My 6 Glasgow Albums

GlasgowWorld

My name is Callum McCormack and I am a features writer at Glasgow World. I've always been a fan of Glasgow's music scene, so when I was asked to pick the six Glasgow albums that mean the most to me, I naturally jumped at the chance.

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00:00My name is Callum Cormack and I am a Features Writer at Glasgow World.

00:05Today I'm picking out my six favourite Glasgow albums from my record collection.

00:14I've just moved into a new place and for the last month I've been complaining

00:19about the boxes, fully records kicking about the living room so my

00:25editor Paul has kindly asked me to get them on the shelf and pick the six that

00:29are the most important to me. So this is the first album it's The Amazing Snakeheads

00:34and Fetman Ballads. This came out in 2014 I think and it was just such a weird

00:44brilliant album that I remember the first time I heard it on the radio

00:51I think it was Here It Comes Again. It was just such a weird song because it's

00:57I mean Here It Comes Again's only four words are in the song. It's this really

01:03powerful, driving, really powerful, driving track at the back. I just remember

01:09thinking it's like the it's like the mixture of Alex Harvey and Iggy Pop

01:18just melding into this one really brilliant track and then I saw them at

01:26Tea in the Park that year I think. They were on the BBC introducing stage and

01:29again it was just like this power, such raw emotion. Dale Barkley, the frontman,

01:36was kind of just totally different to anybody else that was playing that weekend

01:41that I saw. Pure kind of Glasgow in itself in the sense that it's like

01:47that real sheer gallousness. There's a wee bit of darkness behind it.

01:55It was just something else and then you know my dad he's a guy who's always been

02:00about music for a long time and I remember taking him. I'll let him hear this

02:04album and he absolutely loved it as well and then we went and seen them at the

02:10Caves in Edinburgh and I could just remember him being totally blown away and

02:14we both came away with this kind of same thing where we said you know you're

02:17never gonna see somebody like that again or it's really rare to see

02:22somebody like that was more apt. Okay so the next album is Belle and Sebastian

02:28If You're Feeling Sinister. I mean there's something about Belle and

02:34Sebastian that is just simultaneously so similar to a lot of Glasgow bands but

02:40also so different. I always think you know I think a lot of people kind of

02:46accuse me being a bit twee at times but for me If You're Feeling Sinister is

02:52different obviously from The Boy With The Arab Strap and I think this is a

02:57really cinematic kind of album is the way that I would describe it. I mean like

03:02Dylan in the movies is kind of pointing towards that but musically there's

03:08just something really cinematic about it. Album number three is The Twilight's Sad

03:14Nobody Wants To Be Here And Nobody Wants To Leave. The funny one about this

03:20is you know well for a start The Twilight's Sad, they're from Kilsyth, they're not

03:24really a Glasgow band as such in that respect but you know they're definitely

03:31synonymous with the Glasgow kind of scene. It was just again it's one of

03:36those ones it's just so impactful the first time you hear it. Like it really

03:42really hits you. There's a girl on the corner is opening track and it's

03:46just something else. It's an album that I've kind of never stopped

03:53listening to in the last 10 years since it came out. Another band I've seen

03:57multiple times now you're talking again double figures. Their live show is

04:01something that has to be seen you believe. I think they were one of the

04:05first bands I seen after kind of all the Covid stuff and that has to go up

04:11there. It's like one of the best best gigs I've ever been in. My dad actually

04:15came to me with that one. I mean I've been going for years to gigs together

04:19and it kind of got to the point he was saying I think I'm getting to the

04:22point now where I need to stop doing this if I can't get a seat. He said

04:27that we've seen that one and I can remember us walking back from walking back

04:31through the East End with the Barras and I'm saying now that's kind of just revitalised

04:36me. I'm kind of going to keep going to them. Okay and the next one is

04:45sensational Alex Harvey band The Impossible Dream. Remember the first time

04:49that I heard them and they were doing Next and I can just remember thinking wow

04:54this is this is something totally different and put anything else on it. I

04:58mean it's so theatrical. It's brooding. It's just such an

05:08interesting sound. Next up is Mogwai Ravetapes. This one came out in I

05:21think 2014. By that point Mogwai have been about nearly 20 years.

05:27It's quite rare for a band 20 years into it to come away with

05:30something that's really fresh and unique. Mogwai obviously have got that

05:36sort of post-rock sound. It's very guitar driven.

05:41It does have the electronic elements to it. There's synths. This

05:47felt a lot more synth heavy. Remurdered has always been the highlight.

05:54I can remember seeing that song on the Barrellands not long after this

05:58came out, maybe a couple years after it. No other song has really

06:05shaken the place to its core the way that Remurdered did. I mean every time I've

06:11seen them since then. It doesn't matter if I've seen them outdoors at

06:14Bellahousta and Ingolston and every time that song still manages to just

06:19kick you in the chest. It's something else. This next one's a bit

06:24different. It's the only one that will be like this but it's actually a

06:28Billy Connolly album. This one was my dad's and it's one of the ones

06:34that kind of get handed down to me. The reason I picked this one is the

06:39crucifixion. I remember the first time my dad let me hear this when I was

06:42probably far too young to be hearing it. And the tears streaming down my

06:47face with how funny I found it. There's lines from it that still now,

06:53years later, just every time something happens it's even vaguely connected to

06:58it popping in my head.

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