NoCure

Led Zeppelin IV

Metallica - ...And Justice For All

Weezer - Blue Album (Deluxe Edition)

Nirvana - Nevermind

Ted Nugent - Ted Nugent

Wunderbar

Marilyn Manson - Antichrist Superstar

Odd answer I know, but it just changed my life somehow. I don't even know how, but I know I wouldn't be the same person without having heard that album way back in the day.

CyCo PL

Nirvana - Nevermind - Was there anybody who grew up in the 90's that didn't own this album? This is the album that got me into music in general. It was the first album I owned, along with Offspring - Smash, Soundgarden - Superunknown, and Silverchair - Frogstomp.

Metallica - ...And Justice For All - This album set into motion the events that define who I am today. I had heard Enter Sandman and the Black Album before I heard this album, and I just wasn't really interested in Metallica. After I heard "One", though, I had to have this album, and then subsequently bought every album released before it. This album made me start playing guitar, and start growing my hair long. When I moved out of state (I was 13 years old), I didn't have any friends and only had my guitar and Metallica albums. They kind of shaped my personality and outlook on life in general. When I was a little older, I joined a band and experienced a lot of... experiences. I give this album credit for almost everything that happened to me after I got it.

Primus - Frizzle Fry - For a period of time after Metallica, I was very close-minded when it came to listening to music. I only listened to metal, anything that wasn't metal was pussy shit (pardon my language but I had to accentuate the immaturity of that statement). My older brother introduced me to this album and it just blew me away. It showed me that music can be awesome, and not be metal. Because of that, I started giving other bands a chance, and it just kind of opened up a whole new world of music to me. A musical epiphany if you will. Even after Primus' magic has dwindled, Les Claypool still manages to churn out the same musical genius on his solo albums that made Primus special.

In Flames - Colony - This isn't my favorite In Flames album, but this is the first In Flames album I ever heard, and it reassured me that metal is, in fact, NOT dead, or dying for that matter. It was during a sad period in metal: Metallica cut off all of their hair, and started releasing rehashes of the same music over, and over, and over. (I'm sorry, but Load and Reload are basically remakes of the black album). Megadeth started getting really pretentious and silly (Risk, anyone?) Pantera was on a long break, and their last album was just not that great (Reinventing the Steel). Sepultura turned into a nu-metal Korn-ripoff band. I was convinced that metal was in its final death throes, and then In Flames came riding in, on their shimmering steed, and pulled me from the wasteland of mainstream metal. Through In Flames, I found out about many other Swedish metal bands that were also excellent, i.e. Soilwork, Arch Enemy, and Dark Tranquillity. Then, that branched out to other Scandinavian metal bands, i.e. Children of Bodom, Amorphis, Ensiferum, Kalmah, the list goes on and on. In Flames showed me that metal will never be dead.

Roc/Shaman

Miles Davis - Bitches Brew
Beatles - pick one, but in particular Sgt. Pepper or Abbey Road
Doors - All of them
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon, I don't know how many copies of that record I wore out in various formats before the advent of CD's
Hendrix - Electric Ladyland
John Coltrane -just about any of them

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- All of us contain Music & Truth, but most of us can't get it out. -
- Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence in society. -
- Mark Twain -

byesman

Growing up, it was country music that my parents listened to. I started with the outlaws, Waylon & Willie and Johnny Cash. Then I moved into the KISS stage back in the early 70's. But all of that ended with an album many have already referenced:

Darkside of the Moon

Two things got me: the tom-toms on the Time intro, and Brain Damage/Eclipse. The beauty of the lyrics and the passion of the music have melded into a seamless thing of joy for me.

That chance listening has led to a 30 plus year infatuation with Pink Floyd, as well as a rather large (and growing) collectible collection. Have seen the Floyd, and have seen the solo acts. My life is complete.

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If after I depart this vale you ever remember me and have thought to please my ghost,
forgive some sinner, and wink your eye at some homely girl.

H.L. Mencken

biznatch

Yes, nobody can never emphasize Dark Side of the Moon enough. It can change anyone's life, and not for the worst. I still believe that album has been unequaled in quality.

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meembo

The Wall and Dark Side Of The Moon.

Zeppelin blues rock in the first albums.

Quadrophenia

Vladimir Horowitz playing Beethoven sonatas

Kind of Blue

Nevermind comes close

Plenty of albums have great material, great singular songs, but the above are the ALBUMS that did it for me. There is a rare art to putting it all together.

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less I say, smarter I am

Cobain25

Nirvana "Nevermind"
and
Oasis "(What's the story) Morning Glory

Jetée

I am still a tyke when it comes to music, but I have no qualms in stating the first great album I experienced was the Gorillaz Demon Days, and then a subsequent introduction to Daft Punk's Discovery. There are very few album's nowadays that flow consistently and have every song an integral part of the whole. If one song is omitted, then the entire album is lost. Both albums here seek to convoy a story, a symphony if you will, and the progression through each song plays its part perfectly in creating a most memorable experience in music. And to think, I experienced both life-changing albums within a year, with the last being only four months ago.

(Note: I tend to be slow in picking up albums, hence the apparently-skewed time-frame between both albums. Heh. Albums released 2005 and 2001 respectively.)

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As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world (that is the myth of the Atomic Age) as in being able to remake ourselves.

