Grand Theft Auto Vice City O.S.T. -- Vol. 4: Flash FM
My first intake of pop music. Still have a fondness for naff 80s hits to this day. 

(What's the Story) Morning Glory? by Oasis
Whether consciously or not, I still compare every pop-rock album I hear (usually unfavourably) to this. 

The Beatles by The Beatles
Responsible for my general love of double albums/albums that are longer than they need to be. 

Station to Station by David Bowie
Cemented me as a Bowie fan and whet my appetite for funk and sleazy blue-eyed soul. 

Doggystyle by Snoop Dogg
Made me realise I could enjoy a full album of hip-hop.

Disintegration by The Cure
Made me realise I could 'enjoy' (what you might call) depressive music. 

Casanova by The Divine Comedy
Alerted me to my soft spot for baroque pop. 

The Bends by Radiohead
Helped smash some of my prejudices against music being "arty."

On the Beach by Neil Young
Made me appreciate a more rootsy, organic sound than I had known before. From here I got into Nick Drake, Bob Dylan, and Carole King's Tapestry. 


Can't think of anything else. 

Beatles- Red Album
Beatles-White Album
Beatles-Abbey Road
Oasis WTSMG
Neil Young-On the Beach
Bob Dylan- Bring it All Back Home
Rolling Stones-Hot Rocks
Kinks-Village Green
Blur- 13
Led Zep-Remasters

Other than the best of compilations, most of these would make my top 20 favourite albums.

There’s three for me that stand out for very different reasons. By no means are these necessarily my ‘favourite’ albums but they are arguably more important than that by piquing my curiosity and broadening my tastes, or in the case of Oasis, the realisation that other bands will never be able to replicate. Some of favourite acts always inspire the greatest curiosity in you and it’s fair to say these albums are the ones that do so.

Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand
Now this is an album that would definitely be in my top ten favourites but also probably tops my most influential in shaping my music tastes. For every new wave act or adrenaline fuelled indie pop/post punk band with spiky, angular guitars, I have Franz Ferdinand to thank for. Whether I’m listening to Blondie, Orange Juice, The Go-Betweens, etc, they all have that vibrancy, fun and direct attention grabbing sound that is so damn catchy. Everything bounces along nicely in a tight song structure, never smug, nor bordering into self indulgence, but is always full of wit, humour and keen observations. Effortlessly charming. The appeal of it massively inspired me in ‘getting’ my favourite band of all time, The Smiths. I think The Smiths are the endpoint of this type of music even if it isn’t particularly obvious, but you hear the post-punk energy in the music (indeed, Johnny Marr is a fan of Franz). Johnny Marr is essentially a post-punk guitarist, a man who could play spiky and angular riffs in his sleep, yet he refined it to melodic perfection with all its intricacy and delicate beauty. Smiths-era Morrissey (a sad thing we have to pre-face that as if he’s a different person...) has all the lyrical qualities that all post-punk bands had. Incredibly literate, very observant and very funny. Yes, it’s easy to say he was ‘self-pitying’ but that was offset by so much wit and a self-awareness (that is lacking nowadays) - easily the funniest lyricist at the time. I think it all started with my love for Franz Ferdinand and the qualities of their music.

