Albums that changed your life
 

Every once in a while, I'll hear an album that totally catches me off guard and influences my musical taste for years after.

Here are some of mine and why, what are yours?

Led Zeppelin - I
Somebody gave me a dubbed tape of this album in Jr. High. It was my introduction to classic rock/blues.

Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
High School, bought it on a whim after reading some of their lyrics. I was hooked right away, shaped my tastes for a long time.

Dr. Dre - The Chronic
Another dub tape somebody gave me. My introduction to rap music...opened my mind and sent me on a long love affair with urban radio.

Pavement - Watery, Domestic
I bought this EP from a small hipster store in college because it was cheap and I liked the cover. My first indie album, and one of my faves to this day.

Cool World - The Soundtrack
My introduction to techno. Yeah, it sounds really dated now, but once upon a time it was exciting and new...still a "guilty pleasure" album

Honorable mentions: Portishead - Dummy, DJ Cam - Mad Blunted Jazz, Mr. Bungle - s/t, Velvet Underground - White Light/White Heat, Negativland - Helter Stupid

Layla- Derek & the Dominoes; what rock SHOULD have been in the early '70's
Blood on the tracks- Bob Dylan; Commercial Dylan?
A Night at the Opera- Queen; brilliant, just brilliant

Led Zeppelin II - My first infusion of Classic Bluesrock. Later came the rest of the albums, but that's another story.
Jeff Buckley - Grace - The most beautiful album of all time
Oasis - What's The Story Morning Glory - It was the first album I ever bought. Rarely listens to it and don't really like it anymore, but it was my first...
Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland - What can I say? God playing on an electric guitar. Wow. My biggest inspiration to pick up the guitar myself.
Tool - Lateralus - When I boght this album it was the first newly released album I had bought in 2 years. Now don't get me wrong I have a LOT of music, but in those years 1998-2000 everything that came up sounded like shit to me, so I only bought music that was pre-1975. Tool opened the whole metal scene to me. Plus it's a kickass album.

Queen-A Night at the Opera: First album I ever got

KoRn-Follow the Leader: One of my first two metal albums

Rob Zombie-Hellbilly Deluxe: The other of my first two metal albums

Nine Inch Nails-Pretty Hate Machine: Introduced me to Industrial music

Mystic Circle-Drachenblut: First Death Metal I listened to

In Flames-Clayman: First Black Metal band I listened to

Eminem-Thw Lim Shady LP: The first rap music I listened to because I actually liked it, not because it was "cool" to do it (Thankfully, I grew out of the fitting in phase fairly quickly)

Obituary "The End Complete"- First death metal CD bought. Began the long journey into darker metal.

Summoning "Stronghold"- Glorious.

An album that literally changed my life: I bought the Replacements' first album, Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash, when I was fifteen or so. (This was in 1987 or '88.) It was my first exposure to punk, which led me to a lot more punk, the politics of which led to an interest in politics in general; plus punk opened me up to a lot of other independent / underground / avant-garde music, not to mention literature and movies, etc. Best six bucks I ever spent. (P.S. If you've never heard the Replacements, check them out, especially their first six albums.)

"Pinkerton" by Weezer was the first CD I listened to that I still listen to today.

The first Ramones cd was my first "punk" cd. Public Enemy's "Fear of a Black Planet" was the first rap CD.

Rage Aginst the Machine - Self Titled

Beastie Boy - Check Your Head

U2 - Joshua Tree

Pink Floyd - The Wall.

Nine Inch Nails - The downward Spiral.

Tool - Aenima.

Nirvana - Nevermind.

And more recently, Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf.

:)

Zep III

dark side of the moon

rumours

too many more to mention

Led Zep - I - II - III
Doors - LA Woman
Floyd - Dark side of the moon - The wall
Elton John - Honky Chateau
Stones - Beggars Banquet
Queen - A night at the opera and A day at the races


Most of these albums were relesed years before I listened to them, but they were the one's that "awoke" my interest in music. Like flyman says, there are too many to mention, these are the ones that first entered my head.

Green Day...first album i ever bought and it was the first step i took away from my parents and toward being an individual
That's probably why i love the band
I went and seen them last year....sucky seats but the concert was still great

huh, this is tough, cuz there is so much that just made me STOP.

