The Zombies Want Nothing More Than To Consume Your Brains & Lifestyle!

You spin a little coccoon
From the trappings of success
A big job in the city
The privelege of status
Whilst the world crumbles around us
And the dead rise from the grave
Here in our plastic bubble
You tell me everything's ok
I see things different to you
And you try your damned hardest
To hold on to what we got
But the undead are going to get us in the end

I can still remember
The day that we met
You called me your angel
And I took you in my arms
I fought so many battles
To keep your heart at peace
But time is running out now
I'm going to break an old promise
Don't fall to deep my darling
I don't want you to get hurt
This love won't last forever
'Cause the undead are going to get me in the end

And there was no rapture
You're all stuck here with us
No Lamb of God to save you
As the shambling hordes encroach
I don't mean to sound self-righteous
But my life was better off
Without all your judgements
All your petty little laws
I guess that with hindsight
That you might just think
That your God ain't so clever after all
When the undead are going to get us in the end

15 Albums...

Recently I indulged myself with a meme that demanded that, in fifteen minutes or less, I attempt to list fifteen albums which have left an impression on me. A frustrating project, to say the least. You will undoubtedly end up listing albums which don't necessarily reflect your current musical tastes. Leaving out albums which you love but are too new, or are too new to you, to say they have definitely had a lasting impact. And forgetting things which you will kick yourself repeatedly about.

Nevertheless, I tried. My list largely looked like a playlist from my highschool/college years. I have been reliably informed since then that it is full of obscurities. So between that, a faint sense of embarassment at some of my choices, and a need to do something else other than work for a little while whilst my brain resets, I am going to attempt to do so with a little blurb about the fifteen albums I picked (and a few honourable mentions I missed out)...

01. Mclusky - Do Dallas: I'm not even entirely sure where I first heard Welsh noiseniks Mclusky. The song though was "To Hell With Good Intentions", and the combination of bass driven noisy punk racket and confrontational but bizarre lyrics (My dad is bigger than your dad/He's got eight cars and a house in Ireland/Sing it) blew my tiny sixteen year old mind. The album itself doesn't have a single duff track. Throw in the fact that Mclusky were the first non-local live gig I went to (a very sweaty evening jumping about in the mosh pit at the Cavern Club in Exeter), and it is fair to say my love for them has endured.

02. Faith No More - Angel Dust: I guess everyone first heard of Faith No More when they heard their big hit "Epic" from The Real Thing. As much as I do enjoy that album, it was when I bought the follow up, Angel Dust, that I grew to love the band. Not entirely sure when this happened on my personal timescale (it seems fair to assume that it wasn't in 1992 when the album came out, as I would have been six years old at the time), but it did mark the beginning of an obsession with FNM's lead singer Mike Patton. Patton's lyrics were dark but smart and funny, some distance away from angsty contemporaries such as Korn. And his delivery would veer from crooning, to spoken word to frenetic scream (best showcased here on the positively psychotic track "Jizzlobber"). Musically too, FNM moved on hugely from the funk metal of The Real Thing, drawing on many different musical influences (including sampling the Kronos Quartet and doing a bizarre and creepy instrumental cover of the theme from Midnight Cowboy). Angel Dust remains FNM's most coherent album, and an essential listen even if metal music isn't your thing.

03. Pixies - Surfer Rosa/C'mon Pilgrim: My first exposure to Pixies is somewhat fuzzy. I remember, during my metalhead days, thinking that Pixies was a shit name for a band (being a big fan of Rotting Christ at the time, I can only look back on this judgement with some shame). This probably means that I got in to them when I was in college. All I know is that upon getting this (double) album, I was hooked. It was weird and shouty and noisy and Black Francis would sing about all kinds of bizarre things which necessitated dozens of repeated listens. Throw in to that Kim Deal's equally brilliant songwriting and Joey Santiago's virtuoso surf guitar and it didn't take a genius to work out that perhaps dismissing them on the basis of their name hadn't been all that well thought out.

04. Final Fantasy - Has a Good Home: A much more recent album, released in 2005. I think I got the album shortly after it was released, based at least in part upon the track "adventure.exe" being featured in a phone advert (an odd choice for marketing, considering the track itself being about the perils of unprotected sex in gay subcultures). Final Fantasy was the name that, until recently, Canadian violinist Owen Pallett traded under for his solo work. The album is full of beautiful tracks made up of looped violin parts and Pallett's fragile and thoughtful vocals. It is, undoubtedly, a beautiful album and also one that I listened to a lot while working through some heartbreak, which is why it appears on this list.

