Massive Attack: Collected - yes, unusual to put a best of CD in a album that changed your life, but this opened my eyes to whole new style of music that I had previously written off as 'doof doof' crap. Also may have led to splitting up with my long term girlfriend recently, which is another reason it gets a tick in the box (yes, it was a breakup for the greater good)

A Perfect Circle: Mer de Noms - I am yet to hear an album that has such elegance about it, and opened my eyes to really seek out a more acoustic style of music, especially after the acoustic session that is out on the web. Not to mention involving a violin in what I consider to be one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard (Three Libras)

Smashing Pumpkins: Adore - before you execute me for naming one of their worst CDs as one of the albums that changed my life, let me set the scene. it was year 7 (first year of highschool), and this was my first non-commercial cd. This CD set me on a path to discover music outside the top 40. Having since discovered their other cds, to which outrank this one 10 fold, this CD has a number of under-appreciated tracks, especially For Martha. Fucking awesome track.

And to add more...


Nirvana - Bleach
Combichrist - Everybody Hates You
Pixies - Doolittle
Jane's Addiction - Nothings Shocking
Green Day - Kerplunk
Pearl Jam - Ten
Social Distortion - Story of My Life
Reverend Horton Heat - Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em


That's it for now...

Three albums for me changed my life.

Downward Spiral - There's a reason I go by Trent.

Versus (Pearl Jam) - Just a great album for me.

Most influential album for me

Disintegration (The Cure) - love love love this album.

Three Days Grace- One-X
Killswitch Engage- Alive or Just Breathing
In Flames- Come Clarity
AFI- Sing The Sorrow

all got me through hard times and helped me turn my life around

Here's a few for me:

Europe '72 - Grateful Dead - so many great great tracks -- the great harmonies and balance and interplay of the instruments was never surpassed - perhaps equaled, but not surpassed.

Dark Side Of The Moon - yes, cliche, but it really WAS new

Sgt Pepper - similar comments. Where would 'rock' songwriting be without this seminal move to embrace everything under the sun and bring it into the same tent.

Soundtrack - The Jimi Hendrix Movie - seeing him play live was way more influential on me than his studio work.

Get Your Ya-Ya's Out - The Rolling Stones - this live album is the best they ever were --- Mick Taylor is by far and away the best lead guitarist they ever had. Ronnie Wood totally pales. I heard Mick T quit largely due to insecurity - unbelievable to me, but go figure.

Travels - Pat Metheny Group - totally mindblowing record for a young guitarist such as myself. Expanding horizons in a new and original direction.

A couple of mine have been mentioned already but I'll repeat them for the hell of it, and add a couple more.

Red Hot Chili Peppers - BSSM
Tool - Lateralus
The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin
Radiohead - OK Computer
Hooverphonic - A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven

hmm....van halen I
boston
styx grand illusion
kansas hits
tones eric johnson

In the 80's i got their tape from seeing the video round and round. But i got their 2nd album invasion of your privacy. Round and round was on the first album..I was 8 yrs old at the time and loved every song . Did you guess ratt?
I just receinty saw them in concert that i have been waiting all my life for to see. Now my life is complete.

Well, as has been said, a best of album is a weird choice, but Classic Queen. It was the first CD I ever bought and a lot of the sad bastard tracks (Who Wants To Live Forever, The Show Must Go On) really shaped my emo teenage years (before emo was a recognized affliction).

Ænima was a big influence on me too; I didn't get into Tool until that album and it's still one of my favorites.

Peter Gabriel's So. I've bought that album at least three times. I wear it out every time.

Oh-yeah.

Original London Cast 'Les Miserables' Soundtrack

Changed my outlook on life, ahead of some difficult emotional times.

Agreed on Les Miserables, but I perfer the 10th Anniversary Concert soundtrack. No one can beat Lea Salonga as Eponine, and Wilkinson only gets better with age.

If you recognize half of these, you get a cookie :)

Hard Earned Smile by David LaMotte
A folk singer/songwriter. I grew up listening to his music and loved it as a kid, but the real message in this album never hit me until a couple years ago, during my teenage angst stage. I listen to it for a quick pick-me-up when I'm down. At the end of this year, after 18 years touring, he's retiring to do peace work full time. My hero!

The Planets Suite - Gustav Holst
The first classical music I ever fell in love with. Kinda opened my eyes to the fact that there was a lot of great music beyond punk rock.

Tobasco Donkeys
An amateur bluegrass band formed from Philmont staffers at the Boy Scout reservation in New Mexico. The recording quality is crappy and there are several noticable mistakes, but they make the album much more personal. Besides being awesome bluegrass, its noteable for "I Don't Mind," a song that talks about the stress and worry-free wilderness and the meaningless of material goods.

Ecliptica by Sonata Arctica
My introduction to Power Metal, just a few months ago. Metal's still hit-or-miss for me, but this album is almost all hit. Great lyrics, excellent musicality.

