Kele Okereke Music Playlist: Under the Influence

Suede – Dog Man Star (Nude, 1994)
I bought this on cassette in 1995 and it was the only cassette I had, so I listened to it every night before going to bed. It's a very dark atmospheric record but I didn't have any frame of reference to go on, so I actually hated it at first. I had to keep putting it on until the songs and the images had seeped their way into my brain. I don't listen to records in that way anymore, I listen to things really quickly, and if it moves me it moves me. I don't often go back to things. I fell in love with that record in a really pure way.

Björk – Homogenic (One Little Indian, 1997)
This was probably the first electronic record that I really fell in love with to my core. I just loved the atmosphere of this album and its use of super-synthetic beats, with lavish, orchestral production, and how these two different worlds stuck together. It still seems like such a cold record, but also there's a warm being living inside there, especially on songs such as All is Full of Love and 5 Years.

Mogwai – Young Team (Chemikal Underground, 1997)
Britpop was very popular around the time I was a teenager and that's what I thought music was until I heard this and it opened up a whole new universe of what you could convey with music. It didn't have to be just ‘verse/chorus songs, you could express so much more without repetitive form. I now listen to a lot of other things because of this record.

Destiny's Child – The Writing's on the Wall (Columbia, 2000)
The production on this record is the best I've ever heard. It was a very important record in terms of a shift in how I perceived pop music. Before that I'd mainly been listening to guitar music, post-rock. When I got this record in 2000 it made me realise that music didn't have to be long, drawn out and serious. Things could be concise, light and full of colour, and still be good.