The Quietus - A new rock music and pop culture website

Baker's Dozen

Coming Up With The Sunshine: Radio-Ed O'Brien's Favourite Music
Jude Rogers , April 22nd, 2020 08:15

Radiohead's Ed O'Brien marks the release of his solo album as EOB by talking to Jude Rogers about 13 favourite pieces of music, from Led Zep to Talk Talk, a longstanding love of Brazil, and Primal Scream

I__1587486275_resize_460x400

Primal Scream – Screamadelica
Listening to this in Brazil a few years ago was a proper Eureka moment for me. We'd moved to the middle of nowhere for seven months, and I decided to properly have some time properly listening to music, so got a lot of stuff off Thom on a hard drive. I was really into Burial and that side of dubstep back then. Stuff that works perfectly underneath railway arches at 3am strangely enough didn't resonate on the edge of the rainforest, though. What did was Screamadelica. 

I'd first heard Loaded when I was studying at Manchester University in 1990. I remember it coming out after 'Fools Gold' and 'Hallelujah', and seeing Primal Scream on a double-header with Looper. I remember thinking, ah, this is good, a bit different for them, but they're jumping on the bandwagon, aren't they? Later, 'Don't Fight It Feel It' became the ultimate tune of that time for me.

But away from that time, this album still stands alone. It's so colourful. It's like gospel dance music. It's got all the euphoria of house music, plus the community and love. It reminded me that that moment in culture wasn't just about the drugs – those drugs were just there to pierce the veil. Music held the ultimate power to bring people up. I want my music to have that joy, that light, that sense of possibility.