1. Against Me! - Reinventing Axl Rose
The first time I heard this record in 2002, it was like a bomb going off in my head. I'd never heard any music that spoke to me the way this album did. I used to listen to it on repeat constantly (I still listen to it all the time). Me and my friend Andy once listened to Pints Of Guinness on repeat all night. It annoyed the fuck out of our friends but we never got bored even for a second. I've loved AM since the moment I first heard them and, while all of their albums are important to me, this is the one with the most special place in my heart.
2. Rancid - Let's Go
This album made me want to be a bass player. Matt Freeman's playing on it made me (along with every other punk bass player in the last 25 years) want to play half as well as that. It doesn't hurt that it's Rancid's best record either. So many awesome songs!
3. Osker - Idle Will Kill
This album is criminally underrated. If it came out now it would be huge. It's full of perfect, angry, angst-filled bangers. With angular, inventive music and snotty, smart-arse lyrics. If you haven't heard it, do yourself a favour and check it out.
4. The Clash - London Calling
I didn't like it when I first heard it. I didn't really understand why every song sounded so different to the last. I liked it more every time I listened to it and even today I like it more with each listen. To me it's the definitive proof that punk isn't music, it's an attitude and a way of looking at life. It can sound like anything. I couldn't live without this album.
5. Capdown - Pound For The Sound
When I first started going to shows it felt like me and my friends were always at The Forum in Tunbridge Wells. I think we saw every Household Name Records band there. It was always a total blast and our soundtrack for the train from the coast to TW always seemed to be Capdown. It all seemed to happen over a single summer, it was probably over a couple of years, but Pound For The Sound was always playing.
6. Leftöver Crack - Mediocre Generica
This was the first real political music that I listened to. And it was the first music I listened to that my mum really hated. That's got to count for something, right? I got thrown out of Holidays In The Sun 2006 during LÖC's set too! (But, I managed to sneak back in, so it's all good)
7. Defiance, Ohio - Share What Ya Got
Another great example of what punk can be. Acoustic instruments, socially conscious lyrics, awesome music. They never really made anything better than this. But what a great album! I used to listen to this and want to be in a folk-punk band so much. It never happened but I still love this record!
8. Exploding Hearts - Guitar Romantics
Another band that are massively under appreciated but they have these awesome power-pop anthems that it's impossible not to love. More snotty, acerbic lyrics and massive hooks. They were sure to be one of the biggest bands on the scene, if they hadn't been killed in a car crash. This album makes me want to party and sing with my friends all night.
9. Lemuria - The First Collection
I only really started listening to Lemuria this year but they're already one of my favourite bands. This record helped me through a really dark time in my life. Every time I hear it it's like having a broken heart, getting lost, getting high, pulling yourself together and falling in love over the course of 18 songs.
10. Circle Jerks - Group Sex
I remember thinking this sounded like a machine gun firing out of my shitty speakers in my bedroom when I was 15 years old and wishing more than anything I'd been 15 in 1980 in LA instead of where I was. Every single 30 second song was so much fun. It cemented my love of punk rock and it's stuck with me ever since.
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