10. Beastie BoysCheck Your Head
Obviously I loved License To Ill when it came out it – like some stereotypical John Hughes scene we would turn up at a party, take off whatever was playing and stick it on. And Paul’s Boutique is just touched by genius – the summer of ’89 was all about that, the De La Soul album and the first Stone Roses album, all really psychedelic. Check Your Head though is the one for me. It was their first album after they’d started Grand Royal and they were doing their own thing and Check Your Head was when they first made the template – 20 tracks; the short one, the long one, the punk one, the hit – which they used again on Ill Communication. There are sample-heavy tracks, tracks when they were just jamming and punk tracks going back to their hardcore days. Every time I’ve made an album, either with The Bluetones or my solo stuff there’s always been a sense that this could be the last album that I make. I really do think the Beastie Boys thought that too with Check Your Head but it doesn’t result in a sense of desperation rather it creates a sense of freedom.
