My Desert Island Discs (Top 10 Albums)

Member Name: miriamb

Product:	Top 10 Albums
Date:	10/06/02 (201 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: many

Disadvantages: occasional or none

So, my Top Ten albums ever… A tricky one, but seeing as I’m poorly with some nasty flu-type virus I’ve got plenty of time to mull it over. I’ve come up with ten that may or may not be to everybody’s taste, but I hope that there’s at least one in my list that we can agree on!

So, in no particular order, here they are.

NICK DRAKE – BRYTER LAYTER (1970)

This is my favourite Nick Drake CD. For those who may not be acquainted, Nick Drake was a genius, and is now sadly departed. Recording three albums between 1969 and 1972, he died in 1974 at the age of 26 from an overdose of anti-depressants. Bryter Layter is the middle of the three albums, was recorded in 1970, and is arguably the most extrovert, in that it is notably more upbeat than the other two. Although maintaining the beautifully tragic lyricism that is typical of his work, the musical content soars upwards, with jazz flavoured saxophones, bass guitars, pianos and organs, and soul inspired female backing vocals.

On the whole falling into the folk camp of Fairport Convention and Crosby Stills and Nash, Bryter Layter is a vibrant yet haunting orchestral masterpiece. Tracks such as ‘Hazey Jane I’, and ‘One of these things first’, capture the achingly painful angst that was central to his character, whilst providing brilliant musical soundscapes that almost disguise the depressive tendencies. This album also contains one of his very few recorded tracks that manage to come across as hopeful and optimistic, that being ‘Northern Sky’. This is one of those albums that can equally fill you with joy at its beauty and reduce you to tears by the lyrics, and I absolutely love it. Nuff said.


THE KLF – THE WHITE ROOM (1991)

Yes, I’m jumping from one extreme to the other, but this is great too, albeit in a completely different way. This is in here primarily because it&
#8217;s a fab album that transports me back a few years to my teens and the heady era of early nineties dance and under-18 nights! Ah, those youth-flushed crushes, and my first encounters with strobe lighting, smoke machines and proper bass speakers. Ok so The KLF didn’t invent dance music and sampling, but they did introduce a certain bizarre humour to what was a seriously drug-fuelled genre. No disrespect meant to the ‘serious’ artists of the day, but hey, would any of them have used Tammy Wynette for vocals..? I think not.

Mixing hip-hop samples, strong female vocals, beats, breaks and rap, together with a range of instruments including keyboards, clarinets and sax, and then adding KLF style vocals credited as ‘Mu mus’ (ie moo moo), ‘Aha aha’s, ‘Wild yelps’ and ‘Woo woo’s... You get the picture! It’s fantastically irreverent and anarchic but it’s still great music. You’ll probably have at least heard the singles – ‘What time is love?’, ‘3am eternal’ and ‘Last train to trancentral’. All of these seem to have taken on an almost anthemic status and are singularly effective at getting me to jump up and down these days! So, for the party people, and for getting those booties a-movin’ and a-rockin’, in my book this CD is unbeatable.


MILES DAVIS – SKETCHES OF SPAIN (1960)

Stepping back in time again, and into the extremely cool world of Miles Davis and Columbia Jazz. And this is proper jazz, none of that messing about with a sampler and playing merry heaven with electronics. The incomparable Miles Davis played the trumpet, and of all of his work, I’ve picked this one for that Latin edge, the rhumba and flamenco influences that colour this album so beautifully. The first track is Adagio’s ‘Concierto de Aranjuez’ and it really is spell-binding. If you’v
e seen the film Brassed Off, you’ll recognise this as the hauntingly delicate number that sent shivers all down your spine, as it does here. Running to nearly sixteen and a half minutes, and featuring the full orchestral backdrop, it’s a truly ravishing performance and you’d be excused if this was your sole reason for buying the CD.

The original release of this album only contained a further four tracks, three of which were written by Gil Evans, another renowned name in the jazz world. The most outstanding of these is ‘Solea’, over twelve minutes of flamenco-styled jazz, complete with authentic percussion. This piece was based on an Andulusian folk song about a young woman, and the brass evokes her commentary.

‘Sketches of Spain’ was re-issued in 1997, and three further tracks were added, two alternative takes of Parts One and Two of the ‘Concierto de Aranjuez’, and another track written by Gil Evans, ‘Song of our country’.