REM - Murmur
Replacements - Pleased to meet me
The Doors - best of (cuz i ain't THAT old, sorry it's a greatest hits)
jimi hendrix - are you experienced
wilco - yankee hotel foxtrot

fucked up list, eh? that's just the drunk beginning

In no particular order:

Emerson Lake & Palmer - Brain Salad Surgery
The Doors - L.A. Woman
Deep Purple - The Book of Taliesyn
Iron Butterfly - Metamorphosis
Husker Du - Zen Arcade
Led Zeppelin - II
Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger
Nine Inch Nails - And all that could've been live
Rush - Exit...Stage Left

The only one i can think of off the top of my head is Master of Puppets...thats the album that put the guitar in my hands.

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik (Best album of the 90's, fuck Nirvana)

Pink Floyd - Dark Side of The Moon

To a lesser extent RHCP - Californication

Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon changes my life every time I listen to it. I didn't like The Wall so much though, except Comfortably Numb...

Coldplay's Parachutes came to me in the mail from my girlfriend at a time when we weren't getting along so well... in a small way, it helped me fall in love with her again.

And that sounded sappy as hell. Ah well, it's the truth. :)

In no particular order:

Signals- Rush

Don't Tell a Soul- Replacements

Low End Theory- Tribe Called Quest

Big as Life- Hamell on Trial

Life's Rich Pagent- REM

Poses- Rufus Wainright

Wow! Good choices. LAOALS and Blood on the tracks were my two top choices, along with Automatic for the People by REM. These three albums have influenced me so much. Layla is what I base my musical roots in. When I learned how to play guitar, my first thing I wanted to do was to learn every single song off that album. Blood on the Tracks (along with Nashville Skyline) really got the acoustics out of me. Automatic for the people is just the most sincere album I think. It brings tears to my eyes how well written that album was.

I also really love Tony Rice's Manzanita. Perhaps the greatest display of bluegrass talent ever.

Counting Crows - August and Everything After
NIN - Pretty Hate Machine
REM - Automatic for the People
Spin Doctors - Pocket Full of Kryptonite

Kid Rock's Devil Without a Cause was my first CD. I can't believe I didn't wear that disc out!

Deep Purple- The Battle Rages On <---was my first cd
Nirvana- Nevermind
Led Zeppelin- I
Led Zeppelin- II
Led Zeppelin- III

their's so meny Hendrix the most

Any Metallica album

You might want to give a listen to the 3 discs of the "Old & in the way" series; it was a live performance recorded one weekend in 1973 at the Boarding House in S.F. The band is David Grisman, Peter Rowan, John Kahn, Vassar Clemins and Jerry Garcia (yes, THAT Jerry) playing live bluegrass; EVERYONE I've ever turned onto this series LOVES it; great energy, good music; a real "live" feeling- kinda warts and all.

Albums that changed my life...lets see.


Marilyn Manson - Antichrist Superstar.
Introduced me to metal and industrial music.(Admittedly this album is not strictly either of those). It opened up the world of darker music for me. It also showed me that appearances can be deceptive: They may dress up like a bunch of idiots, but DAMN if they don't make good music.

Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile.
Wow! An absolutely awe-inspiring double cd album. To me, this was the album that brought nine inch nails to a whole new level of artistic achievement, stretching the industrial genre to whole new heights. Many people dislike nine inch nails, judging them purely on the harsh tones of "the downward spiral". They should give this album a listen, and see if they form a different opinion of Trent Reznor.

Chemical Brothers - Surrender.
My first electronica album. Proved to me that all electronic music is not the "Ummph..Ummph...Ummph...Ummph" of dance music. A brilliant album, that introduced me to electronica and "IDM".

Aphex Twin - I Care Because You Do.
Aphex Twin is now one of my favourite modern musicians. This album is amazing, especially Icct Hedral, almost unbearably tense, wonderful stuff. Oh and it contains "that" track: Ventolin. Beautiful in its own special way ;)

Brian Eno - Ambient 1: Music for Airports.
This is an absolutely amazing album. It introduced me to ambient music, and the idea that music can be listened to on an unconscious level. Played in the background, gently colouring the atmosphere. It also introduced me to the idea of "systems music". The idea that music doesn't have to be meticulously "composed", yet can be created by systems of "rules", which led to the idea of "generative music"

what really did it for me was pink floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon"

Time change my life!

