National Album Day 2019 takes place on October 12! Here’s the Cherry Red Staff Top Picks for favourite Cherry Red & Non-Cherry Red Albums!

National Album Day 2019 has now been announced, taking place on Saturday, October 12.

The initiative launched in 2018 to champion the album format and was celebrated through a series of special events, including artist album playbacks and Q&As and an artwork exhibition in key train stations across the UK.

This year’s National Album Day is themed around the idea of ‘don’t skip’ to encourage music lovers to discover albums and listen to them as a complete body of work, as well as highlighting the mental health benefits of album listening as a form of musical mindfulness.

Lewis Capaldi, Mark Ronson, Elbow and Mahalia have been announced as ‘album champions’ for this year’s big day and the album is proving resilient in the ever-shifting music landscape. 143 million albums or their equivalent were either streamed, purchased or downloaded in the UK in 2018 – worth approximately £1.3 billion and representing a near 6% rise on the year before.

4.2 million of that figure were vinyl purchases a 2000% rise since their low point in 2007.

This year Cherry Red have been choosing their Top 5 Cherry Red albums alongside their Top 5 from outside the Cherry Red canon.

How do our choices match up with yours?

Iain McNay, Founder of Cherry Red Records.

Iain McNay – Chairman

Top 5 Favourite Cherry Red albums:

1. Dead Kennedys ‘Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables’
2. Tracey Thorn ‘ A Distant Shore’
3. Martin Newell ‘The Wayward Genius of’
4. Felt  ‘Crumbling The Antiseptic Beauty’
5. Eyeless in Gaza ‘Photographs As Memories’

Top 5 Non-Cherry Red albums:

1. Neil Young ‘Harvest’
2. David Bowie ‘The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.’
3. Fleetwood Mac ‘Rumours’
4. Beatles ‘Please Please Me’
5. Scott Walker ‘Tilt’

Matt Bristow – Director of Business Affairs & Licensing

Top 5 Favourite Cherry Red albums:

1. Felt ‘Absolute Classic Masterpieces’
2. Thomas & Richard Frost ‘Visualize’
3. The Monochrome Set ‘Volume, Contrast, Brilliance’
4. Polyphonic Spree  ‘Yes, It’s True’
5. Various ‘Pillows & Prayers’

Top 5 Non-Cherry Red albums:

1. The Beatles ‘Abbey Road’
2. The Stone Roses – The Stone Roses
3. Oasis – Definitely Maybe
4. De La Soul – Three Feet High & Rising
5. David Bowie – Hunky Dory

Rob Duly – Sales & Distribution Manager

Top 5 Favourite Cherry Red albums:

1. Dead Kennedys – Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
2. King Prawn – The Fabulous New Sounds Of
3. Sonic Boom Six – The F-Bomb
4. Luke Haines – Rock and Roll Animals
5. Polyphonic Spree – Yes It’s True

Top 5 Non-Cherry Red albums:

1. Slipknot – Slipknot
2. Green Day – Nimrod
3. Marilyn Manson – Mechanical Animals
4. Rancid – And Out Comes The Wolves
5. Taylor Swift – Red

John Reed – Director Of Catalogue

Top 5 Favourite Cherry Red albums:

1. Ben Watt – North Marine Drive
2. Felt – Ignite The Seven Cannons
3. The Monochrome Set – Eligible Bachelors
4. The Marine Girls – Lazy Ways
5. The Misunderstood – Before The Dream Faded

Top 5 Non-Cherry Red albums:

1. Stone Roses – Stone Roses
2. Paul Weller – Wild Wood
3. Various Artists – Out On The Floor Tonight
4. Neil Young – Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
5. The Beatles – Revolver

Richard Martin – General Manager / Digital Manager

Top 5 Favourite Cherry Red albums:

1. 1. Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine – The Studio Recordings 1988-1998 (Deluxe Limited Edition Collector’s Vinyl Box Set)
2. 2. Hawkwind – All Aboard The Skylark
3. 3. Luke Haines – Rock And Roll Animals
4. 4. Felt – Ignite The Seven Cannons
5. 5. Teenage Filmstars – Star

