5 albums that changed my life

Before discovering The Velvet Underground in Rock & Folk magazine, I was a huge Eminem and Sum 41 fan – it was high school. That music was new to me, the only ‘rock’ music I knew was Blink 182 or Bruce Springsteen as my mother was not a music addict. I loved how no one from my school was aware of my love for that kind of music, and that I was listening to songs about drugs – and enjoying it. It then led to me reading thousands interviews of Lou Reed, including one where he was talking about a new NYC band, The Strokes. I bought Is This It and two or three months later their second album, Room on Fire, was out. It was crazy. A group of parisian kids began copying their look, making bands and throwing guerilla gigs in metros. So I went to my first rock gig (the only gigs I went to before were Spice Girls, in 98, and Eminem in 2001). I was 14 years old and it was the best night of my life. Opening acts for The Strokes were Ben Kweller and Kings of Leon. I wanted more, so I began watching MTV at night, found some new bands : The Libertines, The Vines, The White Stripes, and.. Interpol. I wouldn’t know how to describe my love for Interpol, neither would I know how to choose my favourite aspect of their music. As much as I enjoy Turn On The Bright Lights more than the other two, I’ll also pick Antics as one of my life-saver albums because of the lyrics. They are the most passionate and intriguing lyrics I’ve ever read – the last time I read such powerful texts in music and sexual lyrics turned into poetic words, it was by Ian Curtis.
‘I am a scavanger between the sheets of union
Lately I can’t tell for sure whether machines turn anyone
The anatomy of kisses and the future of lies
Who knows how we’ll disappear
Would you like to be my missus and in future with child?
You know you can’t get back from here‘ (Take you on a cruise)

‘If time is my vessel, then learning to love might be my way back to sea
The flying, the metal, the turning above – these are just ways to be seen’ (Public Pervert)

When I began to hang out with people my age or younger who had an impressive music knowledge, I thought it was time to try something else. I didn’t understand what was so appealing in this Bob Dylan guy music, that was until I got Blonde on Blonde. I listenned to it over and over and over until I knew the music by heart and didn’t have to play the CD to hear it. It was the first time I could just lie down and listen to music, and nothing else.

5 albums that changed my life, chronological order:
1. The Velvet Underground & Lou Reed
2. The Strokes, Room on Fire
3. Interpol, Turn On The Bright Lights
4. Bob Dylan, Blonde on Blonde
5. Interpol, Antics

What are yours?