I didn’t go wild for Nirvana at the time. They seemed to personify something of a back to basics approach to rock music, which was...

I first heard this album, probably the year after release, on a coach while accompanying a party of sixth form students to Paris, and...

I first came across Bob Mould in the mid 1990s and wasn't really aware of Sugar until then. Having heard some solo stuff, a friend lent...

I don't remember how I stumbled across Massive Attack, as on paper they certainly wouldn't have been my thing. Possibly after getting...

They Might Be Giants' quirky songs appealed from the first time I heard Birdhouse In Your Soul, and I bought this in a sale quite soon...

I don’t recall the first time I heard Different Trains, but it made a massive impression. I clearly remember hearing a performance from Edge Hill station on Stuart Maconie’s BBC radio show for Reich’s 80th birthday, and suspect it might have been he who first introduced me. I picked up a copy at the charity shop, when I saw it. This is the original Kronos Quartet recording of Different Trains , and it’s beautiful. America - Before The War recalls Reich’s own train journeys in

I'm sure I was aware of the Pixies by the mid 1990s, and had a 'best of' CD (which we'll come to in good time), but in the mid 2000s, I...

As previously mentioned, I'd quite liked Japan and was taken by Sylvian's collaboration with Ryuchi Sakamoto on Forbidden Colours. I...

From 1978-1982, XTC were probably my favourite band. I was lucky enough to see them a few times before they stopped doing live gigs, but...

I might have seen Prefab Sprout five years before this album was released, when as a duo they supported The Rezillos in Durham, but I...

Another recurring theme (apart from 'quid in a charity shop') is that what sounded new and exciting at the time can look quite ordinary...

I was lent this by a friend in the mid 1990s and was lukewarm about it. I re-discovered Waits about five years later, enjoying those...

On to 1982, and an album that completely passed me by at the time. As previously mentioned, I knew of The Fall, knew the singles but I...

After Eno worked with Talking Heads, producing Fear Of Music, and before Remain In Light was released, Eno and Byrne snook off down their...

I wasn't planning to do this one for a long time yet, but since today is the album's 50th birthday, it seemed fitting. It's an album I've...

Ash were one of the Britpop band I heard bits of and quite liked, so picked up the CD when I saw it cheap. For some reason I've barely...

Country rock / Americana music is not my thing. No sir, not at all. Yet something appealed on hearing Chris Isaak's 1990s hit (for some...

Carter USM were a band who seemed to appear from nowhere in the early 1990s, and return there just as quickly. This, their no 1 album...

My first exposure to James was the Sit Down single, which I always associate with it blaring out late at night from a college summer...

A charity CD compilation of songs for children by established artists, which I'd like to say I bought to help Save The Children, but I...