Various Artists – Double Dancing (1983)

This is actually two albums in one. Double Dancing 1 and 2. I think I got these from my ex-girlfriend years ago when I had bought a vinyl player. She bought these at a flea market somewhere in Helsinki. I probably would never have bought these kinds of albums myself, but now I'm actually quite pleasantly surprised that I also own these types of mainstream pop compilations. This compilation double album was released in Nordic Countries in 1983, the year I was born. It features the greatest radio hits from that time, but I think their budget hasn't been that high, since there are no massively popular hit songs or artists on the album. Thus, even though the style is very mainstream, today the selection feels a bit alternative in terms of 80s synth pop. I have hardly listened to these albums before, but now is a good time to catch up on what I actually own.

Pixies – Doolittle (1989)

When I was younger, I was constantly told that Pixies was really cool and I really felt like with my music taste, I really should like them. The problem was, I never really got interested in them. I mean, I did like a couple of songs, such as Where Is My Mind? but most songs felt too noisy and it was difficult to get any grasp of the band. This all changed just a few years ago when Pixies was about to come to headline Field Day festival in Hackney. This was an incentive enough for me to revisit their albums and this time, out of nowhere, I finally understood what the band was all about. I have said many times in this blog already how my musical horizons have gotten much wider in recent years and one of the things this means is that I tolerate noise and breaking of melodic patterns a lot more. Pixies has some quite catchy pop songs, but the noise part of it took some getting used to.

Green Day – Dookie (1994)

Green Day's career has had a couple different defining moments depending on how old you are. To my generation, Dookie is the only answer to what's the best thing Green Day ever made. It was huge at the time of its release! Dookie is the band's first major label album and when they moved away from their indie label, many of the old fans abandoned the band calling them sell-outs. Younger generations found Green Day again after American Idiot and to them that's what Green Day is all about. The newer Green Day is more stadium rock than punk rock. To me personally, Dookie is the greatest era in band's history, because that's when their songwriting became mature enough to be interesting, but they still held on to their punk rock attitude. When I was about 12 years old, Green Day was really popular amongst my classmates and we really listened to it all the time.

CSS – Donkey (2008)

There are not many Brazilian band that I'm familiar with. CSS is a short for Cansei de Ser Sexy, which means 'tired of being sexy', which is apparently a quote of something Beyoncé had said. They became popular with their critically acclaimed debut album. I like this second album of theirs a bit more than the first album. Somehow, Donkey has more melodic and more approachable songs and since the genre of the album is not exactly my favourite, these kinds of things matter. Donkey is filled with great catchy indie rock songs with some synth spices. I remember buying it on vinyl from a Helsinki-based record shop when they had a bunch of Sub Pop vinyls on sale for just 10€ each, which was very reasonable for new vinyl records at least at that time. It's been a while while I've listened to this album and I can see my taste has evolved, because now I actually like this a lot more than back then.

The Scaramangas – Don't Follow the Weak (2007)

Before getting into university, I spent one year working in a café in Helsinki city centre. We had a really nice youthful crew in that café and we regularly played our own CDs while working. This led to talking about music a lot. One of the other employees was also in a band. His band was The Scaramangas. At that time, they had only released one EP and I went to their gig when they released their second EP. By the time Don't Follow the Weak was released, I didn't work there anymore and I didn't stay in contact with the guy. I don't think I even noticed they had released an album like this. But then I spotted it in a record shop in Helsinki and I remember it being quite cheap as well, so I bought it without too much thinking, because I had liked their music back then. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this was even better than what I expected.

Oasis – Don't Believe the Truth (2005)

Oasis gets quite a lot of bad rep for their later albums. In some cases it's quite deserved, but I quite like Don't Believe the Truth. It may not be a fantastic album throughout, but there are more than a few decent tracks on it. The sounds are lighter than in the beginning of their career or on their last album that kind of returned to their roots. I've heard many times people compare Oasis to The Beatles. normally, I think, that comparison comes down to things like how they look like, how they sing etc., but on this album, I think there are quite strong musical similarities as well. For one thing, all the band members have contributed to songwriting, which wasn't the case on all of their albums. Noel has usually pretty much written all the songs for their albums. Also, there are nice yet subtle 60s psychedelia influences in many songs on this album, which points to The Beatles.

