Keith's Albums

The following is a list of all the albums (and some singles) that I own, with some commentary on each. Just to give you an idea of the sort of stuff I listen to. Be warned that this is not entirely representative; I don't buy half as many albums as I would like to, and some of those I do have of course date from a long time ago.

To help you understand my musical tastes accurately, you must also know that most of the time I listen not to this stuff, but to bFM, Auckland's student radio station, and occasionally to Concert FM.

As usual, this page is under construction, so mind your head.

Anyway, on with the show!

The Alan Parsons Project : I Robot

An album I don't listen to much anymore, that I was introduced to by a friend in fifth form. The title and title track are based on Isaac Asimov's collection of short stories about robots.

The Alan Parsons Project : Various

See above... I don't listen to this much any more either, but it is quite interesting. It's a collection of various tracks, put together by my friend.

The Beatles : Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Obviously, the famous one. Bought this in the States when I was in Philadelphia. A significant album.

Coro des monjes del Monasterio Benedictino de Santo Domingo de Silos : Canto Gregoriano

Nice music when you're in the mood.

Soundtrack : Music from the original motion picture The Crow

I won this from Craccum, the Auckland University student magazine, early in 1996. I don't even remember entering the contest! Not complaining though... it's got some great tracks!

Def Leppard : Hysteria

The second album I ever bought, I think. It was cool back in 1988 or whenever I bought it; I still listen to it occasionally. Glam metal is pretty silly really, but you can't get away from an album with such crazy song titles as 'Love Bites' or 'Pour Some Sugar On Me'. 'Rocket Man' is pretty bad though.

Elastica : Elastica

Another prize, this time from bFM, the University of Auckland student radio station. OK for a first album, but rather too harsh to listen to. Needs better mixing.

Shogo Hamada : The Moment of the Moment

Got this in Japan while I was there (January 1995), as a sample of what's 'in' in Japan. It's pure pop music, but it's cool to hear it in another language---good conversation piece. Also interesting that the choruses often are in English or incorporate the occasional English word---English is very trendy over there (well, American I guess to be precise).

David Holmes : Taking Ground

Won this one at Parachute Music Festival in 1993 I think. It's an annual Christian music festival, which in 1993 was in Waikanae near Wellington, near the southern end of the North Island. They had a fancy dress contest one afternoon, and my tentmates managed to convince me (young and innocent as I then was) to dress up in a tent. Yes, a tent. It was fun, and I recall I came second or third or something! They had a band from America there, I think it was Kenny Marks' band, and the bassist had been coopted to hand out prizes. I remember being most impressed that they just hung out with everyone else, rather than doing the rock star thing. Anyway, I was even more impressed when he gave me my prize... he had no problem supporting this great Aussie guitarist, rather than giving out his own cassettes.

Anyway, the album. It's basically guitar instrumental, and technically pretty good but not stunning. Worth an occasional listen.

Hoi Polloi : Hoi Polloi

Hoi Polloi are/were a pretty good, forceful Christian band with a very impressive female lead singer/guitarist. I remember going to lots of their concerts when I was at secondary school, and then they went overseas and I haven't heard much of them since.

Icehouse : Man of Colours

Pop, poetry, great music. Not usually what I want to listen to at the time, though, but great when I do.

Icehouse : Great Southern Land

Some very memorable tracks on this one.

INXS : X

Umm. Haven't listened to it for ages, but there's some awesome dance tracks on here.

INXS : Heaven Sent

A single... dunno why I've got it.

Iona : Beyond These Shores

I was introduced to these guys as 'Christian New Age music'. While this appears to be a contradiction in terms, it certainly describes some of their music---other bits are just Celtic pop. But the album is amazing... it is a theme album based on the recurring legend of a guy named Brendan who apparently sailed from Iona (a small island off Scotland) to the New World and had some awesome spiritual experiences along the way. A very inspiring album, and one I like a lot, although it is not at all heavy or alternative!

JPS Experience : Masked and Taped

A collection of old z-sides and demos of the band formerly known as the Jean-Paul Sartre Experience until they found out what Jean-Paul Sarte stood for!

