#uk rock
6 posts- 4 min
Supergrass — Life on Other Planets: a record bought for its sleeve, and a song I can't stop humming
Look at that sleeve — that was reason enough to pull it off the shelf, and it's still the reason it goes back on. I found it in my vocational-school days, working along the racks at Disk Union in Shibuya until my hand stopped. Supergrass's fourth album: not their biggest seller, but a record full of four distinct characters. A word about my love of drummer Danny Goffey, and about track ten, "La Song," the one I can never stop humming.
- 4 min
Ash — Twilight of the Innocents: a youth spent in the recording room, and the people music brought my way
In 2009, holed up in a tiny Futako-Tamagawa apartment helping a friend's band record, this was the album always playing. A band with a boy's heart, suddenly wearing a grown-up face. Plus the story of a photographer I met — which began, of all places, on this very blog. Favourite track: number eight, "Shadows."
- 5 min
Richard Ashcroft — Alone with Everybody: on a voice that makes you cry without understanding the words
The Verve's frontman, on his own. My definition of a charismatic vocalist has always pointed to Richard Ashcroft before Liam Gallagher. Track five — You on My Mind in My Sleep — brings tears every single time, and I still can't fully explain why.
- 4 min
Stereophonics — Just Enough Education to Perform: nothing extra, every note holding its ground
The third album from the Welsh three-piece Stereophonics. A record I picked up around the time I was starting my own band — the one that simply made me think “cool,” and got me to buy a Gibson SG. A band that stands by sheer presence.
- 4 min
John Squire — Time Changes Everything: a quieter record by an artist's artist
John Squire, guitarist of The Stone Roses, made his first solo album in 2002. The man who let his frontman carry the band's voice for years finally sang in his own. This is one of those records you don't want to over-explain.
- 4 min
Travis — The Man Who: an obi-strip line, and the Nigel Godrich sound
“Even if we're gone, the music remains here…” — that's the line printed on the obi strip wrapping my copy of Travis's The Man Who. It's also the album that made me notice producers as people, after Nigel Godrich shaped the band's sound for the first time on this record.