Frank Zappa ...The Grand Wazoo and Waka/Jawaka
Slayer...Seasons in the Abyss

I've listened to these albums literally hundreds of times, Zappa for the technicality and originality, and Slayer for its sheer brutality.

Favorite Zappa album is and always will be; "Hot RATS"

what, no Beatles, Rolling Stones, the Who, Spirit, Traffic, Chicago (first two albums)?
I guess I qualify as the old guy here

I kinda doubt that; I'm 56, I've been seriously collecting music for roughly 40 years; I just developed a dislike for "mass music" at an early age; if an album didn't meet my definition of "serious", I didn't bother with it. That's not to say that the preferences I posted earlier are the only albums I like; the three that I mentioned just grabbed me right from the first note; they still get a lot of play on my equipment, and they haven't aged.

Great subject!

Green Day - 1,039 Smoothed Out Slappy Hours
The Smiths - The Queen is Dead
James - James
Snoop Doggy Dogg - Doggystyle
The Beautiful South - Welcome to the Beautiful South
Spiritualized - Pure Phase
R.E.M. - Automatic for the People
A.F.I. - Sing the Sorrow

Please don't crucify me for leaving out all the obvious choices. I'm post-modernist for crying out loud!

SNARF \m/

Great thread, WildZero!

loganmule, I'm there for you!

In (my) chronological order:
Meet The Beatles
Sgt Pepper's...
Woodstock (The Real One!!)
Led Zeppelin I
Low Spark...
Runt/Ballad
Boy/War/Joshua Tree

Thanks for jogging the "old guy" memories, WZ.

At the Drive-In - Relationship of command

In my opinion the greatest album ever recorded. It totally changed the way I look at music and broadened the range of music I listen to. These guys would have changed music had they not prematurely broken up.

jeezus... where does a list like this stop?
well, back in my formative years:
Bad Brains - Bad Brains
Negativeland - Helter Stupid (and U2)
The Smiths - The Queen is Dead
Ice-T - Power
NWA - NWA and the Posse
Crass - The Feeding of the 5000
Skinny Puppy - Too Dark Park
Joy Division - Closer
The Pixies - Surfer Rosa
The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin

More recently...
Patty Griffin - Living with Ghosts
Cannibal Ox - The Cold Vein

Beatles - Sgt. Pepper
Jeff Beck - Blow By Blow
CSNY - Deja Vu
Derek & The Dominos - Layla

richeee and warrrreagl named some good ones...I have to add Hendrix's Are You Experienced LP, as it coincided with an unusually good sexual encounter (and it's also really good)

I forgot about Alan Parsons Project- I Robot- awesome album!

mos def and talib kweli are blackstar

up to that point, i was listening to pretty much pop rap or whatever got spins on the radio. this cd was the gateway to other hip hop acts like blackalicious, the roots, j-live, etc.

Lostprophets - Thefakesoundofprogress.... became one of my favorite albums, still is, upon 2 seconds (literally) of listening.

The Apex Theory - Topsy-Turvy.... just the most inventive, amazing thing that I had EVER heard to that date... probably still is.

Glassjaw - Worship and Tribute... I just LOVED the songs on this CD, and I actually spent a day interpreting the meanings of the songs.... yes, this is true.

Glassjaw - Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Silence.... This CD is just SO powerful... the messages are really blunt, and kind of frightening when you think of it.

Townes Van Zandt - The Late, Great Townes Van Zandt.... This man is the greatest songwriter who ever lived.... just listen to him.

Best of Broadside Box Set - Various Artists.... in a word... INCREDIBLE. You have to hear some of this stuff to believe it... greatest social commentary there is

Metallica - Master of Puppets.... I haven't heard a better metal album... ever.

Bob Marley - Legend.... This is the most widely accepted CD ever. The songs from it can be played on ANY music radio station and be accepted... think about it, it's true.

And lastly...

Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables... first CD I ever owned, still one of my favorites. Got me into music BIG... and think of how different my musical taste would be if I bought the OTHER CD I wanted that day... sadly, because I hadn't made my mind up about what I really liked yet, it would have been The Village People - Ready for the 80's. EEK.