Suede – Dog Man Star (1994)

Normally, when people talk about Suede, they compare the debut album and Coming Up and most people find their favourite Suede album in one of these two. To me, Dog Man Star is the best Suede album. It has Bernard Butler's fabulous guitars on it, it's glam, it's dark, it's innovative. It doesn't have as many hits as the other two albums, but the long artistic songs towards the end of the album are what make this album the best one for me. Even the album cover looks cooler. I wasn't always of this opinion though. For a long time, I mostly just knew Suede through their compilation album and I didn't really know all the individual songs found on the albums. Dog Man Star wasn't that well represented on the compilations, which meant that I didn't even know what I was missing. Nowadays, Dog Man Star is one of the greatest albums of the 90s on my personal list.

British Sea Power – Do You Like Rock Music? (2008)

British Sea Power was probably not very well known around the world, but they definitely were one of the important indie rock bands to me in the mid-00s, the era of guitar-indie bands. Their second album, Open Season, was an amazing album and I would say it's still their masterpiece. I've listened to that album a lot over the years. Do You Like Rock Music? had to follow that album, so obviously the expectations were really high. I don't think the album really could fulfil those expectations and overall this album was a bit of a disappointment, while it is still a very good album if you don't consider what came before. There are some fantastic hits on the album, but it's not as strong throughout and there are some parts where I get a bit bored. I really like the CD cover of this album, with its uneven cardboard surface that sets it apart from other CD case design.

Joanna Newsom – Divers (2015)

Joanna Newsom's music is something truly special. There aren't many other artists or bands in this millennium that would have such a personal sound. Newsom plays the harp and sings with vocals comparing to Kate Bush. Most of her songs are long and filled with dreamlike fantasy music filled with orchestral instruments and sounds of nature. I first fell in love with her music by listening to Ys, which I still think is her greatest album. Divers was released only three years ago, but it bears a special significance for me, because this was the album that was released before I finally saw Newsom live here in London, at Hammersmith Apollo. Her live performance only strengthened my appreciation for her. The way she used the harp both as a rhythm and melodic instrument was truly impressive. Also, she had just as fantastic vocals live as she has on the albums.

Cream – Disraeli Gears (1967)

I have never been much of a fan of Eric Clapton. He always sounded like dad-rock, even when he was young. And indeed, my dad really liked Eric Clapton, so I heard a lot of his music while growing up. It took me quite some time to realise that there was also some quite good albums he was on, but it definitely wasn't his solo stuff. Cream had its roots in blues rock but it evolved quite soon into a psychedelic rock band. The sound of the band is quite raw. All of the instruments sound really authentic without too much studio magic. This kind of sound must've influenced bands like Led Zeppelin who were just starting out in the late 60s. You can hear the blues influences in the style the band plays, but the sounds are heavier and there are some excellent hypnotic melodies on the album. I would go on to say that this is the best thing Clapton ever made.

Fool's Garden – Dish of the Day (1995)

Fool's Garden is very much a one hit wonder band. In fact, so much so that not many people even know this is the band behind the 90s hit Lemon Tree. That song was a massive hit, but other than that, no-one really seems to know any other songs from this album. There are a few other good songs on this album though. I never bought this CD myself. My sister had it when we were teenagers. When she moved away from home, she left a bunch of CDs behind that I gladly gave a new home for. This is one of those CDs. I haven't listened to this album that much, but I really do enjoy a few songs on it and I've been glad to have them in my shuffle lists for years now. It would be interesting to know whether younger generations have any recollection of this band or album. It might just be one of those bands that were only important to one generation.

Mike Oldfield – Discovery (1984)

Discovery is yet another Mike Oldfield album I got from my father's vinyl collection when he gave up owning a turntable. Discovery was released in 1984 when the sound world of music had already changed to what we know as the 80s pop period. This has had a massive impact on this Oldfield album as well. In his previous album, Crises, he had moved away from experimental synth progressive rock and presented a couple of mainstream pop songs that did very well on the charts. The most famous of these was Moonlight Shadow, performed with Maggie Reilly. She also performs on this album and there are various mainstream pop songs on this album. For this reason, Discovery is by far not my favourite Oldfield album. His strengths were precisely in experimental instrumentations and strange long songs, which are almost absent on this album.

