It’s the nightmare question for every record collector: what are your five favourite albums – or the five you couldn’t live without? If you’re anything like me, your first reaction to this impossible conundrum will be for your mind to go entirely blank, followed soon after by the compulsion to get out a pen and paper and list about 50 records, before the final agonising whittling down commences. We’ve made it a fraction easier in our cover feature this month, as we’ve asked 30 of the most passionate collectors we know to each recommend five LPs, ruling out obvious choices such as Revolver, OK Computer, the Dark Side Of the Moon, Blonde On Blonde et al. We hope the result is a heartfelt love letter to the joy of collecting and a useful list to help ill some gaps in your own collection. Unless, of course, you’ve got all 150. In which case, there’s really nothing more we can do for you – you’ve already won at life. Having subjected our 30 collectors to this ordeal, I won’t duck the question myself. Here are five from me, exempting Astral Weeks, Blood On the Tracks, Let It Bleed, Raw Power, Unknown Pleasures, Surfer Rosa, Is his It… and my shameless obsession with the National.
Interpol –
Turn On the Bright Lights: Shadowy, brooding post-punk brilliance that could only be made in New York City.