I have a theory about favourite albums. This album is why.
We choose our favourite songs (The Border Song by Elton John). They can be a memory, the emotional impact or an anchor in your life. Our favourite artists are those whose work speaks to us the most. Our favourite films (The Untouchables) are the ones that left you breathless. Breathless with the audacity, shock, fear or with laughter. All of these you can explain to people. You can hold forth around a pub table about the first time you saw the scene that changed everything. Or where you were when you heard that note being held and it made you feel alive. Or the gig when they played that song and you felt part of something bigger than the ocean.
Favourite albums aren’t that easy. You may not love the band with all your heart. They may not be in the list of things that you show to people to explain your soul. I know I told the beloved about my adoration of Billy, The Boss, Richard Thompson and REM when we met. I read him passages of Alice Walker and Stephen King. We watched Singing In The Rain and went to the Walker Art Gallery and stood in front of Faithful Unto Death. I laid open everything that made me human but I didn’t play him August and Everything After by Counting Crows.
I have been listening to this for 25 years. I know every word on every track. My adoration has snuck up on me. It started with being a teenager, all angst and being misunderstood, knowing that “Round Here” was about me. Later getting over myself and dancing to “Mr Jones”. Realising the relationship I was in was killing me and listening to “Anna Begins” on repeat. I have cried, raged and danced to this album. In the age of streaming, I have two physical copies and it is downloaded on every device I own. I don’t know that it’s my favourite album, there is too much competition. In a lively debate I would argue for The River by Springsteen, Green by REM, Live Through This by Hole, Rumours by Fleetwood Mac, Gold by Ryan Adams, Like A Prayer by Madonna and so much more but not this.
August and Everything After is mine. It is personal. I don’t need anyone else to love it. I don’t need anyone to understand. It is part of me. That’s how favourite albums should be.