There are all kinds of theoretical puzzles; the ones where you have two tribes, one that always tells the truth and one that always lies, the ones where you have a goat, a chicken, a wolf and a boat that only holds two, and my favourite, the one where you're stuck on a desert island that somehow has electricity and a functioning CD player.
There are a few variations of this one, sometimes you're allowed 10 CDs, sometimes just one. Questions arise: is it cheating to pick the Beatles White Album? OK, it's a double album, so technically it's 2 CDs, but it kind of solves the problem of variety by having a truly Polymusical programme. Well, if that's legit, what about boxed sets?
I've long had my own answer for this challenge, and it doesn't involve cheating; it's a single CD, 10 songs (no, I don't need the special enhanced editions with extra tracks, thank you) and in the over 40 years since its release I have not yet tired of a single one. For me, the Desert Island album is Elton John's Tumbleweed Connection.
In interviews, he laughingly complained that Bernie Taupin kept writing all these lyrics that belonged in country and western songs and he'd had to upbraid him for it, but for this one moment it appears he caved, and everyone in the band came along for the ride. They never sounded like that before or since. So listen to this, and remind yourself over and over that it's a bunch of white Englishmen:
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