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Baker's Dozen

"You Can't Escape Your Influence" - Mark Lanegan's Favourite Albums
Julian Marszalek , January 26th, 2012 04:35

In one of our best Baker's Dozens yet, Mark Lanegan talks Julian Marszalek through the most played discs in his collection

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Roxy Music Country Life

I once saw this described as a “greatest hits record without any hits on it” which is right! It’s one of the best things [Screaming Trees guitarist] Gary Lee Connor did for me – he turned me on to this record. I still love listening to it; nobody sings like Bryan Ferry. If there was someone in my collection that I could have sounded like, he’d be one of them.

There have been four or five-hour periods of my time where I’ve had ‘The Thrill of It All’ on repeat as I did stuff around my house. The whole record is fantastic. Again, so many of their records are great but this one in particular is my favourite.

You might imagine him to be the last person to be a Roxy Music fan but Gary Lee Connor actually had really diverse tastes in music. Is being turned on to new music like learning a new language? Absolutely! There’s nothing better than coming across something that doesn’t sound like anything like you’ve heard before and is unique unto itself which I think can be said for most of these records [that are under discussion today].

Most of the records that I love have things in common with each other but on the whole they all stand alone. Roxy Music have that and not just because of the way Bryan Ferry sings but because of the music as well. I guess that could be said of any great band.