The Beatles Revolver — It has everything: songs, songs and songs.
Stevie Wonder
Talking Book — Got this cassette the summer I was 16 and instantly became humbled like the little white dorky dude I was.Compulsive Gamblers
Crystal Gazing Luck Amazing — Real music played with energy by four guys in a room without any guitar pedals or vocal auto-tuning.The Greenhornes
Gun for You — The way Craig Fox and Brian Olive played guitar on this record mirrors Keef and Woody’s “ancient art of weaving.”Nina Simone
Let It All Out — I still don’t understand how anyone can sing this good.Bob Dylan
Bringing It All Back Home — I didn’t “get” Dylan till I got this album, and then I was hooked for life.Fiona
Apple Tidal — I used to wish a girl my age would move in next door to me and we’d become boyfriend and girlfriend, you know, like whispering out our windows to each other at night. It never happened. But this album was a great consolation prize when I was 15.Supergrass
I Should Coco — It didn’t sound contrived or thought about too much. Perfect.The Band
Music From Big Pink — I’m glad I got this album when I was 21 — if I would have gotten it before then I fear I would not have understood them.Small Faces
Decca Anthology — Pure.This article appears in Nov 11-17, 2009.