05. Prodigy - Music for the Jilted Generation: Despite discussing my metalhead status in relation to some of these albums, metal wasn't my first musical love. That dubious honour, strangely enough, falls to dance music. My first exposure to such things was when I ended up winning Dance Mania '95 as part of a local radio phone in (other things I won in phone ins at some time or another included a Subbuteo set and a kitchen knife... it was boring in the countryside, ok?). My little nine year old mind took rather a shine to the likes of Livin' Joy and 2 Unlimited, so for a few years, as well as plenty of pop nonsense, I found myself increasingly drawn to dance music. This probably manifested itself most obviously at the beginning of high school, which would also be when I first encountered The Prodigy and the rather ubiquitous Fat of the Land. It didn't take too long for me to dig into their back catalogue, and I still believe now that what I found there in the form of Experience and Music for the Jilted Generation are infinitely superior to anything they did since. ...Jilted Generation is the album that takes it for me though, just because it is where they hit the perfect balance of rave electronics and rock guitars before tipping into self-parody with the likes of "Firestarter". It is as vital and confrontational as it has ever been and the inner sleeve art of a hippy raver dude raising his middle finger to the fuzz seemed like the coolest thing my pre-teen mind had ever encountered.

06. Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots: I'm not sure that this was the first Flaming Lips album I bought. I suspect that might have been Soft Bulletin. I distinctly remember a sense of shame, especially as after leaving the darklands of metal behind I stumbled into the realm of punk, at buying an album I first heard a track from on Radio 2. This would have been college years again, and the Devon punk scene was open minded enough that any shame I felt was entirely imagined. I include Yoshimi... over Soft Bulletin and the 'Lips excellent back catalogue primarily because of one song; "Do You Realize???" This song has always struck me as staggeringly beautiful, and has just grown more so as I've grown older. Despite often being accused of having depressing lyrics (Do You Realize/That everyone you know someday will die), it embodies an approach to life, one of embracing life in the now and loving wholeheartedly, that I try and strive to live. I often think that I don't try hard enough, and that I let too much and too many people slip me by. But I try, and this song helps. Experiencing the 'Lips playing this song live was enough to cement it in my affections as possibly my favourite song ever. So the album definitely belongs here.

07. Godflesh - Hymns: Godflesh are a grindcore band and brainchild of the prolific Justin Broadrick. Godflesh are, in my mind, the band that anyone who dismisses extreme metal out of hand should have to hear. Extreme metal is associated, among other things, with being played really fucking fast. Godflesh manage to be heavier that pretty much any of their competitors whilst slowing their music down to crawling speed. Hymns is a fantastic album and unusual for a Godflesh album in that it features a human drummer, rather than simply pummelling electronics, and Justin Broadrick actually sings on it sometimes. It is almost certainly the least conventionally extreme of the Godflesh albums, but it even better for it. It means Broadrick can bring other music influences in to the mix and stretch his wings lyrically, and sets the template for his later critically acclaimed work with Jesu. It is also one of the albums which really opened my eyes musically, showing me that music was often better when it let itself do something genuinely different rather than plowing the same furrow over and over again.

08. Underworld - Dubnobasswithmyheadman: As I'd expect is the case with most people, I first heard Underworld with the release of the track "Born Slippy.NUXX" in the wake of Trainspotting. I can only assume I didn't see Trainspotting until significantly later than that, but "Born Slippy" was pretty much everywhere at the time. It might have been some time during high school that I bought Dubnobasswithmyheadman from a market stall in Tiverton, but it is at least faintly possible I didn't get in to them properly until college. Either way, the album blew my mind. Trancey epics like "Mmmm... Skyscraper I Love You" were far removed from most of the electronic music I had experienced up until that point (with one possible exception that we will reach shortly) and when the beat drops on "Cowgirl" I still get so excited I just have to giggle and dance. Incidentally, also a mindblowing album for driving at night to.

09. Mr Bungle - California: Here we return to Faith No More's lead singer. Prior to joining FNM, Mike Patton was in a band called Mr Bungle. Somehow or another, Patton managed to get his other band signed on to FNM's label, Warner Bros. The upshot of this is that in 1991 Mr Bungle's self titled debut album, a lyrically scatological experimental mix of noise, metal and ska produced by legendary avant garde saxophonist John Zorn, was released on a major label. They followed this up with what was probably their best album, Disco Volante, a bizarre mix of speed metal, classical and middle eastern music, and cartoon noises that really has to be heard to be believed. My pick here though is their final album, and a staple of my years in high school, California. While remaining as bizarrely eclectic as its predecessor, California manages to distill these influences into something much more listenable. Which is probably why it sits on this list in place of Disco Volante. Undeniably brilliant and something which, again, served as an eye-opener for me as to what it was possible to do with music.

10. Chemical Brothers - Dig Your Own Hole: Back to the dance stuff. Dig Your Own Hole was the first Chemical Brothers album I bought, I think. I say this because I'm fairly sure I got it before the more mainstream Surrender was even released, after seeing the video for "Block Rockin' Beats" on MTV while visiting my uncle (we didn't have satellite so our trips there were pretty much spent rooted in front of the box-of-wonders). As good as "Block Rockin' Beats" is, and as sublime as Beth Orton's vocal is on "Where Do I Begin", it is another track on this album which raises it to a different level for me. I might have been gobsmacked by Underworld, but Chemical Brothers had beaten them to it by some distance in the shape of "The Private Psychedelic Reel"; nine and a half minutes of ecstatic build and release that felt like something from another world to me.

