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Baker's Dozen

Club Members: Julianna Barwick's Favourite Albums
Gary Kaill , April 20th, 2016 09:59

From very long-term library loans and overnight camp-outs to chance shopping-mall buys and poster-based confusion, the composer gives Gary Kaill the stories behind 13 LPs she's listened to a "bazillion freaking times"

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Björk – Debut
That was the turning point for me, I think. I bought it having no idea what it was. I bought it at a mall in Tulsa when I was like 13 or something. I judged a book by its cover and it paid off. I didn't know what it was but I think I just thought, "I wanna be part of what is happening here." At that time, I was listening to Pearl Jam and all the crap that was on the radio and then I bought this. Talk about an eye-opening experience for a teen living in Oklahoma and going from popular alternative radio to listening to this magical, completely unique, totally inimitable, strange, amazing… It just felt like a world. I remember listening to 'Aeroplane' and having this feeling of being taken somewhere I had never been before. I would get butterflies in my stomach. I fell in love hard and still am in love with her. She changed everything. Any girl singer before that was like, whatever – a Sheryl Crow or whatever the radio played. I had a subway-size Debut poster in my bedroom all through high school. All my little cousins thought it was Michael Jackson.