After 14 or so years, Guns n' Roses finally released Chinese Democracy - Axl Rose's labor of love. I first listened to it on the MySpace page, launched a couple of days before the CD hit the record shops. I then bought the CD a day or two after it was released. The first 4-5 listens, I was pretty impressed. There are some very good songs on there - 'Better' and 'There Was a Time' two immediate favorites.

A scan of the lyrics last night revealed a lot of emotional words from Axl, repetitive, not particularly poetic when reading the…

The new album by Metallica rocks big time. The album has relentless riffs, constant changes in rhythm, awesome melodies, and a story running thru to tie everything together. Long songs, heavy stuff. But mostly it just rocks. I'm not a traditional Metallica fan, although I listened to the Black album when it came out etc. But this album is impressive, one of my favorites of 2008 so far.

It's really only been the last year that I've gotten to 'know' Syd Barrett, the ex lead singer of Pink Floyd who sadly went crazy in his early 20's, retreated from the music industry entirely after a couple of fragile solo albums, and lived as a near recluse for the rest of his life. He died a few years ago.

I am now a big fan of Pink Floyd's debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. It's my favorite Floyd album. Barrett was lead singer, lead guitarist and wrote most of the songs I think. Later…

A very powerful album, In Utero was Kurt Cobain bringing Nirvana back to a raw sound with heavy riffs and dark lyrics. There are some great guitar parts in this album. One of these days I'd love to hear a rough and raw mix of Nevermind, because I think it wouldn't be too dissimilar to what Steve Albini (the producer of In Utero) got. Ok the lyrics of In Utero are darker and full of unpleasant but deeply personal imagery ("I wish I could eat your cancer").

My fave songs aren't so much the more well-known ones, such as Rape…

Zuma is one of Neil Young's mid-seventies album. This is a true album, in that all the songs are connected and have the same feel, sound, vibe. The guitar work on Zuma is superb, reminded me a bit of Lou Reed's guitar work in the last decade. There is a lot of guitar harmony, counterpoint – which is something I love.

This is an album you'll want to listen end to end, rather than pick out your favorite songs like with many other CDs these days.

The Velvet Underground is my favorite band of all time. I discovered them when I was 17 or 18 I think, via a 'Best of' CD (the one with the silver cover). One day I will try to explain why they became my favorite, but for now these words spring to mind: real, innovative, different, unique, poetic, literary.

One more thing: I never thought 'Heroin' (from the debut album The Velvet Underground & Nico was about the drug. For me it's always been about self-discovery. And some other stuff, but it's essentially a song about finding out who you are.…