Steely Dan – The Royal Scam
My dad has been making audiophile speakers for as long as I can remember. His go-to system test is Steely Dan's Gaucho (realistically 'Babylon Sisters' on perma-loop) and consequently anything off that record just seemed like ambient elevator music to me. Around the age of 12, dad blew the dust off his turntable and started dubbing his LPs to cassette so we could listen in the car and Royal Scam was his first choice. So my first experience of listening to vinyl was also my first experience listening to this record and I was completely bewitched. It stayed in the car for too long and ostensibly I have never stopped listening to it. I genuinely believe this album saved me thousands of dollars in music tuition: it coincided perfectly with my first year playing the drums and shaped my soft, malleable mind. It manages to combine this effortless, soulful playing with incredibly cerebral, super-nerdy arrangements. The guitar solo in 'Kid Charlemagne' is SUBLIME, one of my favourite moments in music history. I shudder to think what this record would have sounded like it if it were made in 2016, probably very bloody weird. 1976 clean still sounds so palatable to my ears. All in all, this record truly feels like home perhaps more than any of the other 12 on this list. Weird.