This QOTW seems to be veering offtopic...
So, two albums that meant a lot to me once upon a time-

DJ Shadow's Endtroducing. I have bought this four times over the years- original CD, reissued CD, vinyl, then vinyl again because the first one was poor quality and got scratched.

I left school at seventeen and had just exited the usual heavy metal phase common with unhappy teenagers. Growing up musically was rapid, starting with Tricky, Portishead and Underworld then digginga bit deeper. Endtroducing came in to my life in the summer of 97. For the next three years or so it was a fixture. Arriving at uni and moving in to halls, the guy across the corridor from me was listening to Building Steam With a Grain of Salt and we became fast friends. Through the rampant stonery, through to the wonderful period when Mitsubishis were rife, we'd bang on Endtroducing, air scratch to Best Foot Forward, skin up to Building Steam..., savour the drop on The Number Song, giggle at 6 and end up somewhere later on in the night, zoning out to What Does Your Soul Look Like?

Good times. I recently got back in touch with a mate from Uni and he still fondlly recalls our collective obsession with DJ Shadow. Listening back now, with nearly 15 years gone since it was released, it's difficult to get across to people how important to hip hop that album was. Not to mention having to excuse the poor mastering.

Everybody with a decent set of lugs needs Endtroducing in their life. Walking through town with headphones on, there are few joys to match hearing 'One two three four five breakdown baby!' and then that Metallica-sampled drop.

Album number two, Spiritualized's Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space. For pretty much the same reasons. I still remember hearing the opening track for the first time- I'd been in to town and bought it in the pill packet. Got to my mate's gaff, popped it out of the foil and pressed play. That smacked up voice intoning the album's title, then the builds- I marvelled at the simplicity then the great whooshing chords came in and I went all woozy.

I saw them performing the album in its entirety at the RFH in October last year. The same, but not the same, the same band, but not the same band. It was a great gig, but nothing beats the context or the memories of hearing that album for the first time.

To go thoroughly on topic for a moment, I used to love walking into the office with my cans on, listening to Ill Communication. Get it Together really sets one up for the rest of the day.
(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Thu 28 Jan 2010, 19:27, 5 replies)

All those albums are seminal in my life too
I can relate to a lot of what you wrote. Gone off DJ Shadow these days though. Not sure why. He seems a bit boring or something.
(Fancy a weekend on my Raymondo Luxury Yacht?, Thu 28 Jan 2010, 20:20, closed)

Shadow's recent stuff is shit
Endtroducing, Psyence Fiction, his early releases on Mo Wax like In/Flux, the Krush collaboration (Hardcore Hip Hop is a classic), Quannum, Handsome Boy Modeling School, all that stuff was fantastic. The Private Press was nearly as good, but The Outsider is painfully gash.

Ditto Spiritualized. Let It Come Down was alright, but Amazing Grace and the recent ones have been dull, dull, dull. Never the same after after Spaceman sacked the band and brought in session musos.
(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Thu 28 Jan 2010, 20:27, closed)

Songs in A&E has its charm
I still listen more to the older stuff though.
(Fancy a weekend on my Raymondo Luxury Yacht?, Thu 28 Jan 2010, 20:57, closed)

Pretty much my opinion too
I got into DJ Shadow at Uni a few years ago, first the Private Press and then finding everything he did before, the UNKLE stuff, etc. I was horribly disappointed by the Outsider :/

Edit: Thinking about it, I might have actually while being a little silly mentioned Entroducing and Radiohead's Kid A in my dissertation acknowledgements...
(William Posters is innocent, Thu 28 Jan 2010, 21:29, closed)

Yeah Shadow has definitely gone to shite
but endtroducing is still one of my favourite albums ever. Had never heard anything like it before and so many of the tracks just took me to another place completely. I still give it a little rinse out every now and then because its just amazing.
Midnight in a perfect world when I was by myself always gave me a weird feeling, but in a good way.
(elless, Sun 31 Jan 2010, 18:49, closed)