If anything I think the main thing that's holding me back from writing about the next 20 albums is the fact that they are so great that I don't think that my inane ramblings will do them justice. There's only so many times that you need to hear me say that I bought something at Rhyl Our Price.
Still, let's see where these 5 take us...
20. Underworld - Dubnobasswithmyheadman
I bought this in Rhyl Our Price. There must have been some amazing reviews of this about at the time for me to commit to what was basically a dance music album. I realise that it's indie-music-press-friendly dance music (see also Chemical Brothers, Orbital, Prodigy, Aphex Twin etc) but it was a break from my usual guitar heavy fare.
There was a time after this album came out when I went a bit ambient/dance-y for a while. I bought Aphex Twin / Polygon Window, mu-ziq, Seefeel & Banco De Gaia albums. I have the Warp Artificial Intelligence 2 compilation and a few of the Trance-Europe Express ones that the folks who brought us the Volume magazines released, and the excellent Junior Boy's Own collection, all of which have long since been consigned to the loft, but this album will never suffer such a fate.
The main reason for that is Mmm...Skyscraper I Love You. Of course the album is full of great stuff: Cowgirl, Spoonman, Dark & Long, Dirty Epic, M.E. - all great tracks, but towering above it all is the thirteen minutes of Skyscraper with its typically meaningless Karl Hyde vocals, its tempo changes from the banging "30,000 feet about the earth" segment to the closing few minutes which are almost dub-like, and just the sheer scale of the thing.
I love Underworld to this day, (Beaucoup Fish being their other masterpiece) and I would love it for people to realise that there's so much more to them than Born Sluppy NUXX.
Of course I remember when Born Slippy NUXX was just an extra track on a single that barely registered with anyone. I still prefer that original mix.
19. Radiohead - The Bends
I can't remember where I bought it. I don't doubt for a second that it was on the day of release though. I hadn't listened to Pablo Honey as much as I had expected to, given how much Creep got played when I bought it, but I'd bought the singles from this and was happy with their progress.
"They'll do alright for themselves" I thought to myself.
18. Tricky - Maxinquaye
I may have mentioned before that Prestatyn Record Shop had a rack of reduced CD singles that they reduced to 50p each, or 3 for £1.
I picked up Aftermath from that rack, probably to make up the numbers. I certainly have no memory of having heard it before I bought it.
Then I found Ponderosa there too and most likely bought it based on how great Aftermath was.
In 1995 I was working at Rhyl Sainsburys and I remember being stunned to see Maxinquaye in the CD chart there. I had waited for this album to be released for (what felt like) SO LONG, and there it was for sale in work. I can't think of another debut album I'd been so keen to buy before or since, except maybe The Streets' Original Pirate Material.
And of course it was worth the wait.
Martina Topley-Bird's vocals (and Alison Goldfrapp's on Pumpkin) were the perfect foil to Tricky's lazy, easy raps & beats. The album was so perfectly formed that, even though I went out and kept buying the singles, none of the remixes or alternate versions seemed to bring anything to the party (Hell Is Round The Corner with Gravediggaz anyone?) - the best ones were already out there.
So expectations were high for Nearly God and Pre-Millennium Tension, and while the former had its moments, and the latter was by no means bad, they suffered the fate of many an album that has to follow something of the magnitude of this flawless debut.
17. Cornershop - When I Was Born For The 7th Time
Cornershop was one of those bands that were always there - albums, singles, NME interviews - but always just off my radar. Not quite getting the reviews that would attract my attention.
To this day I don't think I could name a track of theirs from before this album.
But then came Brimful Of Asha. Of course I'm going to tell you about how I heard it somewhere in its original version, before Norman Cook got his hands on it and made it the hit it deserved to be. I get the feeling it was on Radio 1. Remember when you used to listen to Radio 1 and hear something genuinely brilliant?
The album has all sorts to keep you interested from start to finish.
Pop hits? Brimful Of Asha, Sleep On The Left Side, Good Shit - check.
Indian wig-outs? We're In Your Corner - check.
Country & western duets? Good To Be On The Road Back Home Again - check.
Hip hop? Candyman - check.
Punjabi covers of Norwegian Wood? Norwegian Wood - check.
Naturally, as I always do, I kept buying their stuff (Handcream For A Generation is another stunner), but never went back to what they'd released previously. I'm happy to stick with this as my starting point as by all accounts nothing from earlier quite hits the heights of this one.
They'd have to go some to get anywhere near it to be honest.
16. The Sundays - Reading, Writing & Arithmetic
Harriet Wheeler.
Two words that are guaranteed to set the hearts of a generation of indie boys all a-flutter.
Eifion had the 3" CD single of Can't Be Sure with I Kicked A Boy and Don't Tell Your Mother on it and did me a copy. Having seen the video for it on The Chart Show, of course there was little a 17 year-old lad could do but fall for the lovely Harriet.
Eifion fell harder. He paid a tout well over the odds to go and see them in Manchester, and I remember him telling me in his student room in Salford once, that he was playing the album for the 7th time so far that day.
I bought the album myself from a little record shop in Coventry (whose name escapes me) that was upstairs above another shop of some description. A very pretty trilobite-design picture disc. The only other things I remember buying there were a round Wonder stuff Hup! poster and two limited versions of the second Sugarcubes album Here Today, Tomorrow, Next Week! - one one silver vinyl, and one sung in Icelandic (Illur Arfur!).
It seems they specialised in exclamation-marked stock.
I never got the CD before Rough Trade folded and the album became hard to find. I did eventually pick up the reissue though, and have since passed up the opportunity to get the Rough Trade version at a knock-down price.
I think this has to be the epitome of girl singer jangly indie for me. I'm sure all you Primitives / Alterd Images / Darling Buds fans will disagree.
You're wrong of course.
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Right, it late. I'm off to bed to dream of Harriet Wheeler. Please don't judge me.