11. Radiohead - Kid A: Speaking of something from another world, I really didn't know what to make of Kid A when I first bought it. It was my first real experience of Radiohead, and it is a fairly deep point at which to jump in to their discography. If I remember rightly, I bought it a few months after it was released based upon the fact that it (alongside Drukqs) was mentioned in an article in Kerrang! as an example of the growing prevalence of "arty" music in the mainstream which then went on to ramble about a number of art-metal bands. I liked a number of the bands mentioned in the article, so I thought I'd give it a go. Needless to say I wasn't quite prepared for what I encountered. I think I found it a little upsetting to start with. But after a few listens it had got under my skin. The dancey "Idioteque" was the most obvious point of reference for me, but tracks like "National Anthem" soon grew on me and even the weirdness of the title track started to make sense. Certainly an important formative part of my current musical tastes.

12. PJ Harvey - Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea: Possibly a little later than I discovered Radiohead, I also first heard this album. Oddly enough, I have no real recollection of where or when. Music tends to leave flashbulb memories with me. I have a few connected to this album, to do with mixtapes made for girls and hanging around waiting for buses in Tiverton, but nothing to do with when this album entered my life. But it has hung around to occasionally provide songs that seemed to soundtrack my life. "We Float", "A Place Called Home" and "This is Love" especially. There are probably better PJ Harvey albums than this, but this is the on I return to most regularly.

13. System of a Down - System of a Down: Metal again. High school again. Must have got it some time around the time Toxicity came out. As good as Toxicity is though, System's debut is their best. While it seems to me that Daron Malakian has been intent on gradually turning them in to a Metallica clone, this album catches System at their most inventive and exuberant. It is full of musical references to their Armenian roots and Serj Tankian is on blisteringly weird form. The perfect soundtrack to an angry pubescence. Listened to it again recently whilst playing poker with friends and everyone in the room had to join in shouting along at some point. Still fantastic.

14. TV on the Radio - Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes: Got this one as soon as it was released based upon hearing a few tracks from the Blind e.p. I would have been seventeen or eighteen at the time, I guess, which places it later on my personal chronology than most of the albums here. What I do know though is that TVotR sounded like nothing I had heard before. They were clearly influenced by a lot of post-punk stuff but approached the sound from a completely different angle incorporating urban and electronic sounds into a completely organic whole (incidentally, their self-released debut Ok Calculator provides an interesting insight into how these influences came together as their music developed). Tracks like "Staring at the Sun" and the spooky barbershop of "Ambulance" won me over immediately, and TVotR remain one of the most interesting and innovative bands in the world today.

15. Grandaddy - The Sophtware Slump: I suspect that I first heard Grandaddy on the soundtrack to 28 Days Later shortly after I had started at college. It is certainly when the track A.M. 180 latched indelibly on to my brain (manifesting itself most recently in attempts to transpose it for ukulele... an unusual sound). And although this track lives on the wonderful Under The Western Freeway, it is their follow up album that I hold dearest. A fragile and icy album on the whole, suffused with a faint sense of alienation, it is almost certainly their best and most coherent effort. I'm not sure I have too many memories connected to this album in particular, so much as spending a lot of time sitting along in various places around college listening intently on my discman (the days before I had an iPod and used to carry around several hundred pounds worth of CDs with me everywhere I went). Still a wonderful listen now.

And honourable mentions go to:

Leatherface - Dog Disco: The pinnacle of my relationship with the Exeter punk scene came with seeing Leatherface whilst they were touring this album. Frankie Stubbs is one of the greatest songwriters alive and is criminally overlooked.

Mogwai - Young Team: A band I got in to after hearing a live session on John Peel's radio show at some point during college, I think. Still haven't seen them live. Something I desperately need to put right.

My Bloody Valentine - Loveless: Picked up from Tiverton public library on a whim based upon the name. I think I was expecting some kind of metal music. Instead I found something infinitely more beautiful and extreme. Waves of feedback and ghostly vocals provide something truly ethereal and life changing.

Orbital - Orbital II: I was a relatively latecomer to Orbital, I think. I remember hearing Halcyon & On & On on the (brilliant) soundtrack to Hackers during high school, but never really followed it up. Some time during college though I quickly caught up with their back catalogue and this, for me, remains their definitive statement.

New song(ish)...

I will always remember this day
When I told you what you refused to believe
And I saw in you someone who
I couldn't let you go
So I took you with me

And you were always the last one to know
Why you were always alone
You always let things pass you by
But now you have a chance
And if you don't go now, you might not ever

We, we will start something
And we will always take the blame
But we can't hear your recriminations
'Cause we are deaf and blind
We today, we tonight

So tell your boyfriend not to wait up
There's always another tomorrow

Hope that your family never wakes up
There's always another tomorrow

Hope that it never gets out
There's always another tomorrow

Tell your boyfriend not to wait up
There's always another tomorrow...