Being a great fan of Nick Hornby’s book High Fidelity, it’s only natural that I am also a fan of lists and Top Tens! I found a kindred spirit in my similarly square friend N, and now we regularly spend happy lunchtimes sharing our top ten albums/songs/films/books etc!
Today was albums – the rules: only one album per artist; greatest hits are allowed; soundtracks and compilations are not (they’ll be done another day!).
So here are my Top Ten Albums – but I was clearly in quite a “pop” mood when I came up with this list! Some of it would be different if you asked me another day 
1. Dog Man Star – Suede – I loved Suede when everyone else loved Take That, and subsequently TT completely passed me by. My parents must have been very concerned at the posters I had on my wall and the content of some of the songs, but they never said anything! I will always love Suede, especially their early albums – I only recently threw away an Evian bottle thrown into the crowd at the Victoria Hall by Brett Anderson, swoon!
2. Stars of CCTV – Hard-Fi – I interviewed Richard Archer from Hard-Fi just before they got famous (Tied Up Too Tight charted at the end of that week) and completely fell in love with their music, saw them live umpteen times and played this album to death. As a result I hardly listen to it anymore but when I hear something from it it’s still great. Unfortunately they started to go downhill live and the last time I saw them (Manchester Apollo) I was so disappointed. I can’t quite bring myself to get their second album in case it’s terrible – I’d rather stick with my beloved Stars of CCTV.
3. Mercury – Long-View - another band I interviewed, although these never really got famous. It was love at first listen to this album, and R and I have seen them live all over the place – we were so excited when they started touring their new material! Let’s hope they release their difficult second album soon. And finally, Rob McVey once stopped halfway through a song to ask R if he knew her from somewhere….
4. Like A Prayer – Madonna – an old favourite with no duff tracks. I first saw the Like A Prayer video at an impressionable age and never forgot it.
5. What We Did On Our Holidays – Fairport Convention – my favourite song of all time (Who Knows Where The Time Goes) is on this album, so how could I not include it? The rest of it is good too – I can listen to it driving, at the gym, wherever, and something on it will always appeal to me.
6. Light Years – Kylie Minogue – this one reminds me of being carefree and at university, dancing like a disco diva. It always brings a smile to my face
7. Songbird – Eva Cassidy – there’s no particular reason for including this one, other than she had an amazingly beautiful voice
8. MTV Unplugged - 10,000 Maniacs – another album that suits a lot of moods. I also have Our Time In Eden which has the original versions of a lot of these songs, but I prefer the Unplugged versions, probably because I heard them first.
9. Intensive Care – Robbie Williams - this is chosen more as a representative of him as a whole. How could I not include our local hero? I like Intensive Care because the songs are not over-familiar and his voice sounds good.
10. Joy: A Holiday Collection – Jewel – I chose Joy partly because I love Jewel generally, but also because this album reminds me of decorating the Christmas tree and has a beautiful version of O Holy Night on it.
I’ve got the list of my Top Ten songs as well from a couple of months ago, so I’ll pop them on it a separate post. It’s quite a challenge to do this – does anyone fancy sharing theirs?
[...] Hard To Beat - Hard-Fi – I’ve explained my love for Hard-Fi in Top of the Pops Part 1 but this song in particular is the one that really sealed it for me. It makes me want to jump [...]
[...] in panning it - it’s not his usual fare, and, after all, I count Intensive Care among my top ten albums. You can’t compare the two. But Robbie, I owe you an apology. Thanks to the wonder of the [...]