JPS Experience : Bleeding Star

A fantastic wall-of-noise album, well worth a listen but you need good quality speakers to make sense of it. Awesome, awesome, awesome: highly recommended. Unfortunately they've broken up.

Peter Kaye : How to play the Didjeridu of the Australian Aboriginal: A Newcomers Guide

Never listened to this one. Must do some time... it was part of a birthday present a while ago.

King's X : Gretchen Goes To Nebraska

Another interesting album...Christian again, and moving towards the heavy end of the spectrum. Haven't listened to it in a while, so don't remember much about it.

Derek Lind : Slippery Ground

I have been and still am to a degree a great Derek Lind fan. He's a singer/songwriter, acoustic guitarist sort of guy with a message. He's won a number of awards, and is always at the Christian music festivals I go to, with a loyal following. He sings honestly about real stuff, and the music is powerful as well as the words. Not your average folk music! Great sense of humour too!

Derek Lind : Stations

Stations is Derek's latest album (as of the time of writing!). New songs, same Derek (although he is getting a bit older). Still awesome stuff. "Sacred conversation/it's just you and me/sacred conversation/see the writing/read the signs/this is my only son/listen to Him".

MC Solaar : Prose Combat

A French rap album I bought for my sister and borrowed. Great, one of the track titles is some cryptic French acronym that I can't make sense of.

David Meece : Learning To Trust

This guy is amazing. He trained as a concert pianist, and then decided that God wanted him to get into the music scene and share him with people. His music and keyboard playing is obviously incredibly good---when he toured New Zealand, he didn't bring a band or a backing tape, just played a concert grand and sang: and he held the audience, who had got to know him listening to his recordings with full band etc!

He plays pop, basically, but the songs are great and the message is great. And interspersing Chopin into the songs is just incredible!

The Mutton Birds : The Mutton Birds

The debut album of a great NZ band. They've put out another album since, with some great tracks, but this is the only one I have. Most memorable tracks: 'Dominion Road' ("...is bending/under its own weight/shining like a strip/cut from a sheet metal plate/'cos it's just been raining"); 'No Plans For Later' ("I came home/to find my sink was leaking/I had no plans for later/It struck me/that the evening might pass/with no one but me knowing/about the dripping sound/and the black stain growing on the floor/ It struck me again/harder this time/I turned off the kitchen light/I ran.../ I ran a bath later/I wished I hadn't/...").

Nirvana : Unplugged in New York

A very good album---why did he have to go and kill himself? Such a waste... I usually skip track 3 though. Excellent album.

Passengers : Original Soundtracks 1

Passengers is of course the members of U2 plus Brian Eno. Weird, predominantly ambient album of soundtrack tracks they've done for various art films. I like it, but it's kind of weird for people who haven't heard it before. But what I really wanted out of U2 was an album that followed on from the Zoo TV experiment and said what their conclusions were. Achtung Baby and Zooropa were a huge turnaround from their earlier work, and in interviews Bono said that they were an experiment, an attempt to show up the music industry and culture for what it is, from the inside. I remember thinking at the time that this was a dangerous experiment---they were treading a fine line not to get sucked into the industry in the process---and wondering what the result was going to be. They have not yet terminated the experiment and stated the results. But then, this album is a totally different direction again. I'm confused, and I'm waiting for the next real U2 album.

Petra : Beat The System

The earliest Petra album I have, unfortunately the tape I bought of it was of very poor quality and most of the coating has worn off. But it's a great album. I've seen an impressive dance done to 'It Is Finished', and some good points are made in 'Witch Hunt' and even the unbearably nerdily-titled track 'Computer Brains' (Garbage In, Garbage Out). Nice inter-track transitions, too.

Petra : Back To The Street

A bit bland. But I had to have it anyway to fill out my collection! 'Shakin the House' is good.

Petra : This Means War!

Some good tracks on here... nice drum solo to start.

Petra : On Fire!

