"""If I want to pick my favourite records then I have to pick something from Motown. When you have that kind of catalogue it can be hard pinpoint one act. In my case, it would have to be the Four Tops and therefore I have to pick a greatest hits album. I never had a problem considering the Four Tops as a band. As a little kid they were omnipresent if you were glued to the radio as I was. They were a constant fixture year-in, year-out. They would release incredible songs like 'It's The Same Old Song' or 'Reach Out I'll Be There'. On this album you get to line up all of these songs back-to-back as a complete body of work, or even like a single live performance. You can hear a darkness and, dare I say it, a rocking spirit that you won't get from The Supremes or from Smokey Robinson or even Stevie Wonder, mostly due to the presence of Levi Stubbs' voice. In addition, the music had to match his voice and his range of emotion that you wouldn't even get on a Marvin Gaye record. Not only were the songs powerful, but the arrangements and instrumentation and the performances meant that, as far as I am concerned, Four Tops rock like Led Zeppelin. What more do you need? It is a collection of incredible tunes. I bought this record when it came out and all my mates thought I was either really, really old-fashioned or a freak. I knew I wasn't old-fashioned but what was the alternative? The Boomtown fucking Rats?"""

"That album is my favourite because it's the one that feels most concise. Electric Ladyland I love, but it does sprawl a little bit and some of the later ones don't feel like he's absolutely at his peak. The early ones - Are You Experienced? - I do love them but it feels like there's lots of singles. So for me, Axis: Bold As Love has that depth. The production is just fantastic as well. 'If 6 Was 9', embodies that whole wild, epic, Jimi Hendrix thing, in a concise pop song. Him saying about the businessmen going down the street, ""you can't dress like me"", and ""I'm gonna wave my freak flag"". For a long time, my favourite Jimi Hendrix stuff was the live stuff - he's one of those guys where you can be a fan of the the live stuff and it's almost a completely different artist to the albums. Whereas this one feels like it's got that spirit of Jimi Hendrix live in the song as well. He manages to get this epic adventure into three and a half, four minutes. To me it just embodies Hendrix: rebellious but friendly, and totally in control of the universe. He's like a shamanistic character isn't he? 'Up From The Skies' is really amusing, really cool. 'Spanish Castle Magic' is just a rocker. But it's got this real sparkle to the whole thing. I think these albums, the reason why they've lasted, is because you can listen to them at any time. You can have them for breakfast, lunch or dinner. You can listen to Axis: Bold As Love on an epic road trip or having a coffee in the morning."