Feel Like Dancin'? Jake Shears' Favourite Albums | Page 11 of 14 | The Quietus

Baker's Dozen

Artists discuss the 13 records that shaped their lives

10. D’AngeloBlack Messiah

When I started listening to this record it had been out for a while. It was four years when I started coming to New Orleans and I was having a really hard time in my life, and I hadn’t made music in a long time and I didn’t know what I exactly wanted to make, but I knew I was leaving for New Orleans and kind of starting a new life and was hoping for inspiration. The night before I left my buddy Caleb played me this record and it just totally blew my mind. There’s something so strange about it, and the album sounds like it was made under Saran wrap or something. The production choices are so strange in a lot of spots on this record and rhythmically it’s so cool and unexpected and challenging. It really made me inspired to go and make a record. It made me go and do what I do, and when I listen to this album it’s about what it gave me inspiration to make what I want to make no matter what anybody else fucking thinks. Obviously this a record by someone doing precisely what they want to do and they don’t give two fucks. Sometimes you’ve got to make music that makes you happy. That’s the bottom line.

PreviousNext Record

Don’t Miss The Quietus Digest

Start each weekend with our free email newsletter.

Help Support The Quietus in 2025

If you’ve read something you love on our site today, please consider becoming a tQ subscriber – our journalism is mostly funded this way. We’ve got some bonus perks waiting for you too.

Subscribe Now