Oasis - Stop The Clocks
It’s probably the ultimate high you’ll ever experience. Obviously better than drugs, healthier than drugs too - you’re not pumping your body full of toxins at the very least, and instead allowing nature to take its course with natural healthy endorphins rushing around you (how to sell Oasis as part of an anti-drugs message). I don’t need to go into great detail about the greatness as everyone knows. How did it influence and expand my music tastes? Well not much to be honest if we’re talking about expanding my tastes - most bands who cite Oasis as an influence are fucking dogshit (Kasabian, The Enemy, Twisted Wheel, all other landfill indie shite) but how it did influence was being able to spot genuine euphoria and joy in music. Once you’ve experienced the real thing you can immediately spot the contrived bullshitters. As Bono said when citing Oasis, joy is the hardest emotion to convey in music and I’m struggling to think of any act who has done it better. The Beatles did it with genuine sincerity early on before spreading their artistic wings but not quite with the same force ten impact of, say, Rock N Roll Star. ABBA? Not for me - their songs are great but tunes like Dancing Queen and SOS are actually not very happy songs anyhow. And actually, when they did try to be happy, like Fernando, they veered into the naffness which they are stereotyped for. Bands can try to do it, and have tried, and failed miserably; you can’t replicate the unreplicable and that’s why it’s difficult to find any band who comes close to the euphoria of Oasis. It’s sincere to me because the joy is rooted in a genuine working class kitchen sink realism, not the endlessly sunny fantasy bullshit world of modern pop (i.e. Coldplay’s A Head Full Of Dreams). That manifests itself not just in the lyrics but also in the achingly beautiful melancholy nature of the melodies, before they give way to euphoric choruses of defiance. An almost impossible thing to execute to perfection, and they could have taken the easy route to impress all the posh nobs in London by going for a cliched miserablist ‘it’s grim up north’ feel. But they didn’t, and they’re the only band where genuine optimism reigns supreme. All music can offer a sense of comfort (even sad ones in the way they provide a shared emotion and sense of kinship) but rarely does music act as a ‘pick-me-up’ which Oasis certainly does. They influence my tastes in as much that when I hear something genuinely euphoric, I’ll know what is real even if it brings a shade of the emotions I got when I first listened to Oasis.

U2 - The Unforgettable Fire
Aside from Passengers, this is probably U2’s most experimental album (barring Pride which really sticks out like a sore thumb amongst all the other songs). A strange one where the guidance of Brian Eno is most notable with its impressionistic nature. There’s none of the religious allegory or personal yearning that usually typifies Bono’s lyrics, instead you have what seem like very evocative and improvised snapshots of a vivid imagination (‘see faces ploughed like fields that once gave no resistance’ ‘across the fields of morning, lights in the distance’). And that almost fragmented nature is replicated in the music, many songs amounting to sprawling soundscapes courtesy of the mind blowing sonic textures from The Edge. Because of its loose feel, it’s an easy album to have on in the background without being disturbed and it’s general ambiance slowly plays its way into your subconscious. The general contemplative and beautiful sound inspires the imagination and conjures up other worldly feelings of places real or imagined and this was the album that made me seek out other ambient and ethereal music genres like post-rock where the most important thing about the guitar is not focused on technique but the sonic canvas it paints on. I’ve delved into Brian Eno’s back catalogue, Harold Budd, Sigur Ros, Jon Hopkins, Stars Of The Lid, Godspeed You Black Emperor, and most recently Erland Cooper’s Solan Goose - the latter conjuring up the bleak but holy landscape of my own home. Music like The Unforgettable Fire is inspired by the local environment (in this case, a rugged Irish landscape - also the album was recorded in Slane Castle for the purpose of inspiring the band) yet it’s not parochial. Like all atmospheric heavily textured music, it’s universal because of its ability to conjure up beautiful and contemplative sounds, regardless of whether you’ve been to that location of not. The ability of musicians like Eno, U2, Sigur Ros to translate that sense of wonder from your own surroundings into music is exceptional. It never fails to give me peace of mind, whether helping me to focus or conjuring up awe inspiring images in your head. It’s by far the most meditative music in an increasingly hemmed in world.

Bridge Over Troubled Water - Simon & Garfunkel (what my parents had playing around the house)
Rocky Mountain High - John Denver (what my parents had playing around the house)
Cats - Original Cast Recording (yeah, theater... fight me. I rarely listen to this all in a sitting anymore.)
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Morning Glory - Oasis (obviously.)
Be Here Now - Oasis (this meant the world to me after leaving my hometown weeks prior to release.)
Sixteen Stone - Bush (great mid-90's rock record.)
Rotting Pinata - Sponge (first band I ever saw live.)
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You can fill out the rest with a lot of mid-90's rock and musical theater albums.