To quote Bill Hicks, I must have missed a meeting, hence my embarrassingly-late contribution to the bloggers’ ‘top 15 albums on the 15th September’ concept (my laptop also gave up the ghost just when I was trying to get it in under the wire).

But like a lot of music fans, I can’t resist a list, so here’s my top 15 as of today. I set myself a few guidelines: only one artist per slot, no dud tracks, no compilations, and some kind of stylistic variety on offer across the selection; in other words, I thought of the 15 albums as a kind of extended desert-island playlist.

So here we go, in no particular order…

Lewis Taylor: Lewis Taylor (1996)

The Beatles: Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)

Roxy Music: Avalon (1982)

Steely Dan: Gaucho (1980)

Peter Gabriel: III (1980)

Weather Report: Mr Gone (1978)

XTC: Skylarking (1985)

Cocteau Twins: Heaven Or Las Vegas (1990)

David Sylvian: Gone To Earth (1986)

Sly And The Family Stone: There’s A Riot Goin’ On (1971)

Tribal Tech: Illicit (1992)

Stanley Clarke: Stanley Clarke (1974)

Herbie Hancock/Freddie Hubbard/Wayne Shorter/Ron Carter/Tony Williams: VSOP The Quintet (1979)

John Martyn: Glorious Fool (1981)

Scritti Politti: Cupid And Psyche ’85 (1985)

Just missed the cut:

Grace Jones: Nightclubbing (1981)

Prince: Around The World In A Day (1985)

Mr Bungle: California (1999)

It Bites: Once Around The World (1988)

Mark Isham: Vapour Drawings (1983)

Prefab Sprout: Jordan The Comeback (1990)

Michael Jackson: Thriller (1982)

Level 42: World Machine (1985)

Thomas Dolby: The Flat Earth (1984)

John McLaughlin/One Truth Band: Electric Dreams (1979)

Miles Davis: Nefertiti (1967)

Love And Money: Strange Kind Of Love (1988)

David Bowie: Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) (1980)

Thelonious Monk: Genius Of Modern Music Vol. 2 (1951)