Definitive Records asks interesting Vancouverites to sift through their memories and pull out the three albums that anchor their musical tastes. Most recently we tracked down local blogger, baker and author, Lyndsay Sung.

Before digging into Lyndsay’s excellent picks, here’s the lowdown on her musical past in her own words:

I’ve been through so many listening phases over my lifetime. Carole King and Sam Cooke growing up, pop music like Madonna and Michael Jackson through my elementary years, R&B in early high school which got replaced by grunge which then got replaced by a Smiths/Morrissey obsession. Classic moves. In college I encountered college radio – I remember hearing Velvet Underground and Nico for the first time on the college radio station and immediately going to A&B Sound to buy the CD (lol.) Followed by tons of indie rock, then a wicked British phase of Lush, Blur, Pulp. Then major feminist music stage which continues to linger… PJ Harvey, Nina Simone, Sleater Kinney, Helium, all the while still loving pop music and oldies. A major Smog, Blonde Redhead and Low phase somewhere in there… Then, deep into 1980s post punk, and a range of amazing music introduced to me by beloved bandmates over the years, my impressionable and eager ears. Siouxsie, Kate Bush, the Cure, Bowie, Joy Division, This Mortal Coil, The Sound, Teardrop Explodes… Then metal, psych rock… folksy female singers… These days I listen to mostly Kendrick and Judas Priest, and any and all of the above, and always always the music and albums of my friends!

Janet Jackson – Rhythm Nation 1814 | LISTEN

Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s I was heavily influenced by what my oldest sister was listening to. So when I started high school, I was very into Janet Jackson, Boyz II Men, New Edition, Whitney Houston… I would phone into the radio station and request songs, and tape them off of the radio, trying my best to cut off the commercials. Janet Jackson Rhythm Nation was the first concert I went to with my friends, on my own without parents, in grade eight. I wore my dad’s bright red bomber jacket, giant hoop earrings and a black half-top from Off The Wall at Metrotown, and fake Doc Martens from Army and Navy in New Westminster. We went to an after party at the Agrodome, which smelled like horses. My dad picked me up afterwards in his GM Suburban. I felt like a miniature adult yet still a child, while all my friends tried their hardest to “blossom” quickly by dating older boyfriends and smoking cigarettes purchased from 7-11. My personal dream was to get a job at Yogen Fruz at the food court, but my parents wouldn’t let me work more than one day a week so I didn’t get the job. I had the album on cassette and I remember that screechy sound of rewinding back my tape over and over to “Escapade” on my yellow Sports Walkman…

Siouxsie and the Banshees – Juju | LISTEN

Siouxsie reminds me of those youthful Asian Goth art school days of the early 2000s where every week you’d start a new band and the week after you’d make posters with Letraset and collage, then perform in that band’s first show, lol. Life’s importance revolved around touring in bands and eating gas station snacks for dinner, playing shows in towns across America and believing that you’d be doing this forever. I loved how powerful Juju sounded when I first heard it… we completely ripped the drum beat from “Spellbound” for our not-meant-to-be-hilarious super goth lesbian vampire 16mm short film soundtrack. The film played at the old Blinding Light Cinemas with my parents in attendance, hehe. They have always been so supportive of everything. I also love the wildly beautiful guitars, production and Siouxsie’s amazing vocals on “Into The Light”, my favourite track.

Lightning Dust – Fantasy | LISTEN

I love this album so much. This album feels so shimmery to me, it glistens with synths. I blast it often in the kitchen and sing along when I’m working on cakes, and when the sun streams through the kitchen window I get this feeling of being inside “Pretty in Pink”, the urgency and gutting intensity of teenage crushes; there’s a loneliness to this album, or maybe it’s just that I like listening to it when I’m alone. Amber, the singer and writer, is a good friend of mine, so I also feel comforted when I listen to this. I love how “Mirror” builds to a glittery, Phil Collins-y splashy-sounding apex. “Never Again” could basically be the end credits to any of those movies you might’ve loved as a teen when your emotions ruled everything around you.