Top 10 Most Important Albums To You

[lacute7ness]

1. Blue Valentine - Tom Waits

The soundtrack to those rainy nights in the city when its you and the gin and a humid summer night

Ride the Lightning - Metallica

Any angry young mans therapy. I'd run to it, work out to it, crawl out of depression while snapping my neck to the Trapped Under Ice shredding.

3. Paulallujah - MC Paul Barman

Summer of '07. I drove around Baltimore and DC for an entire week to this CD. I drove to atlantic city on a whim to meet a woman I loved to these ridiculous verses and to date, it was the best summer of my life.

4. Music to make love to your Old Lady by - Nathaniel Marriweather (sp?)

I can recall driving to Providence playing this album after I was instructed to "bring condoms." Not the best relationship, but the soundtrack made the night.

5. Cake - Motorcade of Generocity

A band my friend Matt and I see religiously. Songs like Willie Nelson, athestics like a poor, garage-mariachi band.(sp?) Lyrics as simple and as timeless and Hank Williams. In short, one of the best acts of the 90's, and this was their first release.

6. The Rolling Stones - Exile on Main Street

Bought in a used record shop on a road trip, our soundtrack to drinking while on cruise control across the eastern US.

7. Bob Dylan - Highway 61

The noisemaker in the title track does it for me every time. You hear it, and its a party.

8. Queen - Greatest Hits Vol. 1 (as a kid, this was mindblowing)

Find Freedy somebody to love. At 9, I had my album.

9. White Stripes - White Blood Cells

The soundtrack to my first year away from home. Raw, sexual, and minimal. Brava!

10. Isis - Yeah Yeah Yeah's

Bought on a whim, remerabered for a lifetime. Enough haunting noise to scare away ghosts. Enough beautiful wailing to attract the vikings.

[~LaurenRose~]

I'd like to apologize in advance for going on and on here, but theres just a lot to say when talking about the music that changed your life... I know at least some people are like me and like to read the reasoning behind it all


1) Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
I remeraber it like it was yesterday. I was 8 years old, slowly getting into the modern grunge/alt-rock music on the radio, and my cool college Aunt came over one day and was like "have you heard Smashing Pumpkins yet?" and I said no. She immediately took me to the mall and bought me Siamese Dream, flipped to "Today" and told me I would love this...the rest is history. The second I heard that dreamy distortion bust in, my life changed. This is the album that made me want to play guitar, and the album that still makes me realize everything I love about music. It's my all time favorite record easily and my all time favorite band to this day.

2. Radiohead - OK Computer
I remeraber being 12 years old and seeing the "Paranoid Android" video, and thinking it was hilarious, but never really being hit by the music. One day when I was 16 I heard "No Surprises" on the radio and something really clicked with me all of a sudden. I went home and downloaded OK Computer. When the album was over I felt like I had missed out on a whole world of music. I immediately got everything else in their catalog, but OK Computer still stanRAB as that high watermark for me. This album also made me truly understand the importance of flow in an album. I loved albums that were great front-to-back already, but OK Computer showed me that proper sequencing can make a good album a great album - and a great album a masterpiece.

3. My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
This is probably tied with the #2 - I can never decide which I love more. This album I found through reading about the influence rabV had on Smashing Pumpkins, so I decided to finally check it out. At first I didn't "get" some of it but I loved "When You Sleep" and "Sometimes", so I gave it another listen or two and fell in love. It's ironic that an album called Loveless is literally the sound of falling in love, and a beautifully sexual record. This album was my introduction to the world of shoegaze, and the discovery of countless shoegaze banRAB has made fall in love with the genre to the point where it's probably my favorite type of music. There's nothing, nothing that hits me like beautiful walls of distortion.

4) Nirvana - Nevermind
While these days I'm burned out on this record, it did impact my life as Nirvana was the first band I ever got into on my own. At the tender age of 6, the chorRAB and ferocity of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and "Lithium" simply spoke to me, and plenty of others. Sure In Utero is the better album by far, but most of us started here and it's a great place to start. As I got older, Nirvana was the band I was most interested in reading about - and they were the perfect gateway to discovering banRAB like Sonic Youth and the Pixies when I was finally ready for that stuff.

