're going to be huge'. He and Bono had on the exact same trenchcoats. 'Fantastic show Bono' said I later 'blew the banshees right off'.
'yeah thanks but the banshees were awesome ... PAUL ... BONO ..hey man great to see you blah blah blah wanky nonsense etc' .... I'm not making this up ..well I wouldn't make myself look like such a tool would I. It might be boring as shite and completely irrelevent but it's true
And then !!!! lol .... I saw Dave Formula and Barry Adamson and they had the same trenchcoats and all of them had the collars turned up like Bowie on Low.
Magazine .. Second hand daylight .. I had that before it came out and that's one of my favourites too. I didn't even stand next to them .. my mate was pissin himself at me and then the wanker goes off with Mark E Smith like they're best mates .. no introduction or fuckall ..spiteful bloke from Cork he was ... just cos I didn't believe he knew him ... he didn't look like much of a pop star to me anyway ... him and Fergal Sharky wore the same dolly anoraky duffle coat type thing same as the bloke from Microdisney.
tendril's artefact is my current favourite and some other very obscure dance stuff that has yet to catch on like. oh fuck yeah
I had a box load of Camus 'Word Up' and 'Grand master flash white lines' ..at least 20 or 30 each and the lot are gone. I hated that White Lines me.
That's it.
LOL .. I only have the cover of Snowy White's Bird of Paradise .. I'd have given it to you otherwise Wolfie :-( x

 

[MarkMark]

Time to throw my Hat into the ring with this

Bebel Gilberto - Tanto Tempo

She is without doubt my favourite ever female singer. Her Dad was a well known brazzilian Bossa artist (Joao Gilberto) with heaps of really good music to his name and in more recent times this delightful chip off the old block has been producing her own tunes.

Most of it's in portuguese but you'll find yourself somehow feeling what the songs are about all the same. Just as well as I don't speak a damned word of it but no matter. If life has given you a really shitty day (or not) then I seriously recommend running bath and putting this on the CD player and you should emerge smiling again about 11 tracks later.

 

[hammerntongues]

i hope you like it. it's not a quick fix album, you really have to get into it i think.. but i reckon it'll get you


excellent headphones album as well

Yep certainly my kind of music , thanks . Sometimes you have to try hard to like something ,if that makes sense , but it got me on the first listen.
Sad and Beautiful World is my stand out track after only a couple of listens but I don`t think there is a single track to `skip`. Morose maybe , dreary no way.

 

[Machen]

Patti Smith's Dream of Life

I have no time for her other stuff, and generally find her boring as a person, but this is the album of the 1980s!

Emotional, political, personal, sublime, peerless... powerful. 'People Have the Power' is the track most people may know from this disc, but check the rest out: unlike anything else!!

What it means to me personally? Well, let's say I found myself listening to this constantly when a certain person disappeared on me... grief/hope...nostalgia/anger. A powerful record which pisses all over stuff like The Smiths, or Joy Division etc.

 

[ska invita]

Favourite music is usualy down to good memories, and thats why everyone loves the music they grew up with. One of my favourite albums from the good old days that no one has mentioned (perhaps cos its not all that..) was Dee-Lite's World Clique. Its such an optomistic record...really captured that time for me.

But the one album I love above all else is this one:

Miles Davis and Gill Evans - Porgy and Bess

I know it might sound a bit pretentious to call that, but trust me its special. The original Porgy and Bess is not really something I'm into: I just cant take operatic singing. But this instrumental version is amazing. Miles had to be scraped off the streets of Paris, and momentarily shaken out of his heroin blues to record this. Gill Evans string arrangement is rich, sweet and sentimental - not usually things I look for in music, but there is something genuinely soul-stirring about this record.

The story of Porgy and Bess is tragic enough: a crippled man falls in love with a prostitute, they find true love, but she runs off with a dealer... Its about love in the face of adversity.
I think the combination of so many talents that went into creating this album, going back to Gershwin, makes it all add up into something breathtaking.

Above all else I love this because it reminds me of the love of my life...we sometimes listen to it on the road - its full of love songs, but with a melancholy twist running through it from start to end.
At the right time it can be a bit of a tearjerker...but never sad...just bitter sweet.
its BIG!

 

[Gumbert]

was Dee-Lite's World Clique. Its such an optomistic record...really captured that time for me.

But the one album I love above all else is this one:

Miles Davis and Gill Evans - Porgy and Bess

its BIG!

word

 

[maya]

 

[CK1977]

Errr some favourites............

