5. Laurie AndersonBig Science

I think that she has this reservoir of creativity and imagination that is striking and very inspiring, and I’m also drawn to her for her writing and her lyrics. The songs on this album are pretty poppy but unconventionally so, they worm their way into your brain but stick around in an unexpected way. That has a really personal place in my heart because I heard it for the first time in Paris in 2009. I was on my first European tour and it was pretty awful, it was an exploratory experience but I was taking the train and strapped everything to my back, had no cellphone, didn’t have the internet. I just remember riding on the back of a Vespa and a mutual friend taking me to his house and making me a steak dinner and I was so hungry. He put that record on and my mind was blown, I felt so comforted by the food as new portals were opening up around me.