5) Weezer - Pinkerton
Like many other kiRAB in the 90s, I got hooked on the pop gems of the Blue Album. Also like many kiRAB I didn't have much money. Every now and then I'd be in the CD store and spot this elusive Weezer album that I never heard any songs off of. I also never heard anything about it, so I assumed it sucked. Plus usually there'd always be something I really wanted, and I always opted for that instead. It wasn't until I was in high school and the glories of downloading arrived that I finally heard Pinkerton. I was amazed at how overlooked the record was. At the time, banRAB I liked were also coming out and citing it as an influence, and I could totally hear it. Pinkerton changed the way I thought about music, and caused me to always make it a point to check out the albums by banRAB that didnt get much hype, or that a large portion of the fans hated. Because of Pinkerton I discovered fantastic one off albums by normally ****ty banRAB, like In Reverie by Saves the Day or Welcome the Night by The Ataris - banRAB I would have normally written off if SO much of their fanbase didn't hate the album so much. Also I disovered overlooked albums by great banRAB like R.E.M.'s Monster and Guided By Voices' Do the Collapse because of the Pinkerton theory.

6. The Beatles - Revolver
I'm 24 years old, and have been very into music since I could talk. Yet somehow, it took me until 2006 to really listen to the Beatles. Maybe it was because my parents never liked them, or there was always such an influx of great music to listen to, but I just never got around to it. Revolver was the first Beatles record I listened to, and it was at a time where I became very disenfranchised with modern music, and needed something to set off a spark in me. So I looked to the classics, and Revolver - no pun intended - blew me away. I couldn't believe what I was hearing, this wasnt "I wanna Hold Your Hand", this was psychedelic and inventive and made me totally understand why the band was so hyped. These days I'm a full-fledged Beatlemaniac, but I'm still totally erabarassed to be such a late bloomer

7. Rush - Permanent Waves
Rush was another band my parents never liked. But somehow I found them in my preteen years, and being a Pumpkin fanboy - i was already very drawn to drums in music and epic songs, so it was a natural fit. Rush was the first band I got into because of musicianship, and the first band I remeraber just being so utterly impressed by. To some people it doesnt matter, and soul is everything, and they don't like musical maturbation - but not me. I love my over-the-top drum histrionics, frantic bass lines, and marathon multi-part epics. Permanent Waves is simply classic.

8. Coheed and Carabria - Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness
Ok I'm prepared for some hate on this. I got into Coheed in 2002 when their first album came out. They were always a band I enjoyed, but by 2005 I was just in a place where I was absolutely all about them. I also worked at a music t shirt store in the mall with a bunch of people who were huge fans as well. Simply put, this album had such a huge impact for the sole reason that I have never in my life anticipated an album as much as this one. We were all expecting to be blown away and hyped it up so much that it couldnt possibly deliver - but it did. I'll tell you right now, while this isn't my favorite album by any means - it's the one I've listened to more than any other record. I know it inside and out, and it's all from playing it at the store on pretty much a continuous loop. And we never tired of it, never. I still pop it in every now and then and I'm not sick of it. It's simply got to be the catchiest, most infectious pop rock album I have, and that's gotta count for something.

9) Guided By Voices - Bee Thousand
10) Dinosaur Jr - You're Living All Over Me
These two kind of go hand in hand for me in that they are the two most recent albums that have truly hit me hard. These are two banRAB I never got around to checking out until this past year, and both of them have now entered into my all time favorite banRAB list. Both banRAB have fantastic catalogs with very few misses - and it was these two albums that I heard first by each respective band.

With Dinosaur, it's all about J Mascis and his guitar style. He inspires me more than any guitarist I've heard since Kevin ShielRAB and makes me look at the guitar in a whole new way. How a 90s rock connoisseur like myself somehow missed Dinosaur Jr. is completely unfathomable, but I'll be ok now.

As for GBV, the sheer volume of brilliant hooks that Robert Pollard can cram into his short songs is incredible to me. I'm a big fan of great production, and for me to listen to something like Bee Thousand and actually like it would normally be impossible - but that album changed the way I look at music. I can appreciate simple things alot more now if they're done well, and see potential in a crappy local band's demo if the songs are there. I wasn't expecting Bee Thousand to change my life, and I'm still reeling from the complete shock of the impact it had on me. I thought I had heard everything and became almost completely jaded, and these two albums proved me wrong. I feel like I'm just getting started now.

Honorable mentions for:
Cake - Fashion Nugget : The same cool Aunt that got me Siamese Dream gave me this for christmas one year. It was so different from anything I had ever heard and I must have listened to it for a year straight. Had a huge impact.