Steve Parks - "Moving In The Right Direction"

Big fave of Jazzie's B way back when the "SOUL II SOUL" Africa Centre clubnight was on, he use to rinse this record

It's One of my all time faves for that very reason and brings a postive vibe to the dancefloor, it's a beautiful Mid tempo 80's rare groove record.

Marvin Gaye - "What's Goin On"

Timeless Soul classic from the "Voice", a record that means so much to me and my family as it's gives off a strong "Political" message that still means as much today as it did when it was produced. The arrangement and backing vocals are the tighest of any Soul record i've ever heard, IMHO.

Nu Yorican Soul - "The Nervous Track"

Produced by Louie Vega and Kenny Dope aka Masters At Work. A record that melts influences of music as it's a crossbread of House, Latin/Nu Yorica and Breaks. If ever I'm djing, I'll always play this track no matter where I'm playing and it's also a great track to listen to on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Bob Marley - "No Woman, No Cry"

One word "Classic"

 

[ivebeenhigh]

Wilco - I am trying to break your heart

Jeff Tweedy is a lyrical genius and this is the one that speaks to me the most - theres a whole long story as to why but that would get a little boring.

 

[Sevaserve]

Hyperballad by bJORK

Because no-one ever knows the shit you have to go through each morning just to be able to participate in the human race.

 

[fuBganger]

Grace by Jeff Buckley

reminds me of that cool summer before uni, heartbreak and exhiliration at the same time. Generally is the first record that moved me.

Debussy's Au Clair De La Lune has now crept into that category as well for me. Scarily wonderful piece, especailly when its just the piano version. Terribly disappointed that its now the music for that excruciatingly long Chanel No5 ad.

 

[CherryRipe]

Grace by Jeff Buckley

reminds me of that cool summer before uni, heartbreak and exhiliration at the same time. Generally is the first record that moved me.

Debussy's Au Clair De La Lune has now crept into that category as well for me. Scarily wonderful piece, especailly when its just the piano version. Terribly disappointed that its now the music for that excruciatingly long Chanel No5 ad.

I just bought the legacy edition of Grace this afternoon, his version of Hallelujah is the most incredibly moving song I ever heard...

 

[angel77]

Suede

The first suede album, because it was the first album that said something to me about my life. I was 16 or so and living in Downham, and here was was a record talking about escaping the shitty grey satalite towns, to off towards the bright lights in search of (sleazy)sex, drugs and rock n roll? For everyone who felt different growing up in a boring place, surrounded by boring people going about their boring lives, they were our band.

 

[invisibleplanet]

sing-a-long-a-stockhausen

My favourite recording is Karlheinz Stockhausen's 'Stimmung' (meaning "Tuning"), and features only the human voice as it progresses through an amazing array of sounds and vibrations - a truly astounding treat for the ears, and i find it difficult to resist intoning along to it.

 

[nathansears]

The Madcap Laughs- Syd Barrett

Got to be this one for me.

Despite being in the middle of a very severe nervous breakdown, acid induced or otherwise, Syd managed to produce the most human collection of tunes imaginable.

With it's haphazard recording and production (due to Syd's mental state) it is a minor miracle that they managed to record anything at all but with a bit of help from members of Soft Machine and a few of his former band mates, he managed to create an album that ironically is the complete antithesis of the emotionless dirge Floyd were churning out.

An album of unhinged, teetering on collapse, lyric sheet turning, edge of your seat ,out- take laden, at times disturbing, deranged genius.

 

[Soundwave]

this may sound bit chidish but my most fav record well album is the transformes the moive soundtrack!

Full of 80's cheesey rock always brings back wikid childhood memories
all the songs hav feel good titles Like "you got the touch" n "nothing gonna stand in our way" plus sum weird al yankovich! ive manged to get it played in my local bar once or twice
the faces of the ppl is a laugh they've just thought of the hardest thing in the world .. they they understand what they was thinking about ment then They hit the floor!!
Always brings me up!!

Every1 should have a copy for shure cheeseyness

 

[steve one]

New Order 'Technique'

The best band ever? Possibly. The most underated band ever? Definitely! They manage to take two musical directions,and combine them perfectly. No other New Order album does this better than the 1989 release 'Technique'. Mixing the guitar driven tracks with acid house electronica they heard in the world famous nightclub The Hacienda (which they owned),and Ibiza they created the perfect album to fuse rock and dance. Tracks as diverse as 'Fine Time',an out and out house record sit next to classic New Order guitar riffs (All The Way) and create the perfect 40 minutes of music. Its fair to say that music today owes a major debt to New Order,and anyone wanting to investigate their influencial sound should start here,although be warned-you will only want more and more New Order.

