If you could re-experience an album for the first time, what album would it be?

[RPS]

There was a thread in Coin Op with the same premise, but video games. Wipe your entire memory of the album and listen to it again for the first time. 

I think I would go with London Calling. I've listened to it so many times that I can't even remember my first time listening to it. 

[Liam]

Probably 'Different Class' by Pulp or 'Remission' by Mastodon. Two albums that opened up my eyes to different musical opportunities. Neither are my favourite album of all time, but they were very influential.

[ADG]

Funeral by Arcade Fire.

[METALMAN]

This is interesting, because I'm not really sure I can answer this. Music tends to grow on me rather than affect me on the first listen. I've never really had that epiphanic initial listen that I've heard and read other people speak about on occasion.

Perhaps the closest would be Up The Bracket by the Libertines. That opened me up to something new at an impressionable age.

[VerbalPuke]

Cool topic idea.

Right off the top of my head, Nomeansno - Wrong. I remember getting into them, it gave me a different view point of how punk could be composed, also gave me ammunition for the morons that liked to say that punk bands didn't have talent. These guys had talent, and this album is proof, it's fucking tight, played at a break neck speed but almost has a jazz infusion in some aspects. It's one of the best albums I've ever heard, it blew me away, and even people that are neutral to this style said "yeah, wow these guys are pretty good". It still amazes me even years later at how good it is, it's always going to be at the top of my favorite album lists.

The Sex Pistols - Nevermind the Bollocks blew me away when I first heard it. I didn't know rock and roll could be that raw and nasty, it was such a breath of fresh air for me when I was stuck trying to sift through the shitty rock/metal in 99/2000. The Ramones were a part of it, but it was Nevermind the Bollocks that I first heard in it's entirety.

When I was 9 or 10 I bought a used copy of Paranoid by Black Sabbath that I still have today. It was a similar awakening in music as the Sex Pistols album, it was the first actual good rock I got into. I couldn't believe how dark, how powerful and just hard this shit was, and it was old. My dad said he heard it for the first time when he was my age as well. At this point, Black Sabbath is still among my favorites, though I don't know if I rate Paranoid as my favorite, though it is close with Master of Reality.

I can probably think of more, but those three are the first that came to mind.

[Benji]

Marshall Mathers LP. Not just because it opened my eyes to what hip-hop could be, but to what song writing and story-telling could be in a musical medium. The world, semi-autobiographical life, and characters he creates are just astounding, and are the kind of thing that should make writers of any medium want to match or be better than.

Other stuff I agree with Andy on, it tends to be my favourite albums grew on me, even if I really liked them at first, so for the most part there's not really many other albums I can say were better on first listen then they were on second, third, fourth, or hundredth listen.

[Rafael]

Good Kid M.A.A.D City. I wasn't really paying attention to the whole lyrical content/album concept the first time. I was young and stupid.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Sigur Ros' "Takk". Preferably not having heard them before either.

[GA!]

This is interesting, because I'm not really sure I can answer this. Music tends to grow on me rather than affect me on the first listen. I've never really had that epiphanic initial listen that I've heard and read other people speak about on occasion

Same, for the most part.

I remember being blown away by 'Koi No Yokan' by Deftones on the first listen, because I never expected them to better 'Diamond Eyes'. So probably that.

Or, I have good memories of my first listen to 'The Resistance' by Muse where I decided to shut the curtains and immerse myself by, um, watching the iTunes visualiser. I'd like to recreate that again, even if the album itself doesn't hold up in the long run as the masterpiece I thought it was on the first listen.

 

Oh, and 'Ki' by Devin Townsend. First time I ever listened to him, blew my mind instantly.

 

Edited July 29, 2015 by GA!

[RPS]

I'm usually the same that some albums tend to take time to really impact me. Other times it is really immediate. I remember the first time I listened to Darkside's album, I was walking my dog in the park and I just had to stop and listen for a bit, because I was getting goosebumps and just feeling overwhelmed.

[ADG]

Another one I've just thought of is Give Up by The Postal Service. Wasn't like anything I'd really ever heard before.

[Rich]

The Devil and God are raging inside me by Brand New is one I always remember as the first time I heard it it was like listening to something deeply personal that I shouldn't be privvy too, like hearing people's inner most thoughts that they wish to keep private.

 

[apsham]

 

The Devil and God are raging inside me by Brand New is one I always remember as the first time I heard it it was like listening to something deeply personal that I shouldn't be privvy too, like hearing people's inner most thoughts that they wish to keep private.

 

I must've listened to Jesus a million times.

[IDOL]

Spice Girls. What a magical time 5th grade was.

[Benji]

IF YOU WANNA BE MY @iDOL, YOU GOTTA GET WITH MY FRIENDS.

Edited July 31, 2015 by Benji

[MDK]

Not so much albums but soundtracks for games.

The OST for the original Gran Turismo i fucking love. It is a nice mix of rock and metal-ish type stuff and it is a perfect driving game OST. Of course the original THPS OST goes without saying.

I think the first time I heard Jollification was the first time I really loved an album. Just so good, I still listen to it to this day. Even tho I love my punk, I still have the softest of soft spots for some Brit Pop and I think the Lightning Seeds were criminally underrated.

Ixnay on the Hombre. Not just because I love the album but because I listened to it so much when I was young and with my mates and I would just love to re-live that whole thing again.

[DMN in the House]

I'd have to go with Atmosphere's Lucy Ford LP. Before that, I didn't really know much about the underground hip-hop scene, and my mind was blown to hear someone rapping about stuff like that. While I'd listened to stuff like Mos Def, Talib Kwali, and Common, which was closer to what Slug was putting out, I mostly listened to stuff from the west coast, or, like, Eminem, and it was really cool to see that it didn't all have to be like that. Really changed my musical outlook.

Another one would be Commencement by Deadsy, purely because, at the time, I thought that album was amazing, and I'd love to see if I still felt that way now that my musical tastes have really changed, without the years of loving it.

[livid]

Oddly enough the newest Tame Impala album Currents hit me pretty immediately, despite being in the same boat as most where it usually takes me a bit to wrap my head around an album.

The most distinctive is probably The Suburbs by Arcade Fire though. Stayed up all night just listening to it over and over again because I was wholly transported to the times I've spent growing up in the suburbs. And I can still feel that every time I put it on. 

[MDK]

I'd have to go with Atmosphere's Lucy Ford LP. Before that, I didn't really know much about the underground hip-hop scene, and my mind was blown to hear someone rapping about stuff like that. While I'd listened to stuff like Mos Def, Talib Kwali, and Common, which was closer to what Slug was putting out, I mostly listened to stuff from the west coast, or, like, Eminem, and it was really cool to see that it didn't all have to be like that. Really changed my musical outlook.

Another one would be Commencement by Deadsy, purely because, at the time, I thought that album was amazing, and I'd love to see if I still felt that way now that my musical tastes have really changed, without the years of loving it.

When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold was a more complete album for me. Or You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're Having.

[db07]

To me, it would be Them Crooked Vultures Self Titled, but just because of the viral marketing campaign prior to the release was amazing.