These albums have influenced my music greaty:

Operation Ivy- Energy & Hectic
Rancid-Self Titled (1993)
Nofx-Ribbed
Adolescents- Self Titled
Bad Brains-Selftitled
Choking Victim-No gods No Managers

I was in 6th or 7th grade, I was never really much of a fan of any actual good music, I just knew the popular crap on the radio. then I bought Dark Side of the Moon. even though I don't listen to much Pink Floyd anymore, that album lead directly to pretty much the whole library of music I listen to now

let's see...

meddle by pink floyd (yes, also dark side -- also animals... and ummagumma/saucerful of secrets...)
abbey road by the beatniks (also sgt. pepper and revolver)
physical graffiti by led zep (also led zep II, led zep I, and... pretty much all the other ones...)
axis: bold as love, by jimi (also electric ladyland)
metallica: kill em all. (i know, that kinda stands out, doesn't it? that album was still their best because when it came out, it was clear they'd invented something new musically, and had apparently done prodigious quantities of coke and amphetamines to do it...)
also ac/dc: back in black. probably not worthy in retrospect but when i was fifteen it seemed like genius.
the police: synchronicity and ghost in the machine.
medeski martin and wood: friday afternoon in the universe.
and a band you never heard of called corduroy, with an album called "Dad Man Cat."

oh, and yes: the yes album, fragile, and close to the edge. all biggies, but for change-of-lifeness the yes album wins out.

i saw frizzle fry up there and have to add that, too. also sailing the seas of cheese.

did i mention RHCP, blood sugar sex magic? man, that was an album that made a big big splash.

and... edie brickell, shooting rubber bands at the stars. please don't beat me up! i love that album.

as long as i'm getting in touch with my feminine side -- joni mitchell's "court and spark" and "clouds."

dr. dre 2001

sweet tunes
 

Evil 9 : you can be special too. Amazing hiphop/techno crossover.

Dave Clarke: Fuse presents, World Service. Probably my all-time favourite techno dj.

Arctic monkeys: first album, you can't help liking them!

Kings of Leon: Great! Looking forward to seeing them in a december.

Hendrix is the man.

p.s. I can't recommend Evil 9 enough. If you haven't heard them, get on it!

Elevator - The Rollers

Korn - Follow The Leader / Slipknot - Self titled / Chimaira - Pass Out Of Existence

These albums taught me how to connect with music on an emotional level and how to do more than listen to the music - they taught me how to feel the music.

Five Pointe O - Untitled

This album showed me that I was much more than an angsty teen and that good lyrics, vocals, and decent musicianship go much further than shitty guitars and terrible songs about being an outcast.

Cephalic Carnage - Lucid Interval

This album along with too many to list taught me that I really really like death metal and the more talented the musicians are and the more thought out their songs were the better. This album in particular was my first introduction to really deep and unrealistic guttural vocals and stop-start time signature changes.

The Dillinger Escape Plan - Calculating Infinity / Irony Is A Dead Scene

43% Burnt ends in the greatest breakdown ever. And Irony Is A Dead Scene opened up my interests to the manic genius Mike Patton.

The End - Within Dividia

This album taught me me to be patient and to dig deep under layers of noise and feedback to find such an incredibly well written and meaningful story that anyone could identify with if they took the time to digest the music. That album paved the way for my appreciation of bands like Psyopus, Crowpath, etc.

Radiohead - Kid A
It really blew my mind that I could get into something so soft and the fact that I could sit down and pay enough attention to make out Thom Yorke's subliminal vocals amazed me. I really felt this album and coupled with Bright Eyes' "Digital Ash in a Digital Urn I became much more open to so many new genres.

Ulver - Blood Inside

For the most part, the album intrigued me. I read reviews on it in so many metal magazines and when I finally heard it, I couldn't understand why anything that sounded like Ulver would be in those magazines. I put the time in to understand why it's such a brilliant album and eventually downloaded their entire discography. I got into all of their weird electronic and minimalist shit and found myself delving into the poetry of William Blake and the works of several other writers simply because they referenced them or in the case of Blake, based an entire album on his work.

Aesop Rock - Bazooka Tooth

Aesop taught me that I could and should expect the rap music that I like to be exactly as intelligent and fun as all the other genres I enjoy. Bazooka Tooth is so New York and it's so artsy while still hip hop . That album along with his other works turned me on to El-P, Cage, Yak Ballz, Tame, Weathermen, Cardboard City....

Zs - Buck

Zs helped to show me that all genres of music have much more in common than they ever will be different. Their music is essentially, technical and quirky jazz with obsessive compulsive leanings and seeing them live for the first time cemented my love for them.

...

...

Bad Religion - Empire Strikes First

that album introduced me to so much good music, in addition to the rest of Bad Religion's work.

The Cure - Disintegration

Depeche Mode - Black Celebration

Jane's Addiction - Nothing's Shocking

Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique

Guns n Roses - Appetite for Destruction

Quadrophenia- The Who

Seconded by Andres Segovia,

Thirded by John Williams- Star wars soundtrack