Various Artists – Disco Gold (1975)

This is one of those mystery albums I own. I can't really remember where I got it in the first place. It either came from some of my relatives, or potentially I got it from one of my friends as a rogue purchase at the flea market. Anyway, this is a disco compilation album released in 1975 when disco wasn't really that strongly established genre yet. Most of these songs sound more like funk or soul to begin with. What's curious about this album is that I don't really know almost any of these artists. Usually disco compilations are filled with well-known artists, but this album is more obscure. It's really good though, because most of these songs are better than your average disco hit. I never expected anything interesting from this album but actually there are a few quite good songs on there that I could imagine listening to.

Alice in Chains – Dirt (1992)

When grunge conquered the world in the early 90s, I was still just a young boy just becoming interested in pop and rock music. Most of the popular music around that time had quite heavy guitars and metal, at least in Finland, had become mainstream. This had an influence on my first music choices and I spent my time listening to Metallica and Guns n' Roses, but also Nirvana. Back then, Nirvana was really the grunge movement for me. I mean, I did know about Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and Stone Temple Pilots as well, but they never interested me as much. A few years ago, however, I started intentionally listening to these grunge bands again and I found myself understanding all of these other bands a lot more than as a kid. I ended up buying many of those classic grunge CDs I had known back then but had never truly embraced, including this one.

CMX – Dinosaurus Stereophonicus (2000)

CMX was a massively popular Finnish band when I was a teenager. Everyone in Finland knew their hit songs by heart. This is a bit strange as they started off as a very alternative punk band. Then again, they quite quickly moved on to make more basic rock music with Finnish lyrics, which has always been very popular in Finland. Personally, I owned just one 3CD compilation album by CMX, which meant that I was never that familiar with their individual albums. Dinosaurus Stereophonicus was one of the first albums to be released after that compilation and I remember reviews saying that on this album the band had completely changed its course. I don't know if they've really completely changed their course, but there are some interesting experimentations on this album. The general style of the album is progressive rock, but there are several styles across the album.

Bright Eyes – Digital Ash in a Digital Urn (2005)

Bright Eyes released two albums on the same day in 2005. These albums couldn't be further apart from each other as far as Bright Eyes albums go. Digital Ash in a Digital Urn has an unusual amount of electronic instruments for a Bright Eyes album and the whole sound is quite futuristic and cold, whereas the other album released on the same date, I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning is all about acoustic folk and warm sentiments. I didn't know much about these albums back in the day and I had a choice of buying one of them on vinyl. I thought this one looked more interesting, so I bought it, but in hindsight, that was a wrong choice because I like the other album a lot more. Then again, I also own that one nowadays, so it doesn't really matter. I don't know exactly why, but this is probably my least listened to Bright Eyes album.

Oasis – Dig Out Your Soul (2008)

There's no denying the fact that the best Oasis albums are the first two albums. However, they do have some good music on their later albums as well. If the two first ones wouldn't be so perfect, I'm sure we would make a big deal out of these later albums as well. Dig Out Your Soul is the final Oasis album, released years after the band's golden years, at the time when the Gallagher brothers were mainly fighting and not getting along at all anymore. In some ways, Dig Out Your Soul is better than most other late Oasis albums and I think the reason for that is that Noel wanted to make a rocking album after many more acoustically oriented ones. Oasis is, after all, a rock band and that's what they do best. There are also a lot bigger orchestration on this album than on other late albums. I think it's appropriate that the band returned to its roots for the final album.

Pulp – Different Class (1995)

This is one of the greatest albums ever made! Growing up in Finland, Britpop mainly consisted of four bands: Blur, Oasis, Suede and Pulp. To me personally, Pulp has always been the most important one of these. My sister bought the album pretty much as soon as it was out and I've been listening to it ever since. I bought it myself as soon as my sister had moved out and taken her CD with her. Every song on this album is a hit and there are even some B-sides from these sessions that could potentially be chart-topping hits. The album has a loose theme related to the British class society. The name of the album came from Jarvis Cocker's friend who called something that was in a class of its own as Different Class. Cocker liked the double meaning of the phrase and used is as the title of the album.

Supergrass – Diamond Hoo Ha (2008)

I was really late to discover Supergrass. Of course I did know some of their early hits, such as Alright, but I hadn't really listened to the band systematically and I had no clue of their individual albums. Then, everything changed when my sister's ex-boyfried brought Road to Rouen to one of our family gatherings at the summer cottage. I was immediately impressed about the melodic and mellow songs of that album, which led me to buy it as my first Supergrass album, which also obviously led to the earlier works as well. So, what this all entails is that Diamond Hoo Ha, which is the band's last album, was actually my first new Supergrass album while I was interested in them. It's a lot harder than its predecessor, but I still quite like it. There are excellent powerful rock songs with great melodies and energy.

