Shit that no one will read but I would really like to just tell someone, something: My 5 favourite albums of all time.

Music has a really important meaning for every person, obviously, and I’m no different. I’m not saying that my connection to music is particularly greater or more meaningful than anyone else, but a lot of music has dictated and scored major parts of my life. I may not have the most sophisticated taste in music but fuck it, it’s 2 in the morning and I’m out of my mind drunk, so here are the 5 most important albums to me, ever.

1. The Joshua Tree - U2
My dad used to tease me when I was younger and say that this album was written for me (by the way, my name is Josh, hi there). I remember driving home from an airport after visiting my family in Queensland and barely being able to keep my eyes open as “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” played in the front. I remember having serious discussions about what we were going to do for the next ten years when my mum died to “With or Without You”. This album could score the most bleak and the most perfectly incredible moments of life.

2. 808’s and Heartbreak - Kanye West
I never really understood or liked hip-hop until I listened to this album the fifth time through. Heaps of purists will argue (and probably be right) about the fact that this isn’t hip-hop, but for the first time in forever with music I totally connected with an album in a way that I couldn’t remember doing before. In year 10, I listened to this album at least 50 times the whole way through. In the years following, I’ve literally committed Kanye’s discography to memory, all 6 albums, and have never found another artist who I could so wholly like. And to think the only reason I listened to the album was because a girl I once liked (or a lot more than that) also loved this album.

3. Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge - My Chemical Romance
Obsession doesn’t even begin the love affair I had with this album. I literally had to buy three different copies because I managed to play out each one till they were scratched, burned or damaged. Discovering this band in Year 5 is the reason I now listen to so much music. As a 12 year old, I went alone to see them at the UNSW Roundhouse and started my obsession with live music, and it’s all thanks to this band, who I’ve seen 4 times since that first time.

4. Isolation - Carpathian
I just turned 18 and many of the teenage angst issues I dealt with are beginning to pass (with many newer ones appearing), and while I’m sure many people devoted themselves to a hobby or lifestyle that helped them cope with that, I dove headfirst into Isolation, an album so hate-ridden with a soulless, empty world and so hopeful of a life less bleak that I for once felt comfortable in an environment of screaming lyrics back at Martin Kirby when I saw them live. Shattered doesn’t begin to describe how I felt when these guys broke up, I’m still coming to grips with the fact that I won’t experience the songs from this record live again, but the 9 times I was lucky enough to see them will make a lifetime of fulfilment.

5. Take Care - Drake
A more obscure choice, the most recent and probably the most critically reviled, Drake’s Take Care is an album that expands every time I listen to it. In a year generally strong for music (I try not to limit myself to any genre), I felt like no album reached what I needed or expected from them, except Take Care. Hometown pride, the necessity and importance of friendship, family, the woes of greed and arrogance, along with the message to never forget what you are have rung loud and clear with me. Every time I listen to this album, I’ll have a different interpretation. It’s an open book waiting to be discovered.