Album #1

"Carrie & Lowell" - Sufjan Stevens

My favourite LP of the past decade. I have listened to this record so many times. It's so beautiful and inspirational to me. It already feels otherworldly, so it seems obvious that it'll go over well in space. It's so haunting, eerie, and beautiful. It never gets old to me - I can't listen enough. And repeat value is high on the criteria for space spinning LPs.

Runner up in the category of dreamy folk would be Bon Iver's "For Emma, Forever Ago."

Album #2

"First Impressions of the Earth" - The Strokes

This record is so effortlessly cool. It's so full of wonderful contradiction - it's conversational and poetic at once, beautiful and rugged simultaneously, lyrically metered with rogue lines spilling out. The opening track is iconic. The first time I heard him sing "Sit me down, shut me up, I'll calm down, and I'll get along with you" I just sat there, staring at the wall, knowing my life would never be the same now that I had this record.

I would bring the first three Strokes records with me, if my spaceship permitted. 

Album #3

"When The Pawn..." - Fiona Apple

There is no other wordsmith like Fiona Apple. Simply Unmatched. Choosing a Fiona record to keep in outer space feels criminal (Fiona Pun intended), because I'd bring them all. I chose this record because it gets quiet angsty, and I'm assuming I'll need an outlet at some point stranded in space. "I Know" "Get Gone" "Paper Bag" and "Love Ridden" are my favorite tracks. 

In the runner up category for angsty in space, I'm going to nod to Alanis Morissette's "Jagged Little Pill" and Avril Lavigne's "Let Go" - two albums that changed my perspective on what kind of voice I could have as a female musician & writer. 

Album #4

"Blue" - Joni Mitchell

Another unrivalled wordsmith, but on a different side of the emotional spectrum. This is a no skip record. Joni's melancholy, longing, hopefulness will be the perfect soundtrack for when I'm staring back at the little blue dot that is earth from my spaceship, wistfully longing for home. She sings about loving and leaving and longing. I particularly love the opening track "All I Want" - the first time I heard it, I wrote down the words, because I was so inspired as a songwriter that I felt writing them down might allow me to absorb some of her masterful lyricism in some way, by some kind of osmosis: "I wanna talk to you, I wanna shampoo you / Wanna renew you again and again / Applause, applause, life is our cause/ When I think of your kisses, my mind see-saws"

Album #5

"Rumors" (2004 Remastered Version) - Fleetwood Mac

This record is going on here because it contains two of my favourite songs of all time: "Dreams" and "Landslide." Because I'm bringing the remastered version, we can add "Silver Springs" to the mix, which was originally scrapped from the track listing (travesty). I released my own cover of "Dreams" which I worked on for 7 years - nothing can touch the original, but I felt a lot of joy singing & producing the track. I once listened to "Dreams" on loop on a cross country flight from NY to LA, for 6 hours straight - all the evidence I need that I will not tire of it while floating aimlessly in the galaxy.