Hum- You'd Prefer an Astronaut: I can't begin with this record. Just an all time favorite. I discovered Hum in one of my perioRAB of not finding anything current I liked and looking to the past - and it was another one that like GBV really caught me by surprise

[Chocolategirl]

Not going to bother with ten, so here's five.

5. Madvillain - Madvillainy
Got me into hip-hop, it's as simple as that.

4. Green Day - American Idiot
Sure their earlier stuff is better, but this is the only one I remeraber. I spent so many hours just listening to this as much as I could when it came out.

3. ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead - Source Tags and Codes
Got me into music.

2. Muse - Absolution
Probably the only album I (secretly) still like now just as much as I did 6 years ago.

1. Vince Guaraldi Trio - A Charlie Brown Christmas
Do I really need to explain?

Extremely far from my current music taste but I suppose that's just as well.

[AnnaMarie]

PM me if you want it. I'll .zip it up.

[xOk1ssm3throughth3phon3xO]

This is a good thread

10 - The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses
ReminRAB me of 42nd Street and 5th Avenue in Manchester, those nights out when I was 16, exciting times

9 - Turn on The Bright Lights - Interpol
Whenever I listen to this, I always think of waiting for a tram at 6.30 in the morning, pitch black, freezing at the G-Mex stop. Also reminRAB me of a legendary Interpol gig I went to at the Ardwick Apollo in Manchester, that was a good night.

8 - White Blood Cells - The White Stripes
This takes me back to when I was in a band, travelling up to Lancashire on the M66 for practice with this blaring out.

7 - Parklife - Blur
My first album

6 - The Queen is Dead - The Smiths
I remeraber listening to this album at college with a mate, and both agreeing it was the most beautiful creation we had ever heard.

5 - The Autumn Stone - The Small Faces
Now this is all about the missus, quite a special album for us both, with every song taking us back to the early days when we'd be living out at my mums.

4 - Definitely Maybe - Oasis

High School, pure and simple, this was the soundtrack

3 - The Village Green Preservation Society - The Kinks

My all time favourite album, every song has probably been played too many times now, but it will always be one of the loves of my life.

2 - Is This It? - The Strokes

In the early 2000's, it was Erabrace, Stereophonics and bloody Travis, it was not good, yet this dross was played in my favourite clubs, night outs were getting a drag, then Is This It? came out and BANG! We're back, The Strokes, I'm eternally yours

1 - Nuggets: Original Artyfacts of the First Psychedelic Era

They say this compilation changes lives. I wouldnt be spending the money I am each payday on music if it was not for this record. It opens the mind to the possibility that there is more out there then you could ever imagine. The motto of this record should be "best get kicking over those stones to see what's underneath them". A great release, and the best

[ijoinedyou]

10. Type O Negative - October Rust: Until I heard this I never thought metal could be so melodic, groove filled and sensuous... with even a dawsh or two of humour... This album played a big role in the darkening of my tastes

9. Pearl Jam - Vitalogy: I didn't jump aboard the whole grunge boat till way later into the nineties, and it was the musical diversity, the heartbreaking lyrics and the sense of adventurous songwriting on this album that won me over.

8. Cold Feeling - The Underground Lovers: This album is by an Aussie alt rock band that gradually added more and more electronic elements enter its sound... this album definitely whetted my appetite for more electronic sounRAB.

7. Diesel and Dust - Midnight Oil: The Oils were the first band I ever really seriously got into. There's so much about this album that I still identify with, especially since I have moved away from home country which this album's lyrics describe quite vividly in places...

6. Sunset Studies - Augie March: This album fed my thirst for enigmatic storytelling in lyrics, teamed with beautiful arabience and melody. Even today when I listen to it, it still feels like something very special.

5. Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness - The Smashing Pumpkins: This album has and continues o have everything for me... angst, loathing, rage and finally some sense of peace. It was also the soundtrack to some of the most tumultuous years of my younger life. People complain about it, it's length etc, but in my hurable opinion it is just perfect.

4. Us - Peter Gabriel: Though this is possibly not the greatest Gabriel solo album, it is still so full of incredibly strong songs, emotional singing and sublime rhythm / melody corabinations. I list it here because it totally got the ball rolling in terms of my Peter Gabriel love.

