Current music:

Office noises, oddly enough

D is for Desert Island Discs
A friend's answer to the Writer's Block for the 10th (personal all-time Top 10 album list) got me thinking about this again. I have trouble picking just ten "best" albums, but the similar question of which 10 albums I would take into exile with me (with the understanding that's what music will be available in this brave new world) seems easier. So, in no particular order:

• Rubber Soul - The Beatles. Although the traditional "best" Beatles albums are certainly in my enjoyment list, this is the one I could listen to over and over again; the one with the most enjoyable singalong songs for me.
• Zoso/Led Zeppelin IV - Led Zeppelin. Mostly for "Black Dog" and "When the Levee Breaks" rather than Stairway
• Chapitre 7 - MC Solaar. I've loved Solaar's work since a poetry prof introduced me to Prose Combat, but this album takes everything that was amazing about that album and adds in some wonderful stylistic experimentation and musical fun.
• Maxinquaye - Tricky. Dark, moving, with a wicked sense of humour in some of the samples.
• Blood on the Tracks - Bob Dylan. Much as his delivery can grate, this entire album has sunk into my brain.
• The Hard and The Easy - Great Big Sea. Although I enjoy some songs from other albums more, this is the tightest, best sustained album.
• Dove C'é Musica - Eros Ramazzotti. One of the most perfect pop albums ever released, and containing the single best cheesy love song ever written ("Piú Bella Cosa")
• Thirteen - Vixy and Tony. Thirteen tracks of sheer brilliance.
• Gringo Honeymoon - Robert Earl Keen. One of the few pieces of art that make me, ocean lover/needer that I am, want to visit the Southwest desert.
• Born on a Pirate Ship - Barenaked Ladies. As with GBS, there're a couple of songs I'd miss by skipping other albums, but this is the strongest of their work for me.

When I set to write this, I realised I'd subconsciously excluded any compilation/live/concert albums. I've never followed such things to know the permissibility in general thought, but if such were allowed, I'd sub in Road Rage for The Hard and the Easy and Talking Heads' brilliant Stop Making Sense for BNL (although I'd cry about losing the Ladies).

And, for people who actually listen to the show, here's what I'd choose if I were following the rules for the Desert Island Discs programme:

• Eleanor Rigby - The Beatles.
• Strange Messenger - Vixy and Tony
• Da Vinci Claude - MC Solaar
• Piú Bella Cosa - Eros Ramazzotti
• Black Dog - Led Zeppelin
• Shelter From The Storm - Bob Dylan
• Hallelujah - (either kd lang or Jeff Buckley's version, depending on the day)
• Brand New You're Retro - Tricky

So, what would you bring?