David Bowie – Diamond Dogs (1974)

Diamond Dogs is Bowie's last glam rock album. After this, he went on to release Young Americans, which was more influenced by soul and R&B. By the time Diamond Dogs was released, Bowie had already retired Ziggy Stardust and Diamond Dogs is the first album after the glam era where he's not accompanied by the Spiders from Mars. Then again, Bowie's hairdo and style is still very much similar to the Ziggy Stardust era and most of the songs have been written with the Spiders, which means that the album sounds very much like the swansong to Bowie's glam era. There are, however, some art rock influences that seem to anticipate the Berlin era albums and on the other hand, there are strong influences from early 70's Rolling Stones. Diamond Dogs is not one of my favourite Bowie albums, but it has its moments.

Blitzen Trapper – Destroyer of the Void (2010)

This is Blitzen Trapper's fifth album, but they had only made their breakthrough two years earlier with their album Furr. That's when I also heard about the band, so this was the first new album from the band while I was listening to them. Destroyer of the Void is not as clearly a hit album as the previous one was. There are more experimental approaches and slow songs on this album, which makes it slightly less commercial. Usually this kind of approach may really pay off, but in this case I feel like they don't reach their full potential. Saying that, Destroyer of the Void is still and excellent piece of work combining alternative country sounds with energetic power pop. Blitzen Trapper really knows good songwriting. Their songs have amazing melodies and excellent changes in style within one song.

Mercury Rev – Deserter's Songs (1998)

Mercury Rev is one of the 90's alternative bands that must have influenced the whole generation of indie bands coming after them. They combine beautiful and dream-like melodies with lo-fi aesthetics and a variety of interesting instruments, most notably musical saw. Deserter's Songs is the band's most critically acclaimed album and also commercially it was the most successful album at least upon its release. It's interesting that the band intended actually to make an album that would just sound a lot like they wanted it to sound without any consideration for commercial aspects. Their previous album had been something of a breakthrough, but they had to compromise on the sounds and now they were just doing what they wanted. Of course, that resulted in their best album so far and many would say it's still the best album of their career.

Jason Lytle – Dept. of Disappearance (2012)

When Grandaddy split up, I for one was a bit devastated, since it had been one of my favourite bands for years. Fairly soon after that happened, Jason Lytle returned with his solo material that was quite similar to Grandaddy. Fair enough, the first album, Yours Truly, The Commuter was a bit bland after all the Grandaddy albums with most of the band instruments missing. Dept. of Disappearance, however, has some songs on it that sound just as good as Grandaddy songs. I'm still quite glad that Grandaddy returned, because even though Lytle is pretty much the band, they still sound better under their original band title. I bought this album on CD as soon as I heard about it. After all, I'm such a fan that I would probably get anything made by Lytle as soon as it was out, no matter what it was.

Uriah Heep – Demons and Wizards (1972)

Another beautiful vinyl album from my father's record collection. As I've mentioned many times before, my father was a fan of progressive rock and heavy metal in the early 70's. When my friends became interested in Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple in school, I was happy to find some of these albums from my dad's collection. Uriah Heep was a band that wasn't as well known from that genre. It had obviously been really popular in the 70's but it had not lasted the time as well as the other bands. I really liked Uriah Heep's pop-melodies and sounds. For a while it was one of my favourite bands. Ken Hensley's keyboards and Mick Box's guitars were amazingly skilfully played and some of their solos were my favourite solos by any band when I was a teenager. Of course David Byron's high vocals are impressive as well.

Ryan Adams – Demolition (2002)

Demolition is the third album by one of the most productive songwriters ever, Ryan Adams. His first album had just been released two years earlier and his second album Gold had become a massive hit at least in the US. Compared to the first two albums, Demolition is perhaps a slightly disappointing, since it doesn't have as many amazing hit songs, but still, as a standalone effort, it's a fantastic album. Adams himself thought afterwards this album as something of a compilation of leftover songs, but I do think there are numerous fantastic songs that deserved to be published on a record. Demolition seems still has some proper country songs, but it also features some rockier songs that seem to lay the ground for Adams' following album Rock n' Roll. This was one of my first Ryan Adams albums which I bought quite soon after its release.

