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Baker's Dozen

Evergreen Thirteen: Will Young's Favourite Albums
Ian Wade , January 6th, 2016 10:09

Following the release of his sixth album, 85% Proof, last year the singer-songwriter changes into some comfortable trousers and talks Ian Wade through his 13 all-time favourite records

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Róisín Murphy - Ruby Blue
I think the production on this - who did she work with? But she used things like forks and - oh yes, it was Matthew Herbert! - and so when I first heard it I thought it was a bit mental, but it's really not mental once I had lived with it for a bit. A lot of it's really poppy and the last song is a ballad that's just heartbreaking. Talk about the radio not playing things, how could they not play this?

Her style of singing really influenced mine on a track I did called 'Jealousy', and I'm basically trying to sing like her. When I listened back to the demo, I'd done a pretty good impression of Róisín Murphy! It's just her delivery, and she's really brave and I think that record was exactly the record I needed to hear. It wasn't necessarily what the record company wanted, and that's why I love it. It came out, and I don't know where it charted, but I would hear bits of it on TV over the next three years. And then five years after it came out, So You Think You Can Dance did a massive thing to it. And it warms my heart that music that is genuinely great does get to have a life beyond the chart and starts getting into the ether.