The first album I ever bought, at a BYM camp called 'Impact '88'. Great hard rock stuff, really good and pretty theologically sound. I think this and 'Beat The System' are the best Petra albums.

Petra : Praise...The Rock Cries Out

An awesome rock praise album... most Christians seem to know all the songs on here too, so it makes a great sing-along or worship album for the car.

Petra : Beyond Belief

Newer Petra, beginning to lose it a little. Heading for the pop end of the spectrum slowly, but still a decent number of good tracks. 'Creed' is especially great to proclaim at the top of one's voice!

Petra : Unseen Power

Sounds too much like Bobby Brown in places... the last Petra album I bothered to buy. Oh well.

Pink Floyd : Ummagumma (live album, studio album)

Classic Barrett-era Floyd. The live album has four tracks, all famous and all gems: 'Astronomy Domine', 'Careful with that Axe, Eugene' (with Waters' inimitable scream!), 'Set the controls for the heart of the sun' (insistent set-the-controls-for/the-heart-of-the-sun beat), and 'A Saucerful of Secrets'. The studio album boasts some great stuff, including the longest track title I am aware of (this makes a great one for Charades, I've done it a few times): 'Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict'. It's a cool instrumental done long before samplers and stuff, and so it's all done with tape loops and analog effects---most impressive and very cool. The album is highly recommended, and you *don't* need chemical assistance to appreciate it---I'm living proof!

Pink Floyd : Relics

A collection of a number of cool Barrett-era tracks, both instrumentals and songs. I like Barrett's 'Bike' for craziness, and the weird spaced-out songs towards the end of side 1 for coolness.

Pink Floyd : Wish You Were Here

Waters-era: the homage to Syd Barrett, the crazy diamond of 'Shine On'. Barrett actually showed up to the studios one day while they were recording, "...elastic bands holding [his] shoes on...", but he was so far gone that none of his band even recognised him. So this is quite a sad album, but also an incredibly beautiful one. The four-note theme of 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond' is amazingly persistent and haunting.

Pink Floyd : The Dark Side Of The Moon

Waters-era, and the best-selling album of all time I believe. A theme album, and a fascinating one to analyse. Shows Floyd's poetic skills at their finest, and of course they have the tunes to back it up. Incredible. (yes, I have a reprint of the original, not the 20th anniversary re-release. I also have a T-shirt of the original album, not the ugly re-release T-shirt). My Windows (ugh---but necessary) mouse pointer is the DSoTM prism.

Pink Floyd : Animals

Don't listen to this much, for some reason. Waters again.

Pink Floyd : The Wall

A powerful, powerful expression of Waters' psyche. Inside the mind of someone forced into being a 'rock star'. You need to see the movie too, but it is an incredibly disturbing experience---very very dark. This sort of stuff is important, but I don't and shouldn't listen to it all the time---it would not be healthy.

But Waters does it so well. I love the way he snarls "So ya/Thought ya/Might like to/Go to the show...", or sings gently the harsh words of 'The Thin Ice'.

Pink Floyd : A Momentary Lapse of Reason

On to Gilmour-era Floyd. Some awesome songs on here, and Gilmour is stunning technically, but I can't help feeling there's nothing much real here. Barrett was mad, and Waters was screwed up, but Gilmour's just another ordinary guy with no major psychological problems. But then, 'Learning to Fly' is a stunning anthem, and 'Sorrow' is a pretty powerful evocation of the apocalyptic nuclear-war thing.

Pink Floyd : The Division Bell

More recent Gilmour-era stuff. I think the fact that I can instantly recall the cover art (stunningly clever) but not any of the tracks says something. It's good, but nothing really stands out.

Queen : The Works

Starts with the awesome 'Radio Gaga', and has plenty of other great tracks.

Queen : Hot Space

Queen's worst album ever. But it does have their collaboration with Bowie, 'Under Pressure', which was so rudely and detestably sampled by (I think) Vanilla Ice.

Queen : Greatest Hits

(the British release, not the American one I think) Awesome, of course. 'We Will Rock You', 'Another One Bites the Dust' (I tried playing it backwards once, and you could just make it out if you knew what it was supposed to say), 'Bohemian Rhapsody' (I love Wayne's World!), even 'Flash' or 'Bicycle' are cool.

