Love Music

By Aisling Keenan

I have decided, after much inner-deliberation, to unleash my Desert Island Disc selection on the world. Prepare yourselves to feel intense embarrassment on my behalf for some of my selection. Because I won’t be feeling the shame. Someone told me that it only matters if you love your choices. Sure there’s no one on the island but you anyway!

Hopefully, if you read this and are inspired to compile your own top ten, you’ll post it as a comment and let other have an insight into your personality or at the very least, your questionable musical taste.

Here are mine, hope you don’t lose all faith in my credibility as someone who writes about music…

The Writing’s on the Wall by Destiny’s Child. If I had to be cast away clutching one album, this would be it. I grew up with it, it was the background music for my teenage years. Skip to Say My Name, one of Destiny’s Child’s biggest hits. I also love the underappreciated Get on the Bus, which at the end of the CD is often forgotten about. This album is full of gems, and it kick started the Destiny’s Child astronomical rise to superstardom.

Live and Dangerous by Thin Lizzy: While all the songs on this album are outstanding as songs, whether on studio recorded albums or not, hearing them played live is like nothing else. With the enigmatic Phil Lynott talking to the crowd between tracks in his trademark, thick Dublin accent, and the individual musicians getting time to show their instrumental skill, the album has much more character and presence than their studio ones.

Greatest Hits by Elton John: I will take this opportunity to remind people who love me or like me enough to give me 80 quid that I LOVE ELTON JOHN and want to see him in concert. This album has all of his best songs, including Tiny Dancer, which I ramble on about at every given opportunity, and Philadelphia Freedom, which is another of Elton’s great songs. Bennie and the Jets has that amazing live feel to it on the album too.

History by Michael Jackson: Some people ask me how I can still love Micka even after all the crazy paedophilia allegations against him. I answer honestly that I couldn’t care less if he was guilty, he’s an absolute and utter nutjob regardless, but I don’t need to love him as a person to love his music. He made some amazing songs in his time as a normal (ish) man, and they are all to be found on this two disc extravaganza.

A Rush of Blood to the Head by Coldplay: Coldplay are a band that I never thought I’d like. Everyone says their songs are depressing, drowsy and all a little too similar. They obviously haven’t heard this. It’s rare that I would love every single track on an album but I do. Green Eyes makes me wish my eyes were green and not blue. No one writes songs about blue-eyed girls? And Warning Sign is awe-inspiringly beautiful. Just listen.

The Marshall Mathers LP by Eminem: This was the album that introduced me to my love for rapping. Yes, I’m a white, Irish girl with no ties to black America, but I just love to rap. I could give Eminem himself a run for his money on Drug Ballad. It is fairly odd to hear me rapping and I’m sure I sound ridiculous, but I enjoy it. And I’m doing no one but my family, immediate neighbours and car passangers any harm.

Songs About Jane by Maroon5: I think the name of this album is what intrigued me first time I saw it. Songs About Jane means songs about all women, not just one woman. And it lives up to its promise, all the songs are about women, love, relationships, break ups and make ups. Each song I found to be true to life, as opposed to a dramatic over exaggeration of things as songs often are. Don’t overlook it before you’ve given it a go.

Back to Black by Amy Winehouse: I’ve found these songs to be such a calming influence when life is stressful and confusing. Even the upbeat ones have a laid back quality to them. The lyrics are brutally honest as you would expect from Amy Winehouse, but the music would melt your heart. And she might be a crack addict these days, but the silky gorgeousness of her voice is undeniable on this album.

Aida Soundtrack by Elton John and Tim Rice: It wasn’t intentional that Elton should appear on this list twice, but it just so happens that he is a musical genius and wrote the music to the adaption of Aida, an egyptian opera. The lyrics of Tim Rice tell the story of a love triangle between Princess Amneris, Nubian Princess Aida and Captain Radames. This tragic love story is my all-time favourite musical, and that’s saying something.

Stripped by Christina Aguilera: I worry that people will see Christina Aguilera and lose all faith in my musical knowledge. But seriously, she has some beautiful songs on there. Impossible which she does with Alicia Keys on piano is delicious and Infatuation about something that feels like love echoes the holiday romance that everyone has once in their life. All her bigger hits feature too, so it’s totally worth a listen.

There were many great albums and soundtracks that landed on the cutting room floor. Among them were artists such as Rory Gallagher, Beyonce, Queen, Justin Timberlake and Kanye West.

Don’t think that this is a comprehensive representation of my musical taste, because it is not. These are just the albums that have the most meaning to me, the ones I would crave listening to were they to go missing, the ones I am so familiar with every musical nuance and syllable is noticed and enjoyed. You should make your list without fear of ridicule or without trying to look obscure or aloof, and just because you really love whatever it is you love about your desert island discs.

If anyone decides to make their list, post it as a comment, and write a bit on each choice and any good ones I will get pictures for and post in the blog, and your choices will be famous. Well, my family will know what they are anyway…