"That is the album. It’s got all the songs on there that I love. You know, like ‘High Plains Drifter.’ That was an era of Beastie Boys that was between where they were like frat-partying animals and were like, ‘Whoa, hold up. We can really be artists with this rap thing.’ I think they were on the first album, obviously it was a breakthrough. I think this was their statement album—their first statement album of many. I am a huge fan. “To be honest, I could have gone with Check Your Head or Ill Communication since those were more my era of when I was deep in music. I think I stole my brother’s Licensed To Ill tape. The first one I bought on my own was Check Your Head. After I got that I was like, 'Oh, this is the shit.' I went back to go buy Paul's Boutique. And Paul’s Boutique, along with the other few albums I chose, just sounded like it was from another planet. It existed always. There was nothing wrong with it. The voicemail, outgoing message about Paul’s Boutique: 'We are here in Brooklyn.' It was like, this is for real, I could go there. I could call that number. It just seemed, like, magical."

"I remember the first time I came across The Smiths I hated them. I turned on Top Of The Pops, I think I was about 11 at the time and I just caught the end of 'William, It Was Really Nothing', and just remember some bloke with his shirt off and had MARRY ME written on his chest and thought “Marry? Who wants to get married?”, completely missing the point. Shortly afterwards my friend brought me the first Smiths record and we went to see them and, well, yeah, totally changed the way I listened to music. Even though I love that first Smiths record, I chose this one because I prefer the performances on this record. The first record sounds a bit ‘produced’ in a bad way, but the performances on here sound more urgent. Musically, nothing had really sounded like this before. The way that the melody lines don’t follow conventional pop melody lines, even though I think in Morrissey’s head they probably were. The lyrics manage to be simultaneously veiled and painfully open at the same time. It took me a few listens to realise it was like someone read their diary at you, with this mixture of openness and honesty and poetic allusion. Also, Johnny’s music – the section at the end of 'Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want' with the mandolin is just as beautiful and complex and emotionally rewarding with the same type of melancholy you’d find on the Dvořák record. It’s a beautiful piece of composition."