BLUR – 13 (1999)

I had to include this as it contains tracks that perennially end up stuck in my head on a fixed and one-track rotation. Blur have come a long way in my opinion; the early simplicity of ‘There’s no other way’, the silly ‘Parklife’ and ‘Country house’ stage (just my opinion!), the we’re-serious-artists-really ‘Universal’, to the grunged-up hedonism of ‘Song 2’ and ‘MOR’. Which brings us to 13. This is famously known as lead singer Damon Albarn’s ode to lost love after the split from his long-term girlfriend, but it’s also noteworthy as the album on which guitarist Graham Coxon starts to take a front seat in the band. He does this with style, writing and singing the blissfully morose ‘Coffee and TV’, which sounds just like the guitar-based indie of Ride and the Stone Roses. The other big shift is that
it is produced by William Orbit. All in, this is a very different Blur to the cheeky chappy that we’ve known previously, with a much more sombre and melancholy sound.

Brilliant tracks are interspersed with ones that are a little less pleasant on the ears. Examples of the good would be the already mentioned ‘Coffee and TV’, the distorted vocal and almost blues-y bass of ‘Swamp song’, and ‘Caramel’ for its hypnotic and seductive refrains and breathy vocals. For the latter, watch out for ‘Bugman’, a high-octane, shouty distortion-fest that’s far less engaging than ‘Song 2’, the bizarre ‘Optigan 1’, which just doesn’t seem to fit at all and quite frankly is dull, and ‘No distance left to run’, which is actually fine on the ears, just way too heavy on the pathos. But, it comes as a package, and it’s well worth wading through the rubble for the gems.


SAINT ETIENNE – YOU NEED A MESS OF HELP TO STAND ALONE (1993)

Ah, Saint Etienne, the muso’s Spice Girls, the tongue in cheek indie-poppers themselves. I love ‘em for those oh-so-sunny girlie vocals, courtesy of Ms Sarah Cracknell, and for the inspired songs, courtesy of the Other Two. Ms Cracknell always seems to be identified with the group, despite making extremely limited contributions apart from actually singing, but the real brains behind the outfit are Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs, masters of cool. This is pretty-in-pink pop with an indie edge and the occasional foray into the obscure, particularly on the debut LP, Fox Base Alpha. But it is You Need a Mess of Help to Stand Alone (hereafter known as Mess of Help for obvious reasons) that I’ve picked.

It’s a bit of a jumble of tracks from their first few years of recording and to my mind shows the range in scope that Saint Etienne embody. The lipsticked pop of ‘Who do you think y
ou are’ is juxtaposed against Q-Tee’s husky vocal on the bass-heavy ‘Filthy’. There’s even room for a moment of contemplation on the gently melodic ‘Some place else’, ‘Paper’ and ‘California snow story’, reminiscent of Julee Cruise’s ‘Falling’. More sparkly tracks for the pre-teens (or the ironic, anorak-ed muso) are ‘Kiss and make up’ and ‘Join our club’, while a departure from worded vocals can be found on ‘Duke Duvet’ and (almost on) ‘Speedwell’, the latter of which contains what could well be an updated vehicle for Luther Vandross.

Mess of Help is not broadly representative of Saint Etienne’s work in general as it focuses very much on the early direction and influences. It’s a great introduction, however, and shows off their eclectic style much better than the radio-friendly singles collection Too Young To Die or the remix album Casino Classics.


BOB MARLEY & THE WAILERS – ONE LOVE: THE VERY BEST OF (2001)

This is another collection so I suppose it’s not an album in the strictest sense, i.e. it wasn’t created as a single whole, but I’m going to include it anyway. This has all of my favourites, ‘Stir it up’, ‘Jamming’, ‘Is this love’, ‘Lively up yourself’ and a whole host of others. In fact, every track on this CD is a winner and you find yourself wanting to roll up a funny cigarette, sit back and chill, man. Head-noddingly good reggae for those with nothing better to do but enjoy the lighter side of life, or maybe to contemplate more serious issues at arm’s length and through a smoky haze.

Reggae as a genre has to be described as feelgood music, but blinded by the selection available I stick with what I like, and what I like is a bit of Bob. Narrow minded maybe, but can you blame me for stick
ing with the classics?

It seems futile to try and explain this to you any further, so I’m not going to. Suffice to say that this Bob Marley collection gives a nice cross-section of his work, it’s digitally remastered, and it’s in my Top Ten.


