I was challenged by Claz to put up my musical taste for the world to see and I’m sorry but I can’t do it either naked (without commentary) or sticking to 10 so I’m afraid this will have to do:

• Innervisions – Stevie Wonder…Misstra Know-it-all, Living for the City, Golden Lady and Higher Ground all on one album? Yep, it is possible to have so much genius in one place.
• This is Big Audio Dynamite – I used to play this album three times a day, driving everyone who knew me completely bonkers.
• A Kiss in the Dreamhouse – Siouxsie and the Banshees. Gorgeous and sultry. I once wanted to be Siouxsie Sioux!
• Celebrity – The Escape Club. I have to confess to resisting listening to this in case I was disappointed after such a long wait. Weirdly, with no prior knowledge of the band, DM decided to rip it to his ipod and he played it a lot. I came home from Uni one day and it was on in the house very loud and I said “I love this and it feels really familiar, what is it?”…yep, I was shocked in a good way!
• Do It Yourself – the Seahorses. Soaring guitars, what more can I say.
• New Boots and Panties – Ian Dury and the Blockheads. It’s genius at its most basic.
• New Town Soul – Fast Freddie’s Fingertips. I still play this reasonably often and was thrilled to hear the Flip Flop Song on Radio 4 the other week. I was so chuffed I wrote to Freddie telling him it had been on and he wrote me a sweet note back!
• Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret – Soft Cell. Picture the scene…Me and Clazuk, dressed to kill, in my Ford Fiesta in a street in Birmingham, lost. We wind down the window to ask for directions and the bloke we ask looks panicked, yells “don’t ask me love, I’m married” in a broad Brummie accent and runs off. Then we realise that “Sex Dwarf” is blaring out of the car stereo…
• One of these nights – the Eagles. I don’t care how uncool it is to love the Eagles. I just do. It’s the harmonies.
• Hounds of Love – Kate Bush. There is no finer music to do the vacuuming to, it really gets you going “#be running up that road, be running up that hill with no problems” – somehow the chore suddenly seems like fun and the vacuum takes on a new life as your dance partner. What you mean I’m the only one this happens to? Surely not!
• King of America – Elvis Costello and a whole supporting cast. The man is simply the greatest singer/songwriter of our generation in my view and this is a fine example of his work.
• Rattlesnakes – Lloyd Cole and the Commotions. I was offered the chance to meet Lloyd Cole once, by a friend who worked for him. I declined. I was scared half to death that he’d turn out to be a twat and my reverence would be shattered. I can’t hear any of these songs without getting a huge grin on my face.
• Right on time – Hepcat. Everyone laughs at me because I hear ska or reggae and no matter what I’m doing, I get up and dance. This album was bought on a whim because it was produced by Stoker, a musician I admired. I knew nothing at all about Hepcat at the time. It turned out to be one of my favourite albums of all time.
• 3+3 – The Isley Brothers. Every single track on this album is amazing. It was released more than 40 years ago but it sounds as good now as the day it came out. (And it’s got a Hammond Organ on it.)
• London Calling – the Clash. The Clash will always be the greatest live band ever in my world.
• All the rage – General Public. It’s another of those albums I played 3 times a day when it came out. Guess what? Stoker’s on it!
• Lowedges – Richard Hawley. DM bought this because I showed him a photo of Richard Hawley in Q that I liked. He read the review, bought the album and we both think it’s a complete gem.
• All that you can’t leave behind – U2. I love and hate U2 in equal measure. This reminds me of the best time in my life when DM and I became an item.
• Animal Magic – Blow Monkeys. I once went to see a band with Colin, they’d cancelled so we bought a copy of NME, chose the Blow Monkeys at Kentish Town Poly, chucked 50p into a bucket for the Firemen’s strike fund and saw one of the best gigs I’ve ever seen. That was long before this album came out but they always had Animal Magic to me.
• Soundtrack to the Blues Brothers – Claz, I know that compilations are “cheating” but this is so much more than a compilation album (and it has a Hammond Organ liberally sprinkled through it).
I’m going to post this now and never look at it again because otherwise I’ll keep on adding more and more wonderful records to the list!

Shazbop and Paul Christian asked me to do the same with books but for some reason I am struggling to compile that one but I will get there.