6. SlintSpiderland
This literally came out of nowhere for me. I discovered it when I was around 14 at which point the record had already been out three years or so. We lived right next to a meadow which sidled up against the banks of the Thames and I would sometimes go for nightwalks with Spiderland on my Discman. Their world was so uncanny, I felt like they were tapping a very particular seam of nocturnal and hallucinogenic nature. Their sound plays with scale a lot. Sometimes you’re caught up in that heavy pathos, drifting around fairgrounds, castles and pirate ships, but then on a song like ‘For Dinner…’ you’re barely there. On the back of the spider, small incremental movements, so minimal, just particles blustering about. I really zoned in to the lyrics which were always delivered with a kind of allegorical distance. ‘Good Morning, Captain’ reads like a narrative with an entity from a past life. It’s almost considered a classic rock album these days but at the time it was like this incredible secret. I bought that record time and time again for various friends and family. In fact this was the first record I bought for my wife on our second date.
