Albums that Changed Your Life

[Dr. Rated-R]

Audioslave's first album.

I know it's not the greatest album in the world or anything, but it's the CD that got me to stop listening to shitty radio-friendly music and really start searching for the real material, all because I loved the way Cornell sounded and wanted some "Cornell-esque" material. It's the album that transitioned me from "mark" to "smark" in relation to music, for lack of a better thing to make a comparison to.

Too bad Audioslave's new album is so goddamned underwhelming. =\

[MalaCloudy Black]

Audioslave's first album.

I know it's not the greatest album in the world or anything, but it's the CD that got me to stop listening to shitty radio-friendly music and really start searching for the real material, all because I loved the way Cornell sounded and wanted some "Cornell-esque" material. It's the album that transitioned me from "mark" to "smark" in relation to music, for lack of a better thing to make a comparison to.

Too bad Audioslave's new album is so goddamned underwhelming. =\

Out of Exile or Revelations? I like Revelations a hell of a lot more than Out of Exile.

[gunnar hendershow]

Led Zeppelin - IV

Nirvana - Nevermind

KMFDM - Angst

The three most important albums for me without a doubt. Zeppelin got me into music that wasn't Bizkit or Korn. Nirvana got me into modern music. And KMFDM are my favorite band ever, Angst being the first album I heard.

[Benji]

"Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavoured Water" by Limp Bizkit

Seriously, this is like THE album for me, this and "The Marshall Mathers LP" are the albums I have to thank for stopping me just paying attention to the radio, ironically both were massive cross-brand hits and international successes, but the fact remains if these albums hadn't come along I wouldn't have tried to find more music like it and found so much more. I was a slightly delayed 'bloomer' to get into the music in my school, but I wouldn't choose any other two albums to have gotten me in any earlier, in my eyes at least, they hold up as a pair of great albums.

[ClaRK! Kent]

I think every album I listen to changes the way I think about certain things a little bit, if it's even remotely good, or if it's really awful, but for ease of use I'm gonna post the ones that had the most profound impact on me growing up, or whatever...

The Beatles - The White Album

My parents are big music fans, my dad was a session musician in the 1970s and has a lot of stories, and they turned me onto great music from my youth. I was about 9 or 10 when my dad gave me this album, and whilst I was too young to really 'get it' totally for a few more years, this was something totally different to all the music my friends liked/which was around at the time, which was wall-to-wall Spice Girls and Oasis. This album spoke to me a lot more, and made me realise that this was the kind of music I wanted to be listening to.

Rolling Stones - Exile on Main Street

I was about 15 when I first heard this as anything more than something my dad brought up when drunk and having a "Stones vs. Beatles" argument with my uncles. I instantly swung around to his way of thinking. This was blues, rock, pop, and just about everything in between, and they did everything better than anybody else who was doing it at the time. This is probably their finest album after Let It Bleed, but I heard that long after this one, so I'll always have a soft spot for it.

Bob Dylan - Blonde on Blonde

I'd loved Bob Dylan since I was a kid, but I never really thought about why that was when I was a kid who just liked humming Blowin' In The Wind or whatever. When I was like, just 16, I sat down and listened to this album in full, and something seemed to click in my head. This was the album that made me think of myself as a 'music' person, and that also - somewhat pretentiously - gave me what I can only describe as an epiphany. This album was the one that first helped me think about life, about things, about people and concepts, in an adult fashion. The fact that it's also closer to perfection than any artist has ever managed before or since doesn't hurt, either.

Goldfrapp - Black Cherry

I never thought I could like stuff that wasn't rock'n'roll. I was a bit of a snob, raised on Beatles and Stones and Dylan as I was, until I heard this album at a party when I was about 16 or so. This was beautiful. It was lush, full, and really very sexy indeed, whilst also being heinously musical and just damn addictive. This turned me onto electro overnight, and over the next few months I decided if I liked that, there was no reason I couldn't like other stuff too, so for the first time I listened to hip-hop, pop, and just about anything you can name with an open mind. This album was the one that inspired me to expand my horizons.

The Smiths - The Queen is Dead

It's a little-known fact that everybody secretly loves this album. It's an actual law, ratified by Parliament, that everybody likes this album. That said, I had really avoided The Smiths as a kid, because I was only familiar with Morrissey from his heinously-bad mid-90s period and foolishly assumed it'd all be the same. When I heard this album, it was beautiful. Really great, dryly witty, exceptional playing from everybody - Johnny Marr is probably the most underrated guitarist ever simply because so few people realise he is probably one of the best of all time - and truly brilliant songs. This one also came at a time I was in a relationship that was doing nothing for me, in any way shape or form, and was much more bad than good. A couple of the songs on this album really spoke to me, and this was shortly after my experience with Blonde on Blonde, so they helped me make the adult decision to end the whole torrid affair. This one pretty much defined my experience and expectations of relationships from then on, really.