Top 5 Non-Cherry Red albums:

1. 1. The Beatles – Abbey Road
2. 2. Spiritualized – Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space
3. 3. Oasis – Definitely Maybe
4. 4. David Bowie – The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust
5. 5. Chemical Brothers – Dig Your Own Hole

Lauren Archer – Marketing Manager / Digital Project Coordinator

Top 5 Favourite Cherry Red albums:

1. Rosalie Cunningham – ‘Rosalie Cunningham’
2. The Move – ‘Magnetic Waves Of Sound’
3. Be Bop Deluxe –  ‘Sunburst Finish’
4. Graham Bonnet – ‘Line Up’
5. Son Of Man – ‘Son Of Man’

Top 5 non-Cherry Red albums:

1. Traveling Wilburys – Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1
2. Fleetwood Mac – Rumours
3. Thin Lizzy – Black Rose: A Rock Legend
4.  Simple Minds – New Gold Dream
5. Rush – Moving Pictures

Jon Sidwell – Mail Order Manager and Sales & Distribution Assistant

Top 5 Favourite Cherry Red albums:

1. The Fall – ‘Sub-Lingual Tablet’
2. Hawkwind – ‘The Machine Stops’
3. Dead Kennedys ‘Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables’
4. Luke Haines – ‘Rock and Roll Animals’
5. House Of Love – ‘She Paints Words In Red’

Top 5 non-Cherry Red albums:

1. Employed To Serve – ‘Eternal Forward Motion’
2. Little Simz – ‘Grey Area’
3. Ithaca – ‘The Language Of Injury’
4. Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes – ‘End Of Suffering’
5. We Never Learned To Live – ‘The Sleepwalk Transmissions’

Eddy Ball -Business Affairs & Publishing

Top 5 Favourite Cherry Red albums:

1. Singers & Players – Leaps & Bounds
2. Creation Rebel / New Age Steppers – Threat To Creation
3. Creation Rebel – Lows & Highs
4. Various – Wild Paarty Sounds Volume One
5. Go-Kart Mozart – On The Hot Dog Streets

Top 5 Non-Cherry Red albums:

1. 1. Sade – Diamond Life
   2. The Upsetters – Super Ape
   3. Joe Henderson – The Elements
   4. ABC – The Lexicon Of Love
   5. Herbie Hancock – Sunlight

Matt Ingham – Head Of Press

Top 5 Cherry Red Albums:

1. Dead Kennedys – Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables
2. Felt – Splendour Of Fear
3. Sonic Boom Six – The F-Bomb
4. Pere Ubu – 20 Years In A Montana Missile Silo
5. The Fall – Sub-Lingual Tablet

Top 5 non-Cherry Red albums:

1. Rancid – And Out Come The Wolves
2. Housemartins – Now That’s What I Call Quite Good Vol. 1
3. Follakzoid – III
4. The Peep Tempel – Joy
5. Swans – The Seer

Jemma Rowlston – Digital Content Creator

Top 5 Cherry Red Albums:

1. Rosalie Cunningham ‘Rosalie Cunningham’
2. The Mamas & the Papas ‘People Like Us’
3. Nick Beggs ‘Words Fail Me’
4. Mel & Kim ‘The Singles Box Set’
5. Pointer Sisters ‘Greatest Hits’

Top 5 Non-Cherry Red Albums:

1. Nirvana ‘Nevermind’
2. Lana Del Rey ‘Born to Die: Paradise Edition’
3. Mike Doughty ‘Haughty Melodic’
4. No Doubt ‘Tragic Kingdom’
5. Hamilton (Original Broadway Cast Recording) ‘Hamilton’

Melanie O’Toole – Royalties / Business Affairs

Grant McLennan – Royalties / Business Affairs

1. The Chameleons – What Does Anything Mean Basically
2.  Porcupine Tree – Deadwing
3.  Pink Floyd – The Final Cut
4.  Cocteau Twins – Victorialand
5.  John Martyn – Cooltide