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Baker's Dozen

Future Islands Discs: Samuel T. Herring's Favourite Albums
Patrick Clarke , October 14th, 2020 08:40

From teenage years spent amassing an arsenal of underground hip hop CDs to his first forays into jazz, post-rock and indie, Future Islands' Samuel T. Herring picks thirteen records that soundtracked his coming of age

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Spoon - Girls Can Tell

I was hearing about them in high school, some of my best friends were into them, but it took me a couple of years to come around to actually listening. I had this ever-growing CD book of stuff I’d burned from friends, and it’s like ‘I’m not listening to your Jawbreaker CD!’ Spoon was one of those records that I didn’t wanna listen to because it was a guitar band, but then it just really started to click with me. Britt Daniel’s phrasing is really interesting and against the grain. He’s not trying to sing along or play cool, just something about it is really different. They’ve become friends, the drummer Jim [Eno] recorded a seven inch for us a few years back. It’s cool when you get to know people that have been a part of your musical journey and have inspired you. Those guys have always been a band we’ve looked towards as a band that keeps going, sticks to their style and sound but keeps growing it. Journey people doing their thing. Girls Can Tell was a really important record for me as a kid feeling alone, trying to figure out what my feelings were. It gave me strength.