Greatest Singles - 2. The Aloof - Stuck On The Shelf

Today's addition to my list of favourite singles is this massive number 193 hit from 1995. Seriously this was from the massively under-rated chilled out electro album Sinking. I discovered this a few years after the fact when i was getting a little bored of the whole britpop thing and disovering more electronic music (not that i hadn't dabbled with the obvious Leftfield, The Chemical Brothers, Underworld and Prodigy in the mid 90s) and more chilled music to reflect a more subdued and less socially active time in my life.

Their song One Night Stand was on a mix tape a pen pal that i'd met through the first incarnation of social media (the nme bulletin board) and from that i bought the album where this song really stood out. It has a great mellow beat and it built nicely over its 9.50 running time.....it seemed to echo with my feeling of social isolation at the time.

Greatest Singles - 1. Morrissey - Suedehead

This makes it onto the list by virtue of being one of the first songs that grabbed my attention as a young child and drew me away from the manufactured pop of Stock, Aitken and Waterman that was the staple of my 9/10 year old self's listening.

I first heard it when the video was on Going Live on a Saturday morning - something about the video grabbed me, it was more filmic and visually striking than the pop dross i was used to, someone telling a story to a song rather than dancing around and being endlessly chirpy. the lyrics also stuck with me as being different from what i was used to and i for some reason i loved the 'i'm so very sickened' line.

This song marked the start of where music came to be something that meant something rather than a commodity.

The whole Viva Hate album was an eye-opener for me and i took it out from the library many times. This would rank very high on my favourite singles list and i must have in my collection.

Vinyl.....my quest to start create a collection.

Over the past couple of years i've slowly gathered a small collection of 7" singles. It's been a hotch potch of buying records in charity shops and car boot sales, getting the odd new release that looks interesting, collecting Belle and Sebastian, Shrag and Manic Street Preachers records and records from the excellent Where Its At Is Where You Are (WIAIWYA) 7777777 singles club - which offers up 7 limited edition 7"singles over the course of the year.

This has been amassed as some kind of way of having some physical manifestation of my musical tastes. Digital music is all very well and good but it is strange having all that music and not having anything to show for it - i missed that old days of having a record, cassette or CD and a sleeve to look at and read. To redress the balance i've chosen to collect 7" singles.

It had to be vinyl because it's a collection thats meant to act as an antithesis to the digital age of music and cassette and cd are both still digital music albeit it on a physical format. Vinyl is analogue - the sound is physically imprinted on it in the form of grooves. Ths gives it a different sound you don't get on an audio file.

Why singles? Well, a combination of factors. The size is more space effective for a large collection, the artwork can be quite cool and it can be a cheaper product to get and there's more to get for each artist than just concentrating on albums. Also it's a way to document great songs.

This leads me to my latest idea - which is to make a list of the most important songs to me, from the various stages of my life. Songs that have caught my ear, or spoke to me in some form. The idea is to then try and obtain all these songs on 7" singles as a document of my life and its many ups and downs.

As i make the list i'll be blogging about each choice, one per day for the forseeable future.