This one is a complete cheat, breaking all the rules. I don’t own this album. I don’t own any Beatles albums nor any of the Fab Fours’...

This is an odd one. I saw the words 'Bigband' and 'Zappa' on the cover (along with the price tag of £1), and had to give it a go. I was...

This CD was a Christmas present, many years ago. I've mentioned these tribute albums before, and my hypothesis that the most successful...

I first heard many albums from the early 1990s after borrowing them from Deal Library or the DVD rental shop in the High Street. I'm not...

I'd heard the 13th Floor Elevators mentioned as a cult 1960s US Garage Rock band, and was aware of Julian Cope's love for them, so on...

This is another album bought in a charity shop, on the strength of it being on Peter Gabriel's Real World label, and probably only played...

I picked this out of the jazz section in a charity shop for a quid. I wasn't sure whether this was a side project from the You've Got A...

I've already mentioned how Tangerine Dream were already there in the 1970s, and while I heard bits, it never quite got to me. Only now...

I first heard this album when it came out, and didn't get it. I didn't really get David Byrne and Talking Heads until quite a bit later,...

In the early 1990s, Robert Fripp wanted to revive King Crimson for a third time and asked David Sylvian to be the band's singer. Sylvian...

You must listen to Sun Ra, they said, so I picked this up in HMV on a punt. I was aware of the album, but had never heard it and had no...

Nowadays, Sting is generally regarded less than favourably, as a Bono-like figure of fun full of his own self-importance. I don't know if...

SLF were yet another band who passed me by at the time, and I only really became aware of them from a punk compilation with Suspect...

After the success of the debut album, there were a lot of songs kicking about from BBC sessions and singles, and a massive appetite for...

There hadn't been many all-female groups who weren't manufactured pop vocal acts before the "great punk revolution" of the late 1970s,...

I have a number of Sigur Rós CDs, which I've picked up in charity shops. I don't know why I decided they were a good idea, and after...

The second half of the 'two albums on one CD', this is one I owned on vinyl (bought second hand from Virgin) in the 1970s, one that no...

Another cheat. I actually own this as a 'two albums on one CD thing' alongside Slapp Happy's collaboration with Henry Cow, Desperate...

I like June Tabor, I like the Oyster band, so why wouldn't this collaboration be something I enjoy? I saw them do Love Will Tear Us Apart...

It Hugs Back came to my attention as the 'day job' of Matthew Simms, who has been guitarist with Wire for the last fourteen years. So,...