 

[phildwyer]

'Sweet and Dandy' by Toots and the Maytals.

 

[rubbershoes]

New order

Mixing the guitar driven tracks with acid house electronica they heard in the world famous nightclub The Hacienda (which they owned).

Almost. They were on factory records which was owned by Tony Wilson who also owned the hacienda.

</pedant>

 

[treefrog]

Portishead-Dummy

Every so often you hear a song, an album, a chorus that changes your musical direction and even the way you look at the world. My musical epiphany occurred ten years ago, when I first heard the magnificent "Glory Box" on Now Something or Other in 1994. In 1994 I was 11 and going through could be classed as a difficult period. I'd recently testified in court, my friends had alienated me for being too wrapped up in the above and I genuinely felt that nobody in the world felt like I did. I was in my room, listening to this crappy compilation tape when, as if from nowhere, a load of weird samples and that voice came out the speakers. The lyrics, the sadness, it all fit perfectly. I listened to it again and again and again, wallowing in it, feeling for the first time that there were others who felt as sad as me. The next day I found the album in my local library and listened to it constantly, usually using it as a soundtrack to writing in my journal, crying or simply staring at the ceiling trying to make sense of my life. My mother described it as "music to slit your wrists to", but I loved it for precisely that reason. Beth Gibbons voice spoke of pain, isolation and loneliness, something I needed to hear to know that I was not alone, that others out there were hurt, melancholic and confused. I needed that wake-up call, and have used the album ever since to remind myself that things aren't so bad and even if they are, they can produce real beauty.

 

[Eland]

well i have to say a tidy boys album that was recorded live was the one that brought me and a lot of my freinds in 2 hard house . unfortunatly ive never seen it anywhere i think its no longer available legally . tracks include wot the fuck the ulstamate m,ake me sway technical difficlty, life on mars any 1 else heard any tracks or no how to get hold of any on vinyl would love wot the fuck on vinyl to add to my collection
oh and a newq artist called shystie would like to big her uip lovin her rappin shes raw! get her album if you like dizzee youll love her! dimonds in the dirt!

 

[eventually]

Find it impossible to have just one favourite record.So this probably will be the first of many chronologically influenced posts.

Boney M - Nightflight to Venus; not the most conventional introduction to music, accompaniment to car journeys, my sister and I singing in the back. how did my parents suffer it for so long, .Took years to find it on vinyl -50p- and I still enjoy it as much as when I was 3.

Look out for Amon Tobin new album soon.

Re: Miles Davis - Doo Bop completed posthumously by Easy Mo Bee.
Cityscape sounds, helped draw me from brittany to brixton and introduced me to Bitches Brew, Sketches of Spain, Kind of Blue, On the Corner.

Miles Davis autobiography written with Quincy Jones, makes an interesting read, you apppreciate more his musical talent although find little love for Miles the junkie.

 

[Badgers]

Impossible because of constantly changing moods etc....

The one that I will put forward is:

Comfortably Numb - Pink Floyd

 

[rubbershoes]

Portishead-Dummy

Every so often you hear a song, an album, a chorus that changes your musical direction and even the way you look at the world. My musical epiphany occurred ten years ago, when I first heard the magnificent "Glory Box" on Now Something or Other in 1994. In 1994 I was 11 and going through could be classed as a difficult period. I'd recently testified in court, my friends had alienated me for being too wrapped up in the above and I genuinely felt that nobody in the world felt like I did. I was in my room, listening to this crappy compilation tape when, as if from nowhere, a load of weird samples and that voice came out the speakers. The lyrics, the sadness, it all fit perfectly. I listened to it again and again and again, wallowing in it, feeling for the first time that there were others who felt as sad as me. The next day I found the album in my local library and listened to it constantly, usually using it as a soundtrack to writing in my journal, crying or simply staring at the ceiling trying to make sense of my life. My mother described it as "music to slit your wrists to", but I loved it for precisely that reason. Beth Gibbons voice spoke of pain, isolation and loneliness, something I needed to hear to know that I was not alone, that others out there were hurt, melancholic and confused. I needed that wake-up call, and have used the album ever since to remind myself that things aren't so bad and even if they are, they can produce real beauty.

a fine choice there Rozi.

it's an outstanding album, without a doubt. i diagree with your mother though.i don't see it as depressing at all, but as atmospheric . you, know, i think i'll put it in my player for tomorrow