22 Quick Picks for 2022: Albums of my Life: an A-Z

2022 has been another year of discovery in terms of music and also of revelation. Many of the artists I enjoyed in 2021 have released new music which has been really exciting. MUNA and The Big Moon have released albums and I was lucky enough to see the latter in a record shop just a few months ago. My love for 80s music has grown and the realisation that the band, Toto, have been involved in music that I have loved for years of my life has ignited a deep love for these incredible musicians. I've walked miles to these tracks, endorphins have been overflowing in the gym and I've also shed the odd tear. I've procrastinated, dreamed, reveled, despaired, lusted and mused over these songs, listening again and again-- such is my obsession with music. I wanted to document twenty-two of my loved tracks for 2022.

New Additions to my Vinyl Collection, January 2018

Since my first vinyl collection post last April I've acquired some new editions to my collection- both newly pressed and second hand. It's quite hard to group my new records in the same way as I did before ('classic'/'iconic' albums vs. random finds) as I have found some popular, classic albums by chance when out and about. A gem of a place for good prices on second hand vinyl is a shop called Boiler Room in Poole, Dorset. 

Vinyl Collection, April 2017

I grew up with vinyl around me as my parents had a collection between them. I also had a player as a young kid and can remember playing 'Pinky and Perky' and also, strangely a Kylie Minogue 45. Then of course cassettes (and later CDs) were the thing and I loved the thrill of going to Woolworths or Our Price to buy a single of the latest pop band; even better would be if you could get something in the bargain bucket, sans sleeve. 

Funny how things come full circle. I now have a modest collection of vinyls that I've been accumulating over recent months. My CD collection is really quite big and I still love the story it tells of my teen years into my twenties, however, nowadays I tend only to buy albums on CD of artists I really love or after some 'research' over itunes and Youtube. 

My vinyl collection is where I put thought into what I want to own in all its glory- albums I've either treasured as CDs over the years, or curiosity items. Here is my collection so far:

10 Tracks To Soothe The Soul

Soul music is the genre that I found fairly quickly in life. From listening to early Jackson 5 songs like Ben and Music and Me at age nine, I soon went on to discover more modern soul and       R n B artists in the nineties, whilst dipping in and out of pop music at the same time. Here are ten of my favourite soulful tracks, spanning four decades of wonderful music of this genre: