Last week, we caught up with Shaun Nicolson AKA Shaun Panda to discuss his favourite lockdown albums! Shaun is the founder and host of 4 Songs and a Dream Podcast where guests discuss their favourite songs that really mean something to them. We are huge fans of the podcast here at The Music Files as it’s incredibly different to anything we’ve listened to before… digging deep into music is our main goal so it’s great to see other platforms also giving bands / musicians exposure! Have a read below to find out what albums have been helping Shaun through the lockdown below…
Album 1: In The Aeroplane Over The Sea – Neutral Milk Hotel
Why did it make the list? A wonderful collage of images come to mind when listening to this intense, fun, confusing, messy, crunchy album. It’s one of the weirdest yet beautiful albums I’ve ever heard in my life and sparked a love for albums as an art form that has remained with me ever since my first listen.
Standout track – Holland, 1945
Album 2: Born In The UK – Badly Drawn Boy
Why did it make the list? Badly Drawn Boy’s near perfect nod to Bruce Springsteen is a glorious collection of 13 songs that range from upbeat, singalongs to sweet sweet ballads. I’m a big fan of Badly Drawn Boy and this is one of his best.
Standout track: Promises
Album 3. Skinny Tricks – Mitchell Museum
Why did it make the list? This album is unlike anything I’ve ever heard in my life and that is definitely a good thing! Wonky pop is the best way I’ve heard it described and it’s an album that has become my new car jam. Nothing better than driving to work listening to Footsteps 101 surrounded in the booming drums, crazy synths and……… noises. It’s an album that needs to be listened to to be believed!
Standout track: it’s hard to choose but either “Footsteps 101” or “This is 18th September”
Album 4: Shared Isolation – Auld White Label
Why did it make the list? Another recent album but an utterly fantastic concept album about the virtual world we are all living in right now on our phones, laptops, tablets etc. With “Shared Isolation” Auld White Label have carefully constructed a pitch perfect electronic album for our times and from the first to the last track its a sheer joy to listen to.
Standout track: Auld White Label Are Back Online (just start there and listen to the rest of the album in one go)
Album 5. The Midnight Organ Fight – Frightened Rabbit
Why did it make the list? This is pretty self explanatory but Scott Hutchison was, by a great margin, the greatest songwriter of all time! I have never felt a songwriter quite understood me until I accidentally stumbled on this album on one of my many iTunes “new music” hunts back in 2008. Every track is exceptionally wrote and cuts deep into the very core of what it means to be human, legacy, love, sadness, the universe, EVERYTHING! It also helps that all the songs are damn catchy and make you want to scream the lyrics at the top of your lungs!
Standout track: Keep Yourself Warm
Check out Shaun’s Podcast: 4 SONGS AND A DREAM here
The Music Files 