1. CardiacsOn Land And In The Sea
I’d already been turned on to Cardiacs in 1988 when A Little Man And A House And The Whole World Window came out. This was really the first time where I just thought, "My god, this band exists for me." I couldn’t believe it. I just had this incredible allegiance to this otherworldly bizarre realm. Everything about this record… I struggle to put it into words. It was like being overwhelmed. It exists so much on its own terms. Before Cardiacs I had no idea music could be about all of this. Cardiacs just seemed to do everything, they seemed to be about life.
It was 1989, and that’s the year that people remember for the Stone Roses, but when this came out I genuinely thought they were going to be the new Beatles, that this will change the world. I was so knocked back when I was playing it to people and they were saying, "This is awful! This is fucking terrible!" And I’d think, "But this is me – if you don’t like this music, you don’t like me." It sounds funny now, but I knew that I was going to get to know these guys. It was partly the reason I moved to London. On hearing this record I knew I had to be around these guys, I’ve got to be part of this thing. When I did move to London, I found that, of course, they’re freaks like me. Whatever it is that people find annoying about me – and I can be a really annoying person – Cardiacs and Tim [Smith, bandleader] loved it, so I really got to let my freak flag fly. It’s such a cliché to say that this album changed my life, but it really did.
The irony now is that I can’t listen to it anymore. I can’t listen to any of Tim’s music, I just find it too sad. But it’s an absolutely perfect album. It exists completely in its own dimension. It’s everything you want from music.