—Mohandas K. Gandhi

Bim

Three words:

Daft Punk: Homework

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"If you stay here too long, you'll end up frying your brain. Yes, you will. No, you will...not. Yesno, you will won't." -Guy in Moonside

h2ogo69

Stereo Modus - Ex Tempore
Jane's Addiction - Ritual De Lo Habitual
The Clash - London Calling
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik
VNV Nation - Praise The Fallen
AFI - Art of Drowning
Christian Death - Only Theatre of Pain
h2o - FTTW
Aphex Twin - Richard D. James
Miles Davis - In A Silent Way
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of The Moon
Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine
Wu-Tang - Forever
Radiohead - Kid A
Jeremy Enigk - World Waits

Twizted

Wow! So Primus had the exact same effect on me, except I was into rap for the most part. My cousin turned me on to Primus and Mr. Bungle and today I still think they are my favorite bands of all times... They didn't fit a genre, cookie cutter mold. They were about creativity...

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A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.
-- Emo Philips

wbhilton

The Dave Brubeck Quartet - Jazz at Oberlin
Fugazi - Red Medicine
Mozart's Requiem
Refused - Songs to Fan the Flames of Discontent
Shpongle - Tales of the Inexpressible

lankrypt0

Jamiroquai - Virtual Insanity
Matisyahu - Not really an album, per se, but the first time I came across his music
The Doors - Best of The Doors
Green Day - 1,039 Smoothed Out Slappy Hours

Not Right Now

Stereo Modus - Ex Tempore
Jane's Addiction - Ritual De Lo Habitual
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik
The Clash - London Calling
Buckethead - Colma
Pink FLoyd - Darkside of The Moon
Radiohead - Kid A
AFI - Art of Drowning
VNV Nation - Future Perfect
Miles Davis - In A Silent Way
Jeremy Engik - World Waits

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I only came to dance.

balzac_06

Peter Gabriel's "Us" opened up a whole new world for me, lyrically and musically.

Also:

Crowded House - "Woodface"

XTC - "Nonesuch"

BT - "Movement in Still Life"

BentMisanthrope

Frank Zappa - Sheik Yerbouti - My dad has been playing this since I can remember. When I got old enough to actually develop musical interests he'd play it for me, constantly having to fast forward over the naughty bits. I think this was the start of my dad's huge musical influence on me. Plus I think if you hear Zappa from birth it's got to have some kind of impact on your subconcious.

Peter Gabriel - Secret World Live - More the video that came with it than the album itself. This is another thing about my dad. He'd put this on and blast it, singing along and everything.

Our Lady Peace - Spiritual Machines - I had always liked them, but I really grabbed onto them in junior high, when life was seriously sucking. Now they're my favourite band... hearing their music is like (don't laugh) coming home, in a way. I know it all inside and out, it's a part of my life now.

Pantera - The Great Southern Trendkill - Lent to me by the guy I was secretly in love with through high school, it opened up this whole new window to all kind of metal. Most of which he showed me. I remember hearing Floods for the first time with him. Now we've been dating for almost two years... Now when I hear Floods it's like hearing the start of everything again.

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Keep passing the open windows.
(John Irving)

divagrrrl

Jeff Buckley - Grace

Jadey

Nirvana Nevermind and Metallica's The Black Album were very influential in influencing my musical tastes. As a freshman entering college I was really only influenced by Rap and R&B. That was all my friends listened too and all I listened too. I grew up in a part of town (the bad side of the railroad tracks) where I didn't have many white friends until high school and even then I still hung with a lot of the people I grew up with.

Once I got to college I was paired with a hick from down south that listened to mostly southern rock and country, but it was also the same year that Nirvana and Metallica released two very influential albums for me. He had purchased both but didn't really like them much so he didn't notice that I constantly borrowed them to listen to while I walked to class. That opened me up to TONS of other music.

That eventually lead to my discovery of Pink Floyd's DSOTM which is my favorite album ever and because I've listened to it soooo many times it's been the soundtrack to many good memories for me. Now I can just put that album on and it transports me to a very calming and almost transcendental place. It's helped me through a lot of tough times.

Even typing this about how much the album means to me makes me feel good.

ironpham

RHCP - Blood Sugar Sex Magik
Weezer - Blue Album and Pinkerton

Muse - Absolution - This album completely caught me off guard. There's something about their music that makes me love them so much. I can't explain it. Yeah, I know they supposedly sound like Radiohead, but I don't care. I like them better.

frozenstellar

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.

World's King

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...

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heavy is the head that wears the crown

Konichiwaneko

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.

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Clare

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

Chumley

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.

intellijence

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

ganon

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

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"My give up, my give up." - Jar Jar Binks

Datalife2

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.

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where's my lighter?

Kadath

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.

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it's quiet in here

Plan9

Oh-yeah.

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Whatever you can carry.

"You should not drink... and bake."

siogo

Original London Cast 'Les Miserables' Soundtrack

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

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California sunlight, sweet Calcutta rain, Honolulu starbright, the song remains................the same.

Logarithm

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.

SSJTWIZTA

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

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First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the communists and I did not speak out because I was not a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for me And there was no one left to speak out for me.
-Pastor Martin Niemoller

sscott

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

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you just gotta keep living man, L-I-V-I-N

MrTia

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."

zvezdas88

dr. dre 2001

onewheelwizzard

ogra

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!

Kung Fu Kid

Elevator - The Rollers

Manic_Skafe

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.

...

...

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"Porn is a zoo of exotic animals that becomes boring upon ownership." -Nersesian