Desert Island Discs: My 8 Albums for the End of the World

Welcome to Desert Island Discs.

Our castaway today is Andrew Melville: brand strategist, creative conspirator, lover of big guitars and beautiful contradictions. He’s lived many lives—wine whisperer, digital artisan, and proud cat dad to Blackberry the Magnificent. Now, as waves lap at his makeshift coconut speakers, he’s asked to choose the eight albums that would keep him company if marooned on a desert island.

And let’s be honest—he’s not settling for singles. Albums only. Front to back. The full story every time.

🎧 Andrew’s Desert Island Albums

1. Radiohead – TBD
A necessary torment. Will it be Kid A, OK Computer, or In Rainbows? He’s still undecided, and that’s part of the beauty. The island will help him choose, eventually—probably during a nervous breakdown or a moment of transcendence.

2. Les Savy Fav – Inches
A chaotic sermon disguised as a compilation. If a band ever sounded like a pack of art school kids doing squats on a burning stage, this is it. Unfiltered energy. This one comes with stories and sweat (descends).

3. Wintersleep – Welcome to the Night Sky
Moody, layered, and quietly devastating. It’s the sound of long nights by the fire, staring at nothing.

"Terrible and fucking meaningless."
You nod. You understand.

4. Titus Andronicus – The Monitor
A rock epic that throws fists at history, love, and the futility of it all. Cathartic chaos from start to finish.

“Yes, I’ve done to you what you’ve done to me / And I’d be nothing without you, my darling / Please don’t ever leave.”
That’s a hell of a thing to shout into the ocean.

5. DJ Shadow – Endtroducing.....
No lyrics. Doesn’t need them. This is memory in music form—samples as soul fragments, stitched together into something timeless and haunted.

6. Gil Mantera’s Party Dream – Blood Songs
You had to be there. But if you were, you know this isn’t a joke. It’s wild, brilliant, and strangely sacred. The sound of an inside joke with the universe.

7. Outkast – ATLiens
Bone Thugs and The Chronic made it to the shortlist, but this one lands the ship. Cosmic beats, Southern swagger, and verses that sound like sci-fi sermons. Play it loud while building shelter from palm fronds.

8. Cloud Nothings – Here and Nowhere Else
Relentless and raw. It's punk, but smarter than it looks—just like you were in high school. Screaming along feels like therapy. The island approves.

📖 Book

Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie. Rich, winding, surreal. Like listening to someone brilliant ramble on—perfect island company.
Runner-Up: The Death of Virgil—the book you’ve started more times than you can count. If you’re ever going to finish it, it’ll be under a palm tree.

🐾 Luxury Item

BB’s little urn. Blackberry the Cat, beloved familiar and eternal companion. He may be ashes now, but his spirit roams the island. Sometimes, you think you hear him in the wind. Sometimes, you see paw prints in the sand.

🏝️ Closing Reflection

So that’s the kit: eight albums, one novel, and a box full of memory.

You won't be escaping the island. Not in the literal sense, anyway. But maybe that’s not the point. Maybe the island isn’t about isolation—it’s about distillation. What's left when all the noise drops away? The music that shaped you. The stories that built you. The love you carry, even when it’s gone.

Not bad company, all things considered.

And if you play your cards right, maybe BB will send you a crab.