This week’s 5 Albums that Influenced Me contribution comes from Will and Gary from Eager Teeth (their new album is out today!)

Will:

Phoenix – Alphabetical: First time I heard this I listened to it over and over for about a month… Slickest pop production with probably the tightest of musicians and just generally great songs.

Saves The Day – Can’t Slow Down: This record changed me for the better. Incredible.

Lifetime - Jerseys Best Dancers: Dan Yemin.

Jeff Buckley – Grace: Not much music really touches me, this gets me every time. “Last goodbye” is like watching “the notebook”and the first ten minutes of “up” in one.

Wu-tang Clan - 36 Chambers: I always related to this record growing up in the mean streets of Heathfield. Oh wait, I’m a middle class white boy. Anyway, it’s a great record. I have a c.r.e.a.m tattoo, true story.

Gary:

Misfits – Static Age: Pretty much all you need to know about punk. The Punk Bible.

Descendents – Everything Sucks: Okay, so this could be the punk bible too.  But Static Age would be the Old Testament, and this would be the New Testament.

Phoenix – United: My favorite album of all time. A perfect pop record, simple and catchy yet rich in complexities and a severely understated tightness of rhythm that literally binds it together to something magnificent.  I loathe using the term ‘groove’, but if there ever was a science of it Phoenix would be the masters. Too Young has appeared on every mix tape and cd I’ve made since 2001 (much to the annoyance of anyone who’s ever been in the car with me).

The Smiths – The Queen Is Dead: I’ve always been a big Smiths and Morrissey fan.  This is what I would consider their crowning moment, gliding from eponymous crashing opener (The Queen Is Dead) to tender ballad (I Know It’s Over) to the pop masterpiece that is The Boy With The Thorn In His Side (my first ever tattoo, yaaaay).

The Pixies – Doolittle: In terms of rock albums, this one taught me that it’s okay to go against the grain completely and create something that is wildly varied but maintains a rawness about it that holds every track together cohesively.  This album has its avant-garde moments and its heavy moments, but is also unashamedly poppy in places.  Frank Black has always been a dab hand at drastic changes in volume, quiet… quiet… quiet…. LOUD! Quiet… etc.. See ‘Tame’ for a perfect example. And ‘Hey’ is one of my favorite songs about a knocking shop ever.  Hell, it IS my favourite.  It has sex noises in it.