ten favourite albums

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   Buddy challenged me to hand him my top 10 over the weekend. Rules are; No greatest hits, artists can only appear twice if in a different band or solo, I.e Paul Weller appears in the Jam and as a solo artist.
Think I have just about agreed with myself. Be interested to see some others lists on here.

1) The Holy Bible ; manic Street Preachers

Considered the darkest album of all time and one look at the track listing shows that. A mentally tortured man takes us on a journey through the world as he sees it. As someone who can see can empathise with his suffering, he expresses many things I have felt in a way only a genius can. Dealing with modern consumerism, the emptiness of American cultural imperialism,.anorexia and self obsession, neo liberalism, the media's obsession with serial killers and the Holocaust, the one constant is death and the futility of modern life. 20 years old this year, it hasn't age and the lyrics remain as relevant, some of them truer than ever.

2)All Mod Cons- The Jam

Considering he had to completely rewrite this album due to an original lack of interest, it is amazing what it ended up as. Heavily influenced by class warfare, as Weller grew up on the edge of the stockbroker belt, it shoed the first fractures of the ' broken Britain' that Thatcherism would complete this was a social history of modern England.  A musical blend of  the 60's mod sound with a hint of punk, this album haunts you with the sound of disillusioned youth that had been resigned to their fate. None of the raw politic anger of the time, more of a defeated album. Mr Clean won I guess.

3) The Queen is Dead- The Smiths

There is a theme of band's third albums popping up! An album that takes us through the boring, rundown streets of Manchester as a misery tourist. Melancholic, pretentious lyrics mix with a strangely uplifting guitar sound from Marr. The contrast is perfection. Morrissey's performance always reminds me of the stereotypical French philosopher. There is no point in anything. Another tortured genius, he deals with his misery through, boredom, sexual ambivalence, failure and self pity. Beautiful sadness.

4) The Moseley Shoals- Ocean Colour Sceneg
Discovered by Weller, these mod revivalists made a near perfect mod album, even down to the pun in the title being a nod to Northern Soul.  Unlike the top 3, the lyrics generally deal with the lives of these 4 lads from the Birmingham suburbs. Not that is to undermine them in anyway. Not many people can write a song about their favourite film and have a song like ' the day we caught the train'. That isn't the only track to be influencedby the Who, their sound runs through the whole album but the influence of Britpop stops it from ever taking a stadium rock sound.
5) London Calling- The Clash

The band that launched a thousand bands will feature in many top tens. A left wing punk brand who sold out stadia in America, they weren't afraid to experiment and that is why this album is in ahead of Sandinista.
The reggae influence on tracks like ' Rudie can't fail' and 'guns of Brixton' showed a sound more reflective of 70s west London. Well tracks like ' brand new cadillac' are clearly influenced by blues and country. The lyrics are anti- establishment but often humourous in doing so. Spanish bombs' remains my personal favourite.

6) Music of the Spheres- Ian Brown.

In trying to decide which Roses album was better, I realised this solo effort from Brown is a more complete. Only he could make singing Spanish in a Mancunian accent sound cool. A bit cliche ridden, the lyrics are still ofetn beautiful. I travelled around Spain with this album as an almost constant soundtrack. FEAR is just genius. As was the video. Deeply different in direction from the Roses and indeed different to his earlier solo efforts,  it proved his musical versatility.

7) It Takes a Nation of Millions to hold us Back - Public Enemy
If the Holy Bible was the darkest album of all time, this must contend as one of the angriest. Attacking everything in his path, Chuck D takes the race war out of the ghetto and into mainstream America and true to his word, he never sold out. It is hard not to get caught up in the anger fused with many musical styles from funk to punk, without feeling it. I am sure many white Americans self loathed after listening to Chuck's poetry. "Elvis was a hero to most but he never meant sh*t to me. Most of my heroes ain't appeared on no stamp".

8) Stanley Road- Paul Weller

Simply beautiful. The ultimate musical companion to a night in with the missus. "You do something to me", is one of the most beautiful love songs ever written. A poet for the modern world, a genius. There isn't enough superlatives for Modfather.  "Out of the sinking" remains my favourite song of all time.

9) Doolittle- The Pixies

I had never heard of the Pixies when a school friend gave me this to listen to. I will never forget listening to the opening riff of Debaser. A musical epiphany. They have a wonderfully unique sound combined with the comically bizarre lyrics of Francis Black. Every song different to the last, each one a short trip to lunacy that comes together in a way genius only can.

10) Who's Next- The Who

I tried to vary the musical styles but I still ended up with 4 mod albums. I couldn't have the pretenders without the masters! Tommy and Quadrophenia probably feature on more lists like this but I feel this is their definitive album. It started out as an ambitious plan for a musical to follow "Tommy", it featured the useof a synthesizer for the first time. It features timeless classics like baba o'Riley ,  bargain, won't get fooled again and behind blue eyes. Timeless.

Mentions to Rage against the Machine for their eponymous album, Ryan Adams for Gold, Massive Attack for blue lines, Pulp for Different Class, Leftfield for Leftism, Halfman Halfbiscuit for Back in the DHSS, the Housemartins for Hull 4 London0, the Beautiful South for Quench and Maximo Park for Our Earthly pleasures