“My Favorite Album” is a weekly column in which we ask a musician exactly what the title suggests — to name their favorite album of all time. This week, it's Brian Peraza, singer and guitarist with Fairfield garage punks Jesus & the Dinosaurs.

The Cure
Faith (Fiction)

For my favorite album, I would say it would definitely be Faith (1981) by The Cure, which coincidentally just turned 38 years old on April 14. I feel that this album opened up another dimension for music and sound in my head — this is an album that immediately changed my understanding of the process of creating an atmosphere and a concept through sound.

It’s an album that I know I can always go back to — it’s like a place I can visit and stay at, because the atmosphere is that vivid and tangible to me. Simon Gallup’s bass playing is sublime, and it’s one of those things you hear and say, “I want a sound like that.” Robert Smith’s guitar has this gliding, cold feel to it, the lyrics are full of imagery, and the way he sings them makes it feel like he’s living every single word he’s saying. Lol Tolhurst’s drumming is precise and to the point as well.

This is an album that has been hugely influential to me in so many different ways, and it’s an album I can be sure I’ll keep listening to for as long as I’m alive.

Jesus & the Dinosaurs play with La Tuya and Red Brigade at 8 p.m. on Friday, April 26, at Cafe NELA.

Credit: Fiction

Credit: Fiction

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