Quote:
Originally Posted by SSJTWIZTA
i cant do this. i tried and i tried, got sick of deleting, and gave up.
10!?
no way man. no fucking way.
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I know seriously. I hated this question when my friend brought it up because I changed it a lot of times. I would probably change it again if I put the thought into it right now, but I don't want to haha. Someone else I knew when I asked him rattled his list off in about 3 seconds flat. He's the only person I know who could decide so quickly. Everyone else probably takes at least an hour popping back and forth. He wrote it in a note:
1. Sticky Fingers -- The Rolling Stones
My Dad bought me this for Hanukkah when I was 14. It was the only thing in my CD player for about a month after that. Probably the single most important album I've ever listened to in my life.
2. Rubber Soul -- The Beatles
When Nate's dad gave me the entire Beatles collection on CD when I was 13, I was very excited. But it wasn't until Rubber Soul was listened to all the way through that it became clear to me why this band was, is and will always be the finest of the cream which rose to the top.
3. Who's Next -- The Who
Top to bottom, this album might be the culmination of all that is rock. Last year, I found my father's yearbook from high school, and his only quote was from the first song on there. I find comfort in that.
4. My Aim is True -- Elvis Costello
My dad bought me this randomly when I was 15. I couldn't fall asleep at my grandparents' house one night, so I popped it in my CD player and listened to it in the dark. It was like a bomb going off in my head.
5. Beginnings -- The Allman Brothers
This is my answer to anyone who thinks Lynard Skynard is talented. Skynard is a joke compared to the absolute southern brilliance that is this album. The second track on this album is as fine a song as you will ever hear.
6. Kind of Blue -- Miles Davis
Bought this one randomly freshman year. I was pissed about not being able to go home for the weekend, so I went to Barnes and Noble 10 minutes before it closed, called my father, and asked him "If the store closes in 5 minutes and I have one album to buy that I've never heard, what do I buy?" This was his answer. I listened to it all that weekend, didn't talk to anyone.
7. American Idiot -- Green Day
This album, from top to bottom, said everything I felt about the political climate at the time. And the music was fantastic. I don't care if you didn't like it because it got played into the ground by radio stations. 5 years later, I challenge you to listen to this all the way through and not be struck by how good it actually is.
8. Chutes too Narrow -- The Shins
This was my guilty pleasure in high school. I didn't tell anyone I listened to it. The lyrics in every song on this album never cease to get me when I least expect it. It reminds me of winter, and how removed from everything I felt during high school. This got me through my parent's divorce, along with a song or two off of "Oh Inverted World".
9. Blood on the Tracks -- Bob Dylan
"Bringing it all back home" and "Blonde on Blonde" are brilliant to be sure, but I hated Bob Dylan until I heard this album. Nothing political, no awkward chanting. Only amazing poetry and a voice that I finally understood to be simply another instrument with which Dylan told this story. This album changed my mind about him and subsequently opened the door to his earlier work, which is, if you understand its time, place and aim, incendiary.
10. NYC Man -- Lou Reed
There is no cooler human being on this planet than Lou Reed. It's not necessarily happy music, or particularly inventive. But his tone, his lyrics, and his simplicity are intoxicating if you're by yourself. High school would have been a lot different for me if I hadn't randomly discovered this guy while driving from Phoenix to California back in high school.