Queen : A Kind of Magic

Another great album, and of course I'm a Highlander fan too (but I have not seen and don't intend to see Highlander 2 or 3 or the TV series!! "There can be only one!" ---they broke the rule!). 'Friends will be Friends' is great.

Queen : The Miracle

A bit blah, although it has some good tracks.

Queen : Innuendo

A really really good album. Obviously they knew about Freddie at this stage, so it had to be. Love the penguin in the video!

Queen : Made In Heaven

An awesome album, pure Queen despite it being vocal tracks Freddie laid down just before he died, with the rest of Queen's laid down over the top afterwards. It just proves how good a singer Freddie was. Interesting track structure... track 12 is 3 seconds, and then track 13 is unlisted and something like 20 minutes long! Great value for money.

Jules Riding : Revelation

Basically the NIV text of some chunks from Revelation (the last book of the Bible), set to fairly relaxed music. A great way to get some Biblical stuff into your head, relaxing, inspirational...but not particularly hard music.

Roofless : The Puddle

Roofless is the band of a guy by the name of Edwin Derricutt (sp?). He's got pretty clever lyrics, but the sound of this album is a little undermixed.

Roofless : The Wazzo Kipper

This album is much better. In fact, it has a number of *great* tracks, quite clever and funny. You'll have to listen to track 1 to find out what the name means. BTW, the cover art is all done by Edwin on the Uni of Auckland Architechture dept. computers, and it is most impressive. A very professional self-produced CD.

Joe Satriani : Surfing With The Alien

This album is pure guitar---no vocals necessary. Satriani's guitar is stunning, technically and artistically. Highly recommended. There's some great driving music on here for those long trips. 'Surfing with the Alien' is of course one memorable track; 'Hill of the Skull', 'Midnight' and 'Circles' are other memorable ones. Atmospheric.

Slayer : Divine Intervention

Won this on bFM, pretty much by accident, in early 1995. An interesting album to read the lyrics of, but not one that I'm ever likely to listen to. I find it fascinating how honest and open the songs are---it's not the heavy metal stereotype I encounter, although it *is* how heavy metal really is.

Stryper : Against The Law

Bought once a long time ago; hardly listened to. Supposed to be their 'image change' album (no more buzzy bee suits), but I haven't heard of them since!

Supergroove : You Gotta Know

Great album; haven't got around to buying any of their newer stuff but it has all certainly managed to have a huge impact on at least the NZ music scene. My claim to fame is that I went to the same school as Tim, Nick and I think some of the others---Selwyn College, Kohimarama, Auckland, New Zealand. Didn't really know them though---just saw them around the music department. My sister knows a number of members of Jungle Fungus, the sound-alike band consisting of the little brothers of Supergroove.

The Smashing Pumpkins : Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

An impressive 2-CD album. Rather depressing---the second disk, 'Twilight to Starlight', is even more depressing than the first ('Dawn to Dusk'(??)). But when I feel like listening to them, they're great. "Despite all my rage/I am still just a rat in a cage" is the most memorable line, preferably to rather a lot of head-banging.

Triumph Herald : Triumph Herald

A tape recorded by a group of friends of mine a few years back, at my church. They were pretty good, and some of the songs have quite a lot to say. But the album is most important because of one member, Jeremy Sickling, and the song of his that appears on the album, 'Alexandra'. He committed suicide on September 18, 1995, and is sadly missed.

U2 : War

U2 : The Unforgettable Fire

U2 : The Joshua Tree

U2 : Rattle and Hum

U2 : Achtung Baby

U2 : Zooropa

Vengeance : Anthology

Violent Femmes : Why Do Birds Sing?

Roger Waters : Radio K.A.O.S.

Roger Waters : Amused to Death

John Williams : Spanish Guitar Music

ZZ Top : Recycler

Various : Ancient History

Various : More Recent History

--KW 8-)

Last updated 21 May, 1996.