The Delta Rhythm Boys – The Delta Rhythm Boys

This is the first album in this blog where I'm not able to find anywhere the year when this album was released. Even Discogs doesn't know. Most likely, this is a compilation of singles from the band that was together from the 30's until the 80's, which means that this album could be from any time during that period. I got this album from my great aunt's record collection. It's not the type of music I would generally listen to, but it's interesting to broaden my horizons by testing something like this. The Delta Rhythm Boys is an American vocal group that plays a range of R&B and gospel songs with a hint of jazz. Stylistically at least, this music precedes the pop music era, which means that the songs are more dancehall types of songs. The vocals are in a much bigger role than other instruments in this style of music.

Delay Trees – Delay Trees (2010)

Delay Trees is a Finnish indie band playing impressive dream pop with, as their name suggests, lots of delay in the guitars. The expectations were quite high for this band around 2010 when their self-titled debut came out. I saw them live at least a couple of times, once opening for the Scottish indie legends Teenage Fanclub. Later on, I've seen them once here in London and once back in Finland at a small festival. Unfortunately, I think the debut album remained their best album to date. There's nothing particularly wrong with the later albums, but they just didn't raise same kind of excitement in me. This debut album of theirs is a fantastic though. There are influences from American dream pop and post rock bands and the songs are well written pieces with catchy melodies and beautifully echoey sounds.

Black Sabbath – Dehumanizer (1992)

It's quite stupid I have this album at all. As a teenager, I was into 70's heavy metal, but I didn't really know that much about it. Also, I didn't really use internet yet, so the knowledge behind my purchases was often not that great. So, when I bought the album Dehumanizer by Black Sabbath, I was expecting Ozzy Osbourne and similar sounds to Paranoid. Turns out, this album was something completely different. It features Ronnie James Dio as the lead vocalist and the sounds are closer to late 80's and early 90's metal music. To be fair, I had also been quite into those genres around the time, but anyway, this album really wasn't what I expected. At least it features Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler from the original band. This must be one of my least listened to albums that I've bought myself.

Oasis – Definitely Maybe (1994)

At the time of its release, Definitely Maybe was the fastest selling debut album by any band so far. It's not difficult to see why. The band had released three singles before hand and the Britpop was already hugely popular at that point. The songs on Definitely Maybe are spectacularly well written and there's this raw power in the sounds. Also, you can hear the ambition and youthful excitement. Overall, it just has a great attitude. The sounds are maybe not as well thought of as on (What's the Story) Morning Glory, but in attitude Definitely Maybe wins the competition. I can't really decide which of the first two albums by Oasis I like the most. They both have their own strengths. I feel like I really would liked to have seen the band live after Definitely Maybe when they were still playing decent sized venues and the attitude was everything.

Deep Purple – Deepest Purple: The Very Best of Deep Purple (1980)

In general, this system of mine where I post albums in alphabetical order, works fairly well, but sometimes when the band name appears in the album title, I end up posting about the same band's two albums in a row. It's a bit annoying since in this case for example, I've already written most of the things about Deep Purple already in the previous post, but anyway, let's focus on this album then. This is obviously a compilation album, which I must point out, Deep Purple has made loads of. In my opinion, this is the best compilation there is, at least from the ones I've seen. It covers just the right era of Deep Purple's career, the 70's. This was my first Deep Purple album on a CD and for a while it was just appropriate for my needs. Pretty much all of the songs on this album are really great songs and they don't even stylistically clash that much.

Deep Purple – Deep Purple in Rock (1970)

As many of my regular readers will already know, as a preteen I was very much into hard rock and heavy metal. When I grew up a bit, I got interested in the roots of the genre and I was happy to find out my father owned quite a few metal classics from the early 70's on vinyl. One of them was Deep Purple in Rock. It was heavier than probably any other album I had heard from that era and I really loved the album. For a brief while, Deep Purple became maybe one of my favourite bands. Deep Purple In Rock is an aggressive, wild and very masterful album that shows the amazing skills of the band members. The guitars and organs particularly are quite amazing and my favourite moments are those where these two instruments form kind of battles with each other. It was the band's breakthrough album in Europe. The earlier albums had mainly been popular in North America.

