5 Albums I Can’t Live Without: Will Anderson

Name  Will Anderson

Best known for  My music-related videos that you’ve probably skipped past on your feed at some point.

Current city  Nashville, TN.

Really want to be in  Anywhere I can drink coffee and eat pizza near a beach with my dogs.

Excited about  My new album How Little Love Is / How Worth Everything.

My current music collection has a lot of  Japanese jazz fusion.

And a little bit of  Pure pop music.

Preferred format  Streaming. My ears aren’t good enough to hear the difference anymore, though I do miss the collecting aspect of vinyl.

5 Albums I Can’t Live Without:

1

So, Peter Gabriel

My favorite album of all time, and what I think is still a perfect album. Being as well-produced as it is and knowing it came out of an era with very few computers continues to be mind-blowing to me. The lyrics are sneakily perfect, it’s just out there enough with the musical choices to find little things you love every time you listen, and the hit songs from it are pure pop magic. “Mercy Street” was also the song I first showed my late wife before we started dating (it was based around a poem by Anne Sexton and my wife was a poet so I thought she’d like it. She thought it was just OK.) By far the most influential album of all time for me as a musician.

 

2

Greatest Hits, Etc., Paul Simon

It’s probably not cool to include a greatest hits album, but this was the first album I became obsessed with as a small kid. I knew nothing of the history of Simon and Garfunkel, or who Paul Simon even was in the larger scheme of things, but hearing “Kodachrome” and “American Tune” made me dream of writing my own songs and lyrics as I listened on repeat to it once my parents fell asleep.

3

Whatever and Ever Amen, Ben Folds Five

This was an album that honestly changed the course of my life. I was taking piano lessons at the time, and had vague song ideas floating around my head that I would try to write down bits and pieces of, but it wasn’t until I heard this album that I had a road map about how to write songs. The first full songs I “wrote” were basically me copying these Ben Fold Five songs, changing the melody and story a bit to fit my own needs. It was also a guy playing pop songs on a piano, so I was all in. I saw Ben in a coffee shop once here in Nashville, and I’ve never been more star-struck in my life and didn’t approach him. I wish I had told him all this. Alas…

4

A Motown Christmas, Various

I wish I could say it was something cooler, but this album is my earliest musical memory. I was 3-4 and remember my dad putting this album on our CD player and feeling safe and warm and happy. I still enjoy the holiday season coming around just so I can play it while I’m cooking. 

 

 

5

The Stranger, Billy Joel

In the pantheon of singer-songwriters, Billy is second to only Stevie Wonder, in my humble, but honest, opinion. I think he beats out Bruce and Elton and Marvin just based on this album alone. It’s flawless. Too many great songs to name, but “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)” remains my favorite of all time, and “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant” is up there with “Born to Run” and “What’s Going On” (the song, but maybe not the album) in its ambition. It’s breathtaking how shameless he was riding the line between corny and cool. This album is my north star. It’s just nine incredible songs they banged out in a matter of days with an amazing production from Phil Ramone and I love it.