Richard Jones
Cwmaman
BEASTIE BOYS
Ill Communication

I was about 19 or 20 when Ill Communication came out and just coming out of my heavy metal phase and expanding my musical library to other genres. I was always a fan of rap, but the Beastie Boys mixed metal, funk, soul and pop so well it was instantly infectious.

I had a 1974 VW Beetle 1303 which I tricked up the stereo with six house speakers (which were about the only thing that worked in the car). And I constantly plagued the village with this tape on repeat. The video for Sabotage was the best thing on MTV. As a bass player, it was a new challenge to try to play the bass lines, which are always good to learn as much as possible. But the best thing about this album was that it felt like it was my album. It was the soundtrack to my step into adulthood. I'd moved into my own flat, bought my own car, and was in the best band in the Valleys!
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Rhia Stankovic-Jones
Bridgend
ALANIS MORRISETTE
Jagged Little Pill

I found this album very enlightening as a teenager when you're fighting against the world. I spent many happy times listening to the music stressing about when we would next be going out and what we would wear. We felt we had the world on our shoulders... if we only knew the real worrying would start when we got into the real world!
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Sue Stride
Porthcawl
PEARL JAM
Ten
For me it's got to be Pearl Jam's Ten. As a child of the Grunge era these songs echoed throughout my life in the early 90's. An angsty soundtrack for my transition into adulthood - festivals, first kisses, long hair, long summers, rolling waves... ahh those were the days...
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Spiro Gauci
Cardiff
OASIS
What’s The Story Morning Glory

The sort of album you just sit back with your hifi cranked up and appreciate an album crammed with real, true classic stadium anthems! This album introduced me to a great selection of similarly guitar driven artists like Radiohead, Stereophonics and Manic Street Preachers... I highly recommend it.
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Mark Roberts
Deri
SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES
Join Hands

1979. Already a passing fan of The Banshees, Join Hands blew me away. Uncompromising, vicious, beautiful and poetic - its nod to religion, death, the Monarchy and The Great War resonated with my brooding, complicated teenage years. I was hooked and, from my first listen, life would never be the same. I was awake at last.
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Jenny Rolfe
Llantrisant
SANTANA
Abraxas

If music be the food of love then Abraxas is, for me, the wagging finger of Nanny to "eat slowly or you'll get indigestion." But, fools rush in, which I did to this album, had my heart broken and swore never again to be so impetuous. Did it work? Pretty much. Every time I hear it I smile at the warning that sorted the bad boyfriends from the good ones!
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Matt Powell
Bridgend
MANIC STREET PREACHERS
The Holy Bible

This album made me realise there was actually an intelligent band in Wales. They say it was Richey Edwards' note before he went missing. It's dark with very deep, intelligent and meaningful lyrics. I Listened to the Manic Street Preachers right through my early days as a chef. They kept me going!
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David Hieatt
Cardigan Bay
FLEETWOOD MAC
Tusk

This album taught me the importance of taking risks. It would have been very easy for Fleetwood Mac to do another Rumours. The same can be said of Radiohead - they could have done another Bends, but they never stood still.