Yazoo – Upstairs at Eric's
I got this in sixth grade. First of all, the artwork, with those two mannequins sitting at a table, was so weird. That by itself puts it into a class of its own, because most of the other records in my collection just had pictures of pop stars. The songwriting was so beautiful and so simple and so strong, but I was also really compelled by Alison Moyet's voice. Still to this day, I generally don't like chick singers – their high squeaky voices irritate me! But Alison Moyet, sort of like Laurie Anderson, had this really beautiful, growly, rough, bluesy, believable voice. When she sang, I just bought every second of it. I believed her. And the tracks are catchy as all get out. 'In My Room' is one of my favourite songs of all time – the band and I are working on a cover of it.

I'm tracing back the genealogy of my new record, and it's in those early Yazoo records, along with Soft Cell and The Cars... what they were able to do with a couple of synthesisers and really simple chord changes, great melodies and believable delivery.