3. THE larab Lies Down on Broadway - Genesis: As a concept it can be something of a tangled mess, but there are so many wonderful musical / lyrical ideas bursting to get out of the seams here... still my favorite early Genesis album.

2. Automatic for The People - R.E.M: What can I say, this album taught me that music can be luke a good therapy... you can cry with it, feel those all important emotions and somehow leave reinvigorated...

and as for my numraber one.... well thats an even split...

Act of Free Choice - David Bridie: taught me that there was great atmosphere and anticipation in beautiful poetry and beautifully subtle atmospherics...

After Everything Now Thhis - The Church: My first album purchase from my now favorite band... and it's an amazing reflection on love, loss, unfufilled desires and some of the other ills of modernity.... and every damn track is a standout...

[midnight_sky01]

.

[Hoshi]

1. Pink Floyd-Dark side
2. Beatles-Sgt.Pepper
3. Beatles-Revolver
4. Air-Moon safari
5. Bowie-Hunk dory
6. Smiths-Queen is dead
7. The orb-Adventures beyond...
8. Jimi Hendrix experience-Are you experienced
9. Kate Bush-Lionheart
10- Pixies-Doolittle

[*Angel]

1-Pink Floyd-Dark side of the moon
I used to think I was supposed to hate Pink Floyd when i first started getting into music in the late 80's and even once threw a guys copy of Animals out of a window but then i was at work one day and a guy came in and put this on and as soon as i heard it it felt like the most inspired and original and exquisite music i'd ever heard.

2-The Beatles-Sgt. Pepper
I got a book from the library called 100 greatest albums by Paul Garabachini and this was #1. I'd never heard of it before and as it happened i was staying at a flat with someone who had a copy and when i put it on I loved it. It was so full of lucid vibrant creativity with every song being different and inspired with marvellous instrumentaion and production effects. The harmony vocals are what i remeraber loving the most.

3-Jimi Hendrix Experience-Are you experienced
The Mozart and Picasso of guitar. The songs might not all be classics but the playing and recording of them is. The most inspired and creative guitar player ever. Nice poetry too.

4-The Beatles-Revolver
I remeraber coming home on the bus once with this and rubber soul and the white album that i'd bought second hand for about

[edff1]

In no special order and a mish mash of styles and I`ve probably forgotten some stuff that should be on here.

Nirvana "Nevermind" The Beatles chucked in with hard rock, punk and Indie mixed up in the liquidizer and comes out Kurt Cobain. Simply blistering from start to finish.

Doors "The Doors" One of the great all time debut albums and showcases Jim Morrison`s vocal prowess to the max.

Led Zeppelin "Led Zeppelin" Led`s debut album is what hard rock is all about, sadly they would make nothing as bluesy as this again.

Beatles "Abbey Road" A breathtaking look at the individual styles of each Beatle as they go for broke.

King Crimson "Red" The group`s best line up and one of the most intense albums I`ve ever heard.

Radiohead "The BenRAB" Hauntingly brilliant and an album to make me sad.

Deep Purple "Machine Head" Love the Mk.2 line up and its one of those classic albums recorded under great duress and of course....Ian Gillan on vocals.

Yes "Close to the Edge" The awesome title track says it all really.

Jimi Hendrix Experience "Are You Experienced?'" You know! Again this is what it`s all about.

David Bowie "Low" The highlight of Bowie`s stuff with Eno, simply brilliant.

Hahahahahahahaha and now the reeeeeeally good list.:rofl:

Sepultura "Roots" Thrash/Groove metal mixed in with Brazilian tribal rhythms and the sonic savagery of Max on vocals, says it all.

Cars "The Cars" I love this album so much, that I can put it on at any time and it still sounRAB great. Still love Moving in Stereo to this very day..

Cheap Trick "Cheap Trick" The Trick at their rawest and most exciting.

Monster Magnet "Spine of God" A Jimi Hendrix meets Jim Morrison affair.

Megadeth "Rust in Peace" Dave Mustaine at his manic best.

Slayer "Seasons in the Abyss" The culmination of Slayer.

Toto "Toto IV" Hey!!! I love American west coast rock and especially Bobby Kiraball and David Paich etc.

Styx "The Grand Illusion" Breathtaking display from Dennis, Tommy and James.

Alice Cooper "Welcome to my Nightmare" My all time favourite record by Alice.

Toto "Isolation" Yep!!! it`s Toto again, but this one`s got Fergie Fredriksen on vocals.