OK, OK, I’ve been doing this Twenty Albums in Twenty Days thing on Facebook, but I figured, what the hell, we’re in lockdown so I might as well share those albums on here, too.

I mean, now is as good a time as any to listen to music, right?

We have weeks and months stretched out before us, so we can make our own soundtracks to isolation, and try listening to music that perhaps we had previously overlooked.

So, Day Six: actually by Pet Shop Boys

Listen here

This was one of the very few albums that I bought on vinyl. I already had the 7″ single What have I done to deserve this and decided to take the plunge and buy the whole album.

I went to HMV in Oxford to buy it, and my dad questioned my decision to get the LP rather than the tape; to this day I don’t know why I opted for the vinyl version, but either way, this album became a lifelong favourite.

It is an absolute classic, and full of hits: What have I done to deserve this, Rent, Heart, It’s a sin.

Neil Tennant didn’t look like a typical pop star, and I really wanted to be Chris Lowe; he seemed effortlessly cool, so unsmiling and just standing there behind his keyboards.

I finally bought Actually on CD, in 2001, as a reissued edition with a bonus disc of additional material of b-sides, remixes and demos. It takes me right back to being thirteen and fourteen, and remains one of my most treasured possessions.

Click for Day One, Day Two, Day Three, Day Four, & Day Five