I have 400 vinyls and CDs – here are the 10 albums everyone should listen to | Music | Entertainment

Music is the language that connects people all over the world; it provides a soundtrack for celebrations, sad times and quite often the commute to work. Although streaming sites and social media are often where people go to listen to music now, it’s CDs and vinyls that I still opt for most of the time.

Specific albums can take you back to a certain time in your life, and having a physical copy that represents that will always be more special than a playlist put together on Spotify. I have made a list of ten albums I think you need to listen to, if you haven’t already.

An underrated choice, Keane’s Under the Iron Sea is full of dark metaphorical tracks. It is powerful in its lyrics and is full to the brim of 2000s indie classics. Under the Iron Sea was the second studio album for the band, and it instantly hit number one upon its release.

Loyle Carner is a poetic songwriter who has almost created a new genre of music. Carner’s second studio album is bursting with emotion and has themes of family, personal struggles and searching for identity. It is a complex message from the UK rapper, who uses soulful instrumentation behind his emotive and beautiful lyrics.

Power, Corruption & Lies, Rumours has been described as the defining album of New Order. After the pressures and expectations had relaxed slightly, the band were able to push their songwriting and music-making to higher places. It’s an album that many future bands would look to for inspiration.

Fontaines DC have been enjoying what some may describe as a golden age for a band. Their most recent album, titled Romance, is a masterpiece in itself, but the album before was 2022’s Skinty Fia. The album gives off themes of romance and also politics. They describe the album as a long-distance love letter to Ireland.

A no-brainer. This album was an instant favourite of mine. Back to Black mainly focuses on Amy Winehouse‘s break-up with boyfriend Blake Fielder-Civil. It has themes of heartbreak, grief and guilt all built around the pair’s toxic relationship. It was a far cry from her first studio album, titled Frank, and it almost came out of nowhere, putting Winehouse firmly at the forefront for many music lovers and also the wider media.

I do not doubt that this album would feature in many people’s top ten. Rumours is a heart-wrenching album that has emotional highs and lows in abundance. During the protracted sessions for the album, Fleetwood Mac’s two couples – guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and vocalist Stevie Nicks; bassist John McVie and singer-keyboard player Christine McVie, who were married – broke up. Because of this, the album is fuelled with internal turmoil that would be made public art.

King’s of Leon’s fourth studio album takes me back to my later childhood. It is the album that put the band on the map for me, largely due to my parents playing it on repeat in the car wherever we would go for quite a few consecutive months. So much so that it has stuck with me until then; the album is a perfect soundtrack for a car journey, and its dark, romantic undertones were the perfect precursor for their fifth album, Come Around Sundown.

Charli XCX’s most recent album brat has taken her popularity to extremes, and she is finally getting her flowers after many years of writing her own songs and songs for other artists. But this album, how i’m feeling now, holds a special place in my heart. Charli took to social media during lockdown in 2020 and announced she would create an album by herself, from her house in L.A., in six weeks. The impressive body of work is industrial yet emotional and could also work as a party playlist.

Kate Bush’s album Hounds of Love is a dreamy, theatrical masterpiece that takes your mind to a happy frequency. Including tracks like Cloudbusting and Running Up That Hill, Hounds of Love is innovative, emotional and powerful in its lyrics. Her distinct voice and unique vocal inflexions are what set Bush apart. There is no other artist out there that you could compare her to, and she has an incredible talent to make you feel every word of the album.

Talking Heads’ 1984 album gets the award for having the most consistently amazing songs in one album. There are countless classics on there, including Psycho Killer, Burning Down the House and Once in a Lifetime, to name a few. It is a live album that also serves as the soundtrack to the concert film of the same name. The album had a huge impact on pop culture and is linked to slow cinema. It is poignant in the legacy it leaves behind for the band.