Ok so I have put far more thought into this than I should have – am looking at a large pile of presents that aren’t wrapping themselves and ignoring the fact that I have reports that I have to get done before case conference this week – and a whole lot of gushing follows and probably reveals a whole lot more about me than I ever really planned on sharing.

Before we start, a bit of background, I am by no means a music snob, I just like what I like (and often that is very, very trashy although the list doesn’t accurately reflect that – have rectified that with the potential list candidates at the end though). I am the product of a complete audiophile father (both the music and the sound systems – he spends many hours on ebay trying to buy some antiquated system or another) with an amazing singing voice and a mother who is tone deaf and through my life has taught me many, many wrong lyrics. As for me, I can carry a tune but I’m nothing special (unlike father, sister and strangely enough maternal grandmother who are all very talented but unlike any of them (except my dad) can actually read music) and have a great capacity to mishear music lyrics (some of my mondegreens are truly spectacular – that well known hit “White Tiger Mood” for example (major points to you if you can work out what song lyric/title I completely butchered to come up with that). I have what I consider to be relatively eclectic music tastes – I own everything from Rancid to the Xanadu soundtrack and while I have hundreds of CDs I don’t really listen to whole CDs very often I have some sort of combination of Attention Deficit and Autistic Spectrum disorders when it comes to music and often only listen to one or two songs on a CD. I also spend a lot of time listening to Soundtracks (hence the lengthy Scream 2 discussion at Alice’s LJ) and musicals but I decided not to consider those for the list (so you are all saved a gush over how much I love the Grease Two soundtrack). I also own heaps of greatest hits albums but ruled these out also (so in addition you are spared me ranting about my love of Dr Hook, Peter Allen and Barry Manilow songs)

I thought about doing it by songs (which would probably be more representative of what I actually listen to) but that is just too daunting, so it’s an albums list and they are not necessarily the best albums I have but they are the ones that have had a big impact on me (enough for me to know more that just the singles from them) and I would definitely want them with me on a desert island. This list is by no means exhaustive and as I sit here I am listening to Robbie Williams and it’s a shame that the list doesn’t reference how much I love ‘Come Undone’ (“I’m contemplating, thinking about thinking, it’s over-rated just get another drink in” “so need your love, so fuck you all”) and ‘Sexed Up’ so now that that’s covered, on to the list – in no particular order [and I think I have managed to cover most of the albums mentioned in the post – something that I doubt you will be grateful for but I have done it nonetheless]

My first Crowded House album, although I now have all of them, and definitely my sentimental favourite but I also think it is their best album. So they may be from New Zealand but we happily steal the good stuff and call it our own (well, we are a penal colony) and I consider them to be the best band that we have ever produced (so lots of gushing to follow). Before I get on to Woodface I should mention some of the wonder of their other albums –

The first and self-titled album features some great songs – ‘The World Where You Live’, ‘Now We’re Getting Somewhere’, ‘Something So Strong’ the sad  – “She came all the way from America, she had a blind date with destiny and the sound of Te Awamutu had a truly sacred ring, now parents are divorced and her friend’s committing suicide” but still somehow up and danceable ‘Mean to Me’  (many drunken boat cruises with my friends and I screaming out “with a black and white TV to stop us from getting lonely” and the song which dancing to caused some spectacular carpet burns on my knees (there is a line “Down on my knees” in the chorus and my dancing is always literal) - I spent the next few days picking pieces of stocking out of my wounds) and ‘Don’t Dream it’s Over’ which I love for a line that I can completely relate to “In the paper today, tales of war and of waste but you turn right over to the TV page”.

Their sophomore effort Temple of Low Men features the very popular ‘Sister Madly’ but I am not such a huge fan of it (don’t know why), I much prefer ‘When You Come’ and ‘I Feel Possessed’ and of course the huge hit that was ‘Better Be Home Soon’ (which gets covered by everyone and their dog but remains a very beautiful song).

Their final album (other than Recurring Dream – the greatest hits album – although I do like the two new songs on that ‘Instinct’ and ‘Not the Girl You Think You Are’.) Together Alone is also really great and the first time I saw them live was for the Together Alone tour (the second time was on the steps of the Sydney Opera House for their Farewell to the World concert – sniff) – it has great range from the soft and beautiful ‘Fingers of Love’ and ‘Private Universe’ to the eerie ‘Kare Kare’ (“You can say the magic words, I’ve got my senses on and this is the only place that I always run from”) to the rocking ‘Locked Out’ and ‘Black White and Boy’

