John Grant on the first and last records he bought and the one he always turns to in an emergency…
FIRST
![](https://electronicsound.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/ABBA.jpg)
ABBA
‘Greatest Hits‘
(Atlantic, 1975)
“The first album I ever bought was ‘The Second Annual Report’ by Throbbing Gristle in 1977 when I was nine… wait, no, it was actually ABBA’s ‘Greatest Hits’, the one with the two couples sitting on a park bench on the sleeve. I thought they were fascinating, even though the record was somewhat spotty. I listened to ‘S.O.S.’ over and over while giant piles of snow gathered outside in the small town of Buchanan, in south west Michigan in 1975.”
LAST
![](https://electronicsound.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/TalkingHeads.jpg)
Talking Heads
‘More Songs About Buildings And Food’
(Sire, 1978)
“The last record I bought was yesterday, Thursday, 19 October, in Reykjavík. It was the reissue of ‘More Songs About Buildings And Food’. I don’t think I’ve ever listened to it, because I was busy listening to other albums in their catalogue. I dunno, can’t listen to everything. The ‘Stop Making Sense’ movie blew my mind when I saw it upon its initial release in Denver, Colorado, in 1984 at the Esquire Theatre, which is my favourite movie theater in the world.”
ALWAYS
![](https://electronicsound.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/BlackDevil.jpg)
Black Devil Disco Club
‘The Strange New World Of Bernard Fevre’
(Lo Recordings, 2009)
“The record I go to in an emergency? What a nasty question! For a long time it was Nina Hagen’s ‘Nunsexmonkrock’, or Toshinori Kondo & IMA’s ‘Brain War’, but lately it’s been this. It’s a turbo freshening up of some of the songs Bernard Fevre released in the 1970s. You should have this record. It’s the most beautiful soundtrack to the coolest, delightfully weird-ass science fiction film never made. I’d love to talk to him about what he used to design all those beautiful sounds.”