Stereophonics – Decade in the Sun: Best of Stereophonics (2008)

I definitely don't always remember where I've bought a certain CD or vinyl album I own, but there are some albums where I clearly remember when and where I bought them. Usually, those albums I've bought from abroad on one of my travels. Those albums bought as souveniers remind me of those trips years later. I bought this Stereophonics compilation CD in 2009 in Hong Kong. I was there on a trip with my friends from my university. We stumbled across a record shop and went in. The CDs in that shop were very different to the CDs I had normally seen in Finland. They were packed in thick cardboard cases that were all in all more presentable and bigger. This particular CD was in a beautiful wooden case that has cardboard covers with album pictures on it. The CDs were very cheap compared to Finland as well, but the cases alone proofed they were authentic Chinese versions of the albums rather than pirate copies.

Björk – Debut (1993)

Björk's music has played a big part in my life's soundtrack. I think her music first became familiar to me when my big sister started listening to her music. She was a big fan of Björk and had all of her 90's albums, which meant that I heard her music quite a lot at home. Around that time I didn't really understand the music myself. I was too involved with heavy metal and hard rock scene to enjoy anything with this many electronic elements. The next big Björk moment came to me in high school when I borrowed her compilation box from a local library and this time I really enjoyed it. Fairly soon afterwards, I was working in a café in central Helsinki, where we would play CDs, one of which was a Björk compilation. It became the soundtrack to many of my mornings that year. This CD I only bought a few years later when I didn't hear it on almost a daily basis elsewhere.

Metallica – Death Magnetic (2008)

Metallica was one of the first adult bands I ever got into. As a pre-teen, learning to play the guitar, Metallica's sharp guitar riffs and melodic solos appealed to me big time. When I entered my proper teenage years, my musical taste got a bit lighter and I left heavy metal music mostly aside for many years. Listening to metal as a young adult was considered very uncool as well. In the university, I was  in a relationship with someone who really liked metal music, which made me listen to more of it, not by choice. I have never liked really aggressive metal music and growl singing has always put me off. Metallica was pretty much as heavy as it got for me. My back then girlfriend realised this but wanted to encourage me to listen to heavier music. When Death Magnetic came out, I mentioned that it sounded quite good again and she bought it for me as a birthday or Christmas present.

TV On the Radio – Dear Science (2008)

TV On the Radio was one of the coolest bands towards the end of the 00's. I bought it mainly because all the indie circles were so excited by it and the album was fairly cheap and looked amazing on vinyl. However, at first, I didn't much care for the album. TV On the Radio is not just average indie rock, like the bands I listened to at that point. It has a far more rhythmic focus and there are influences from many different musical styles outside of rock. There are some influences from funk, jazz, disco and hip hop. I've only learned to appreciate the uniqueness of the sounds later on, perhaps as a result of getting to know some funk bands more recently. I'm glad I bought the album when it was new, because now this album would most likely be really expensive on vinyl. I am, however, a bit disappointed that I didn't see the band live around that time.

Loney, Dear – Dear John (2009)

Loney, Dear is a pseudonym for the Swedish singer-songwriter Emil Svanängen. He started his career by making endearing minimalistic folk records, but then moved on to using more and more electronic instruments in his albums along with a variety of other interesting instruments. Dear John was released after his probably most acclaimed album Loney, Noir that was released by Sub Pop. Dear John is already quite far away from the folk sounds of the first albums. There are huge orchestrated backing tracks in the songs, electronic drums and strange multi-instrumentalist experiments. On the other hand it gives the album quite a unique sound, on the other hand, I feel like the songwriting has suffered as a consequence of all this sound experimentation. It's not Loney, Dear's best piece of work, but it has some very strong moments.

Belle & Sebastian – Dear Catastrophe Waitress (2003)

I don't even really remember how I was first introduced to Belle & Sebastian. It must've been after the year 2000, but before 2003, since the first album I heard from them was Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant, but Dear Catastrophe Waitress had not been released yet. So, to me personally, Dear Catastrophe Waitress was the first new album from the band I already liked. Compared to earlier albums, Dear Catastrophe Waitress finally got rid of any lo-fi elements the band had before. The studio sound on this album is much sharper than on earlier albums and even Stuart Murdoch's vocals sounds more confident. In a way, that changed what Belle & Sebastian had been all about, but even if the sound is different, I still think this is one of the best albums Belle & Sebastian ever released. The songwriting is just superb!

The Posies – Dear 23 (1990)

The Posies is melodic indie power pop that has, no doubt, influenced many of the late-90's early 00's indie pop rock bands and artists. Their sound is influenced by 60's pop music and in that sense it seems that they were a bit of an oddball in at the turn of the 80's and 90's. Their songs are very catchy and straightforward. Their first album, Failure, was meant only as a demo recording, but it turned out so good that it ended up being released as it is. Dear 23 is the band's second album and the first album to be released on a major label. It's one of their most approachable albums and filled with potential radio hits. The sounds are a bit outdated today, but in terms of songwriting, it's a great piece of work. I only discovered this album quite recently even though I've listened to The Posies for years and years. I bought it here in London as a CD.

