This is a new feature where we talk about albums that represent us. Albums that have shaped us. Albums that have soundtracked some of our happiest times and our saddest. And then there are albums we strutted round the house high on poppers to…they will always hold a special place in our heart.

Today’s album is one of our dearest albums – Barbra’s Streisand’s Guilty. First off we need to explain that we have been drawn to Barry Gibb’s beard for, like, forever. Before our first trip to XXL. Before our first viewing of an Arpad Miklos movie. Before we knew a bear was more than just an animal.

Our love for Barbra came relatively late in life. She was always a little too Mum-sy for us. Those ballads with Celine. You know what we’re talking about. Then a dear friend introduced us to ‘My Man’, ‘He Touched Me’ and ‘The Way We Were.’ We were sold.

Legend has it that Barbra was due to work with all three Gibb brothers on the album but when their manager demanded three quarters of the albums profits, as there were three of them to one Barbra, she replied, ‘They all sound the same. How much would it be to work with one of them?’ And so we have the hirsute Barry on the cover. Thank the Lawd.

‘Woman in Love’ and the title track are what everyone knows this album for but our favourite is the epic ‘Make It Like A Memory.’ It’s massive and a song we always come back to. Researching this piece someone called it her ‘MacArthur Park’ and I guess so, but that sets it up for a fall because nothing can really match that song. We think of this as a musical ballad that…well we won’t ruin the surprise.

We were discussing with a friend yesterday how before you ‘come out’, you listen to hip hop, punk, jazz whatever, but then as you ‘come out’ you discover the queer albums of your history. There is a complete backlogue of music to go back and investigate. Guilty continues to be one of the albums we’re glad we said ‘Mum, I’m gay’ for.