David Bowie
Hunky Dory (1971)
Books aren’t the only way to immerse yourself in a whole new world: some of the greatest escapes are provided by pop’s primo storytellers, Bowie among them. His fourth album teems with life, its characters including “the girl with the mousy hair” (Life on Mars?) and the lovers in Kooks, cooing over their baby’s “funny old pram”.
Listen to Kooks
Belle and Sebastian
If You’re Feeling Sinister (1996)
Was ever so much kitchen-sink detail crammed into one album? The Scottish indie-popsters’ second LP packs a poignant punch precisely because it’s not a highfalutin concept album – rather, a collection of tender tales of real people, watching telly, having misplaced crushes and worrying about God. So convincing, it was even made into a stage musical.
Listen to The Stars of Track and Field
Kendrick Lamar
Good Kid, M.A.A.D City (2012)
A natural storyteller since he was a schoolkid in LA, Lamar would go on to win the 2017 Pulitzer prize for music with his album Damn. But it was his 2012 major label debut that first shone a light on the genre-bending rapper, via his evocative semi-autobiographical tales of growing up in Compton.
Listen to m.A.A.d city
Pulp
Different Class (1995)
From the pie-eyed field-ravers of Sorted for E’s and Wizz to the poverty tourist in Common People, via the crushing first-love-anthem Disco 2000, this is a masterclass in colour-saturated storytelling. Pulp’s pop theatrics set the stage for a cast of movingly real characters.
Listen to Common People
Bobbie Gentry
Ode to Billie Joe (1967)
A country-soul singer-songwriter from Mississippi, the 25-year-old Gentry had a preternatural gift for observation and songcraft, evidenced on her debut LP’s title track – a southern gothic tale that moves from humdrum indifference to human tragedy in the same beautiful breath.
Listen to Ode to Billie Joe