THE CHARLATANS – UP TO OUR HIPS (1994)

Another one that can roughly be defined as Brit-pop, or indie-pop, or guitar based pop, or any other of the various combinations and descriptions available. Never mind how you pigeon-hole it – what makes it special enough to appear in my Top Ten? Well, for starters, it’s another one of those nostalgia-filled CDs that reminds of a particular time in my life when I found my freedom, as it were, after having lost it for a bit. So I guess it’s a bit more subjectively sentimental than some of my other choices, but anyway, it’s MY list so it’s going in.

This CD followed the typical Madchester debut Some Friendly and the second, somewhat disappointing Between the Tenth and the Eleventh, and is a more self-conscious and atmospheric effort. From the intro of the first track, you wouldn’t notice the difference, but tracks like ‘Patrol’ and ‘Inside-looking out’ are both rather funky little numbers. Other than the slight diversion into funk, the band seems to be going for a more traditional rock feel than the simpering shoe-gazing of earlier work. This is most evident in guitar led tracks like ‘Jesus hairdo’, ‘Feel flows’ and the title track. Omnipresent are the manchild vocals and the Hammond organ, which just goes to show that some things never change. Basically, if you liked the whole ‘baggy’ thing, you’ll like this. If you didn’t, you probably won’t. I do. Simple as that. Next!


KRUDER & DORFMEISTER – DJ KICKS (1997)

It was a close call between this one and the K&D Sessions.
I’ve gone for this one because there’s more variety and included is a classic track by the much under-rated German band Beanfield. It’s a mix CD of tracks chosen by K&D, and it a really mellow blend of dubby, rootsy, bass-laden, jazzified drum&bass. Nice.

This starts with the soothing charms of Herbalizer’s ‘Mother’, and picks up the drum&bass thread several tracks later with offerings from The Lab Rats and Aquasky, amongst others. Just scanning the labels that different tracks have been taken from shows the quality of this collection, the likes of Ninja Tune, Moving Shadow, Compost and Harthouse all make at least one appearance. The CD then chills out a little, leading up to K&D’s own ‘High noon’, that you could just wrap yourself up in. Think of samba beats over a dubby bassline complete with reverb. Next up is possibly my favourite track on the CD, ‘Keep on believing’ by Beanfield, dirty electro-funk topped with distorted vocals, before winding down to the track K&D penned for this collection, 'Black baby'.

All together, this CD has a surprisingly organic feel to it, considering the electro-bias.


ARETHA FRANKLIN – GREATEST HITS (2000)

Ok, we’re nearly there, just two more to go… I don’t think this double CD is actually available over here – I got it from the Hong Kong based CD-Wow and it’s made by Warner Australia, so unless you fancy getting it from them you probably won’t at all. This is another greatest hits package, but I bought it, and have put it here, because it contains all my favourite tracks. Some collections seem to have some but not another, but this one has all the ones I’d want. Highlights for me are ‘Respect’, ‘I say a little prayer’, ‘Natural woman’, ‘Do right woman do right man’, ‘Rocksteady’, and ‘Son of
a preacher man’. There are 31 in total though so if I haven’t listed your favourite, don’t worry, it’s probably still there.

What can you say about Aretha? Um, she’s a really amazing vocalist, and she delivers a classy performance, perfectly captured on this collection.


THIEVERY CORPORATION – DJ KICKS (1999)

Hurrah! Last one! Ok, this is the second in this list from the DJ Kicks series, and I’ve already covered this in my full-length op on the Thievery Corporation in general, so I’ll be brief. Taking the same formula as the K&D DJ Kicks described above, this follows the calm - build up – comedown pattern, and it works well. Les Baxter’s string laden ‘Tropicando’ kicks off this collection, followed by the sumptuous Forest Mighty Black’s ‘Rebirth’. Moving on, things take a dubby turn, hook up with Latin influences, and move back to the mellow downtempo ambience from whence it came. There’s a wealth of global touches in here, Latin as already mentioned, reggae/dub, Indian, and Asian sounds all compete for exposure. It truly is a sunshine experience and one that’s best encountered horizontally. Make of that what you will…


Right well there we are. My favourite Top Ten albums. They may not be yours, but maybe there’s just one in there that you can nod in approval at.

Hope you enjoyed reading it anyway!

Summary: