Desert Island Discs

An interesting conversation from the pub was about our favourite albums and which I would take should I only have 5 CDs and a player on my desert island. No iPods allowed I'm afraid. No compilations or multidisc sets either! This list is going to make me sound like a 90s NME fanboy, which is exactly what I was when it mattered to me what music I should listen to. So in no particular order.

1) The Queen is Dead - The Smiths: Not heard it being played during the jubilee but it's my favourite album by my favourite band. It's controversial, eloquent with excellent guitar accompaniment. It contains repressed rage and sneering arrogance to make me laugh and think every time I listen to it. Any song that can rhyme spanner with piano and not sung by Chaz and Dave is all right by me. Unfortunately it is only 36 minutes long and recycles by the time my 45 minute drive home has finished.

2) Definitely Maybe - Oasis: 2nd best début album ever, after the next one. So what if it sounds like a Beatles cover band? The Beatles were excellent. The production on this album is so good, it always sounds louder than any other song if you play "Live Forever" on a juke box. If you can get away with blatant cocaine references being played on radio 1, I like. Pity they are both Citeh fans.

3) The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses: Best début album ever. Mesmerising. I love Ian Brown's singing in it. It's really melodic when it has no right to be. I am the Resurrection is probably the best finish to an album I know of.

4) Magical Mystery Tour - The Beatles: There had to be one Beatles album on here. It might not be the one everybody else would pick. It manages not to be everyone's favourite despite having Strawberry Fields Forever on it. The drug addled psychedelia on I am the Walrus and ominous sounding Fool on the Hill give the album a really good mix.

5) Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine: One of this list is not like the others. 4 fairly standard indie classics to start with, this one is a bit left field. I first listened to this album when I was 15 in drama class, and it was immense. It was loud and angry and I could learn the bass lines and sound awesome. It was helped by Wake up being the tubthumping ending to "The Matrix" which is one of my favourite films. It lead me to buying the rest of their albums which are equally as good, especially if you fancy yourself an activist.

Some notable absences: Blood Sugar Sex Magic - Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Metallica - Ride the Lightening, Radiohead - The Bends. You get the idea!

Feel free to list your own, and tell me why my selections suck.