5. Hall & OatesAbandoned Luncheonette

In the ‘mid-70s, I was playing bass seven nights a week with no nights off. At 2am every night I’d go back to my friend Rod Thomson’s to listen to records. He lived in this wonderful crumbling house outside Leicester, and we’d be there lying on the floor, soaking things up. This record reminds me of back then, when we’d be there, really listening. I’d make a note of a cool thing, or notice the way they’d done that and try and do it myself – but often when I’d go back to the thing I’d liked, it sounded really different. I love that. I remember loving the string arrangement to ‘She’s Gone’ too. But the best records are the ones you get drawn into a whole. This album definitely did that for me.