Baker's Dozen

Artists discuss the 13 records that shaped their lives

4. TrickyMaxinquaye

I probably first heard this album a few years after it came out. It was at least a couple of years later, but this was one of the first CDs that I bought for myself as a teenager. I grew up in Sacramento, California, where Tower Records is. I would wander in Tower Records after school and look at all the different CD covers. I don’t know why I was drawn to this one. Maybe it’s that it cover almost looks like these decaying red doors inviting you in. I felt really drawn to it. That was my method of finding music when I was a teenager, because at that point I didn’t really have a lot of friends who were listening to newer music.

I just loved it, and obviously, I still do. There are so many good songs on that album. I was pretty young when it came out. I probably picked it up a few years later, in my mid-to-late teens, during the very late 90s. At that time, my sister introduced me to some cool artists. She turned me onto Jewel and things. I don’t remember, at that point in my life, getting recommendations from friends. It was more from my dad and my parents. My parents were divorced, so it was a bit back and forth, but they were both artistic. My dad was playing and showing me music to listen to. But this was one I found on my own in the record store.

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