Keaton Henson – Dear... (2010)

Keaton Henson is a very special singer-songwriter. His songs are incredibly intimate and personal. There is a specific reason for this. Henson never meant to record music for larger audiences. he was an illustrator, who just started making music for his own enjoyment. But then a friend of his heard his music and encouraged him to get the music out there. He has become fairly popular in the London indie circles afterwards and especially critics love his music. But there's a slight problem. Henson suffers from intense anxiety, which makes performing live virtually impossible. That's why it is pretty much impossible to get to see him live. Quite recently he composed a classical piece about his anxiety and I went to see this performed by a string orchestra in Barbican. Henson came out to take a bow in the end, and even just doing that seemed to take a lot of effort.

The Mars Volta – De-Loused in the Comatorium (2003)

The Mars Volta is one of the bands I probably never would have bought myself if I hadn't been influenced by my one friend in particular who was a huge fan of them at the time of the release of this album. Don't get me wrong, I do like some of their songs quite a lot, but I only like a couple of their songs. The rest are a bit too hectic and noisy for my taste. Anyway, De-Loused in the Comatorium is probably the best album they have ever released and there are some fantastic parts in the album even if, as a whole, it's quite heavy to listen to. it's difficult to describe the style of The Mars Volta, but if I have to try, I'd say they are experimental heavy progressive rock. The vocals sound like many hair metal bands in the 80's and the rhythm changes and fast progressive rock tunes have been spiced up with some space rock sounds.

The White Stripes – De Stijl (2000)

I was a massive fan of The White Stripes from the first moments I heard about them. This was just after the release of their third album White Blood Cells. That album is still my favourite one. Of course, because I liked the band so much, I immediately investigated what other albums the band had already released. There was their self-titled debut album and this one, De Stijl. For some reason, I did like the debut, but I didn't like De Stijl. Maybe it was because De Stijl is not a very melodic album compared to the other ones and I really put a lot of weight on melodies in music. Nevertheless, for a long time, De Stijl was that one White Stripes album I didn't really care for that much. It's still not their best piece of work, but also, I don't really see why I disliked it so much in the first place. It's a great album of raw guitars and drums with excellent retro look on the American rock history.

The Moody Blues – Days of Future Passed (1967)

The Moody Blues is known for their symphonic grandiloquent rock songs that have been accompanied by English mystical poetry relating to ancient druids and medieval themes. From today's perspective, their music seems very adult oriented, but they were young people when they started making music. At the beginning of their career, The Moody Blues played quite simple rhythm and blues music and, quite understandably, they didn't draw too much attention that way. Then, in order to be able to release their second album, they wanted to do something more ambitious. They came up with a concept album about a normal day in a man's life where they mix classical music with their pop rock sounds. Days of Future Passed became their probably most well-known album and it's largely considered to be a masterpiece and one of the first progressive rock albums.

Sonic Youth – Daydream Nation (1988)

I often feel like I don't really belong in the classification of millennials. I didn't spend my childhood online, I was already adult when I started using any kind of social media etc. Then again, music-wise, I feel like I had to really work to understand the brilliance of Generation X music. Of course, I also haven't really embraced millennial music either. This probably really means that Xennial is an appropriate concept. So, why am I talking about these different generations? Because I feel like Daydream Nation is the ultimate Generation X album. It is so central to the whole musical movement of that generation. It's bleak, aggressive alternative rock that has raw electric guitars on overdrive, off-key vocals and anti-establishment lyrics. Daydream Nation offers all of these and much more! It's definitely one of the most important albums of the Generation X youth.

Beth Orton – Daybreaker (2002)

I've already written about two other Beth Orton albums before this one in this blog. Daybreaker is not her strongest album, but it still definitely has its moments. This album had high expectations as well, because it was released right after her breakthrough album Central Reservations. Daybreaker is quite playful and I would definitely not call it very commercial. That is just a good thing. The songs have interesting sounds and in the best moments, the album manages to be quite a magical experience. There are a couple of well-known musicians on this album that I really appreciate; Johnny Marr and Ryan Adams. Johnny Marr was obviously already a legend at this time because of his career in The Smiths, but The Smiths weren't that popular at the time, so I don't know how many people actually knew him back then. Ryan Adams, on the other hand, was pretty much the biggest name in alt-country around that time.

