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Baker's Dozen

Darkness And Relief: Sean Lennon's 13 Favourite Albums
Patrick Clarke , July 19th, 2017 11:03

From Herbie Hancock's darkest depths to Brian Eno's anxiety-relieving light, Sean Lennon guides Patrick Clarke through thirteen records that changed his life

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Brian Eno - Music For Airports
I love Brian Eno, but I picked this album specifically because it's one of those albums that if you're up at six in the morning, stressed out wondering why you were up all night, I can just put this on and everything feels OK. It's almost superficial because it's so sweet and ambient, but I respect it a lot because it always piques my interest. I know he wrote some of the songs with Robert Wyatt from Soft Machine, and Robert Wyatt has this delicate, fragile sort of energy, I feel like that's there.

An old friend of mine, Yuka Honda from Cibo Matto, the first band I was in, first played this to me on vinyl in the mid-90s. I was smoking a lot of pot in those days. I've read that Eno made it with the intention of actually playing it in airports. For fun I have put it on [in an airport] and there is something quite airporty about it… something machine-like about the melody. It reminds me of the architecture of an airport, it's not bustling or busy, it's like an airport when no one's there. I think it's the number one album I'd recommend for taking a bath to.