The Beatles – The Blue Album
When I was 13, one of my friends had the soundtrack of the documentary film Imagine: John Lennon on vinyl [which came out a year earlier, in 1988]. She lent me it one day, I took it home and I remember it was midday, just before lunch, and I heard 'A Day In The Life'. It's the song that changed my life. I remember being stopped in my tracks and feeling something I'd never felt before with any type of music. It made me want to become a musician, even though at the time I heard it, it would be another two years till I got a guitar. It's such a perfect combination of a melancholy, beautiful pop song, and then, on the other hand, there's this crazy switch to something really experimental. The song just stands outside of time forever. I was going to say it's always going to be ahead of its time, but I don't even think it's ahead of anything. So does a lot of the music on this compilation. It just really transcends.