My Life In Music: The Contenders

Once I had finished the odyssey through my life in music I looked over the list and found some glaring omissions. Albums I had a fling with rather than a love affair. Long Players that made a short term impression on me that come back into my life every so often then go back into storage or stuff that meant so much to me at a point in time but have faded into the background for years. There were even a few that had missed out only on a couple of plays because I had a massive obsession with an attractive lady singer or two and played them to death.

Here are the seven that could have been contenders. Could have been top of the world, ma.

1978: Specials - Specials


Although growing up I was well into my 2Tone I only got into Specials a couple of years ago. This debut album, which is made up of a lot of covers as well as original tracks has been on my playlist pretty much weekly for the last year. Being in the Midlands I've manged to catch Neville Staples Specials many a time, but here's Gangsters for your skanking pleasure.



1979: The B52s - The B52s


Apparently John Lennon claimed this to be his favourite album of all time.Which would normally make me hate it, but it's aces The Athens New Wavers eponymous debut, it's a marmite album from a marmite band, but I still play the odd track here and there, most notably 52 Girls which Fatboy Slim nicked, sorry sampled



1987: Strangeways Here We Come - The Smiths


The final nail in the coffin and The Smiths' greatest album. This was the toughest choice to make, and excluding it was tough. This is the sound of friends and bands splitting up, the sound of cynicism and spite. And I love it, however under the rules they would always be beaten by Debbie Gibson.





1999: A Tune A Day - The Supernaturals

One of the bands that every one's heard of but nobody seems to know, The Supernaturals were one of the forgotten bands of Britpop. After their first album It Doesn't Matter Anymore was Mobyd and practically on every advert going I thought they'd be dropped and resigned to doing a mix and match second album, but ATAD may have carried the sound of the first album, but was very much different. Country Music, their tribute to the genre was an upbeat pop classic, and album closer Everest is a ballad of epic proportions that even makes cynical men shed a tear. One more album followed before the band split.

2005: Bang Bang Rock N Roll - Art Brut


The last album I became really obsessed with, and it's still playing even though I love the follow up album. There's something about Art Brut that I really love, it could be the tales of still being in love with your first teenage girlfriend or the hatred of buying albums in Tesco. It might even be the self referential thing about the way Eddie Argos sings or the obsession with Top Of The Pops, whatever it is it's stuck with me for the best part of three years and I love it. Even the eyebrows and the pencil tache that sport Eddies face. A contender for album of the decade, but we'll just have to see what comes along in the next couple of years.