Our peerless Style Council members reveal their desert-island discs.

The main job of our well-travelled, well-connected Style Council is to recommend restaurants, bars and hotels so that we, the ill-informed, have somewhere interesting to eat, drink and stay the next time we go away. But when we leverage a slot in their diaries to ask them for this information, we can’t help but ask a few more questions. Because, as well as being some of the most successful men on the planet, they’re also rather interesting, too. And they have as many opinions on the best restaurants in New York or where to get an espresso in Rome as they do on books, style icons and albums. Below, we open our ears to some of their desert-island discs.

If you’ve ever wondered what architects listen to in their downtime – or, indeed, when they’re hard at work – well, now you know. At least, you know what New York architect Mr Derek Sanders has downloaded on Spotify: the debut album by legendary American guitarist J.J. Cale. Mr Sanders describes it thusly: “Feels like you’re relaxing on the front porch with a loved one on a warm summer’s day.”

As the founder of Haydenshapes, Mr Hayden Cox probably has own of the coolest jobs in the world. And, given he’s been designing surfboards for 20 years – since he was 15, in fact – he’s rather good at it, too. He also strikes us as the type of man with great taste in music. And he didn’t disappoint when we asked him for his favourite album. This Nirvana classic, he says, “just doesn’t seem to date. It’s a favourite of mine to play when I’m in the shaping bay.”

“Since its release in the late 1990s, this album has never grown old,” says Mr Luca Venezia of this Boards of Canada record. “And it holds a nostalgic, special place in my heart with its timeless melodies.” Praise indeed from a man who has forged a career spinning records in clubs and producing them in the studio.

Mr John Brodie is a close friend of MR PORTER, and he is well known for his encyclopaedic love of music. So it must have been tricky to whittle down his impressive album collection to one favourite. But, his thoughts on this seminal release from The Rolling Stones go some way to explaining why it might have been an easy choice after all: “It’s all there: rock and roll, blues, soul, country, gospel. There are tracks for when you’re down (“Shine a Light”), for when you’re up (“Loving Cup”) or when you want to put the car in drive (“Rocks Off”).”

And now for something a little different, as chosen by Mr Thomas Persson, editor-in-chief of Luncheon magazine (and previously responsible for Acne Paper). Preferring the classical route when choosing his favourite album, Mr Persson says of this reimagination of the Vivaldi classic, “It transports me to a better place.”

Keep up to date with The Daily by signing up to our weekly email roundup. Click here to update your email preferences