A CD that completely polarises my family – my sister and I both love it but my mother actively hates it, to the point were we are not allowed to play it out loud if she is around (it’s weird the things my mother has rules about). My sister actually introduced me to this album – I think she was going through a high school angst period at the time – and I am very grateful to her. It is a great collection of songs and I know I mentioned that I am not a particularly down girl and am now going to go on to discuss how much I like a CD about alienation, grief and loss but I think it’s the accessibility of said alienation, grief and loss that makes this album really work – they are well expressed, sometimes poetically “She walks along the edge of where the ocean meets the land, just like she’s walking on a wire in the circus”, sometimes simply “we all want something beautiful, I wish I was beautiful” and I find them very believable. Sure there are parts of the CD that I find a bit over the top – ‘Ghost Train’ remains my least favourite song on the disc and for a very long time I couldn’t stand ‘Raining in Baltimore’ – I just wanted to buy him a fucking rain coat so he would shut the hell up but then it featured in an episode of Homicide – Life on the Streets and now I love it (ahhh the shifting sands of my affection). I should also point out the rabid love I have for Counting Crows songs that feature girls’ names in the title – ‘Anna Begins’ (my little sister’s name is Anna and we both love the title of this song but it’s also very beautiful “She’s talking in her sleep, it’s keeping me awake and Anna begins to toss and turn and every word is nonsense but I understand and oh lord, I’m not ready for this sort of thing”) and ‘Goodnight Elizabeth’ and now that we are on to Recovering the Satellites I am going to digress and mention just how much I love ‘Long December (“the smell of hospitals in winter” really works for me) and ‘Another Horsedreamer’s Blues’ (which I know does skate around the suicide thing but I think it’s brilliantly written (although I refuse to spell Marjorie the way they do) “Marjorie’s wingspan’s all features and coke cans and TV dinners and letters she won’t send and every race night is shot through with sunlight, trying to hit the big one, one last time tonight for drunken fathers and stupid mothers and boys who can’t tell one girl from another, so she takes her pills, careful and round, one of these days she’s gonna throw the whole bottle down but she’s trying to be good girl and give ‘em want they want”). But back to August and Everything After I couldn’t leave the discussion of this CD without mentioning how much I love Rain King (“she’s been dying and I’ve been drinking and I am the Rain King”)

I thought about excluding her but I just couldn’t do it (but due to this there is an absence of poppy pop music on my list so I have to add some albums that I seriously considered including to the bottom of the list). As, I’m sure, it is abundantly clear from my LJ I love Kelly (she has a very large shrine indeed) and I think her second outing is a truly remarkable album – it’s much more cohesive than her first album and feels more like she really gets what she’s singing about (that said I do love Thankful). My favourite songs on this (other than the singles) are ‘Addicted’ and ‘I Hate Myself for Losing You’ [This post well and truly predates My December]

So it’s kind of angry and angsty but it’s still very fun and once again this was a big college album for me – actually I was pretty down at this time and this probably wasn’t the best album to be listening to at that point, back then I wasn’t really able to see the fun side of it – I would sit in my room at college trying, but failing, to study and cry to lines like “You learn to love the pain you feel”, “you’re hungry cause you starve while holding back the tears” and “I bought into what I was sold and ended up with nothing” – it may have something to do with just how fucked up I got in fourth year but may be I was listening to this so incessantly cause I was such a mess. Doesn’t really matter cause I am much better now and more able to appreciate the anger and the playfulness of the album (and it doesn’t make me cry anymore) – I love that they all but make fun of how angry and down the album is with ‘I’m Only Happy When It Rains’ (“I feel good when things are going wrong, I only listen to sad, sad songs”, “you want to hear about my new obsession, I’m riding high up on a deep depression” and that she is singing “Pour your misery down on me” in such an upbeat and funky, makes you want to dance, way) and I like thrashing away to ‘Not My Idea of a Good Time’ (“you thought I was little girl, you thought I was a little mouse, you thought you’d take me by surprise, now I’m here burning your house”) and ‘Vow’ (“you crucify me but I’m back in your bed like Jesus Christ coming back from the dead” “I came to cut you up, I came to knock you down, I came around to tear your little world apart”).

My favourite album by my favourite female artist of all time – I’m sure the people sitting behind me at the Hear and Now concert appreciated all the jumping up and down and singing and screaming that I did when she was on. Love every single song on it and nowadays it always reminds me of my flat mate (not [Jason] but my original flat mate – responsible for such moments as learning the words to Mmmbop and the dance on the Men In Black film clip during our exams blocks (that either of us have a degree is a frightening thing)) doing a lip synched dance number to ‘Leave a Light on For Me’ at my 21st birthday party (I do so love my friends). Yet again really hard to discuss because I love all of it so much but I guess my favourites are ‘La Luna’, ‘Deep, Deep Ocean’ and ‘We Want the Same Thing’ and the absolute, sheer brilliance that is ‘Summer Rain’ (lets take a moment to acknowledge how annoyed I was when someone released a dance version of this, if Belinda had wanted it to be a dance number, it would have been a dance number) cause how can you not love it “Every time I see the lightning, every time I hear the thunder, every time I close the window, when this happens in summer” – sigh.