Various Artists – Day of the Dead (2016)

Just a couple of posts earlier I wrote about the compilation album Dark Was the Night and I mentioned this album in that post as well. Day of the Dead is a compilation album by Red Hot Organization, a charity for HIV and Aids. This album is a massive 5 CD album containing 59 covers of Grateful Dead songs. I'm not a massive fan of Grateful Dead. I kind of like some of their songs, but the sounds, for example, have never moved me much. However, this album includes a staggering amount of my all time favourite artists and bands, so that was much more of a reason to buy the album. Also, by buying it, I also donated money to charity. The album, like Dark Was the Night, was produced by Aaron and Bryce Dessner of The National. The album has been a great way to get to know the real Grateful Dead behind the songs and to hear some amazing songs performed by some of my favourite artists.

Killers – Day & Age (2008)

Day & Age, the third album by Killers, is a prime example of a situation where a band that got success early on starts to embrace their mainstream success by adopting all the mainstream cliches. On this album, Killers sound overly bloated and nice guitar rock sounds have been replaced with soulless synth pop sounds. The result is a plastic sounding album that sounds like it was specifically produced to make lots of money. Killers obviously was never a very alternative band. Even their first album was very predictable and commercial, but at least it sounded authentic and you could hear the ambition of a young band. You could already see the signs on the second album, but the songs on that album were still more or less similar to the first album. The third album, for many bands, is the one where they define the future of the band and sadly, for Killers, that future didn't look too bright.

Bruce Springsteen – Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978)

When I was growing up, Bruce Springsteen was one of the most popular artists in the world, but I had always merely associated him with his hit song Born in the USA, which in my opinion isn't that great a song. It's just repeating one line over and over again. It took me a few people around me who were really excited about Springsteen for me to make the effort to listen to his other material. Born to Run was the obvious choice and it did really blow my mind. I had never realised just how amazing Springsteen's band was, because I had been introduced to his music first by his 80's songs and 80's songs often have really boring rhythm section and it's often more about the studio sounds than actual masterful musicianship. I still think Springsteen's best work was recorded in the 70's. Darkness on the Edge of Town is among the best albums he ever released.

The Jesus and Mary Chain – Darklands (1987)

I've mentioned many times before that for a long time I had a bit of a problem with 80's music. I was never just happy with the sounds. It took me familiarising myself with The Smiths to start appreciating 80's music. That opened up a whole new world for me with numerous bands that I had many heard about but had never really considered as something that could be interesting. Particularly in post-punk and alternative rock. The Scottish band The Jesus and Mary Chain was a band that I had known by name only for a long time. I started from their debut album Psycho Candy, which proofed to be quite difficult to get into, because it's so noisy and melodies are not very upfront. It wasn't until I finally listened to Darklands that I really was hooked. The sounds are quite alternative and experimental, but there are great catchy pop melodies throughout the album.

Various Artists – Dark Was the Night (2009)

I don't normally even consider buying compilation albums. I'm a big fan of the album as a concept. Compilations are usually collections of songs rather than meaningful wholes. This really can't be said about this album. Dark Was the Night is the twentieth compilation album by Red Hot Organization. They are an international charity that raises funds and awareness for HIV and Aids. This album is produced by Aaron and Bryce Dessner of The National. They aimed to describe the musical renaissance of the 00's on this album by collecting all the greatest indie artists on the same album. All of these songs or versions of songs can only be heard on this album. That's what makes this album so great. I was able to get 31 new songs from some of my favourite artists by buying one double CD and at the same time I gave money to charity.

Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon (1973)

This is one of the most well-known, commercially successful and most highly rated albums of all times. At the same time, it actually is one of the greatest albums ever made. Dark Side of the Moon deserves all the praise it has ever received. At the time of its release in 1973 it must've been groundbreaking. I remember seeing a document about the album and something that was said there has stayed in my mind for a long time. There was a fan of the band in the documentary who described the feeling of buying this album from a record shop and going home and putting it on for the first time. When the futuristic sounds started rolling in, it must have been a magical experience. It's very rare to experience anything like that today, since pretty much everything in music has already been done. But Dark Side of the Moon remains an album that has that magical quality that offers a listening experience that can't be matched by many other albums.