Michael Jackson - Off The Wall
Being left in department stores to scour the music section was how I spent most of my weekends as a child. Parents back then would think nothing of leaving their five-year-old on the eighth floor of C&A for three hours while shopping and getting perms waxed. During one of these early endeavours I stumbled upon this new record everyone was talking about called Thriller. It was expensive but next to it was an older album with an "Our Price" £4.99 sticker on it and a rather fetching photo of a young chap with the largest afro I had ever seen. This was the first record I bought and still by far the best record I have ever heard. Off The Wall by Michael Jackson. Opens with 'Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough', then flies through 'Rock With You' and 'Workin' Day And Night', probably three of the best disco records ever committed to tape. The Quincy Jones arrangements are world class and the late seventies swag is harder than nails. There's English blood in there, as Rod Temperton wrote many of the standout tracks, and still to this day it literally blows my mind. Simple as tea.
Rhys Llewellyn