The Kooks - Inside In/Inside Out

An odd choice, but hear me out. In about February of this year, I went to see a classical music concert in Birmingham with my schoolfriend Ryan, who is very much into that sort of thing. I really enjoyed it, much more than I thought I would (or told him, being the staunch rock'n'roll/indie fan I was) and it sort of stayed with me, the sheer musicality, depth, and beauty of it all. About three weeks later, I was listening to this album, and something struck me. It was so... boring. Really. There was literally nothing exciting about it, like I'd convinced myself there was. Everything was predictable, one-dimensional, and very mass-produced. I went and listened to a lot of my other indie albums, and I found the same thing. With a few exceptions (Libertines, Kings of Leon, The Dears) the whole genre is so empty to me these days, it just feels very stale and same-y.

Feel free to laugh.

[Kaney]

"Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavoured Water" by Limp Bizkit

Seriously, this is like THE album for me, this and "The Marshall Mathers LP" are the albums I have to thank for stopping me just paying attention to the radio, ironically both were massive cross-brand hits and international successes, but the fact remains if these albums hadn't come along I wouldn't have tried to find more music like it and found so much more. I was a slightly delayed 'bloomer' to get into the music in my school, but I wouldn't choose any other two albums to have gotten me in any earlier, in my eyes at least, they hold up as a pair of great albums.

Holy shit. I dunno which LP is which, but either MM or Slim Shady one, along with CSATHFW were both the first albums I actually really listened to. Thats about as far as it goes though. I've never really had a moment in time when listening to any album and thought "Wow, this changes everything." I know for a lot of people that their entire life revolves around it, but for me, music is just something to pass the time. I listen to tons of stuff, and I'd give up a lot of things before I'd give up my Soundgarden albums, but nothing has been life changing for me. So far.

[VerbalPuke]

And I dread the day that someone will buy it because, as far as I know, we've only got the one copy on vinyl, so I won't be able to listen to it at work any more. On one hand, I love selling good music to people, as it reaffirms your faith in humanity after selling shite records all day, but on the other hand I'd quite like it no one ever bought any of the better albums, because it leaves me with something to listen to >_<

Ah ha, right on. I didn't put it together that you were working at a record shop of sorts. I was puzzled thinking "He doesn't want anybody to buy it?" but it makes sense since it gets a frequent listen from you. Why don't you consider buying it and bringing it to work with you?

And those prisoners in San Quentin were privileged getting Crime and Johnny Cash to play shows for them. The Crime is really low fi dirty punk but it's still awesome. The footage is great with prisoners holding up Crime flyers.

[Fanku Kaibutsu]

Guns n' Roses - Appetite for Destruction I seem to have been extremely lucky as a child, in the sense that all my friends' parents have had terrible tastes in music, yet mine did not. All my friends parents were into country or pop or nothing at all, and to find good music on their own. My parents were different, they listened to heavy metal and rock, and more importantly they let me listen to it. So as a small child, while my friends were listening to 'Kids' songs, I was listening to Ozzy Osbourne, AC/DC, Steppenwolf, and my favorite of all, Guns N' Roses. And(I think) oddly enough, despite my age I understood that the songs were about harsh inner-city life, drug addiction, self-destructive living, and nostalgia for a simpler time in the face of the modern world.

Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Mother's Milk Another album I owe to my parents. They bought it, and didn't like it because there was too much like 'rap shit'. I, on the other hand, loved it and it started my mild interest in rap and funk.

Rage Against the Machine - Evil Empire I remember seeing Bulls On Parade on MTV(Remember when MTV showed rock videos for more than an hour a week? Those were the days) and thinking 'Holy shit! This is the purest, angriest music I've ever heard.' And Rage's lyrics helped form my current anti-big-government/anti-big-business stance.

Green Day - Dookie Thankfully, I'm not one of the people who say 'Green Day got me into punk music'. To me, Green Day wasn't musically different from other alternative bands of the day like Nirvana or Stone Temple Pilots. Lyrically, however, they were the first band that I strongly related to, they were the first band that 'spoke' to me. The first band where I'd hear a lyric and go "Yes! That is exactly how I feel, or have felt in the recent past!' It probably says something about me that a lot of their songs were about apathy, laziness, and borderline schizophrenia. Upon hearing this album, Green Day became my favorite band and remain my favorite band to this day.

Soul Coughing - El Oso Even though it didn't really change me in anyway, I feel like mentioning this because the first time I listened to it was an almost profound experience. It was so completely different and unique from anything I'd ever heard, or have heard to this day, and it was utterly brilliant. It's a tradgedy everyone in the band hated each other and they broke up after 3 albums

Insane Clown Posse - Great Milenko ICP was a kind of music I had been looking for my whole life without realizing it. All my life I'd been a fan of the dark, spooky, wicked, scary shit, and I enjoyed music to that effect. The problem was all the music like that was really serious, and heavy. But the Insane Clown Posse were funny. Their songs were really violent, and had themes of things like Voodoo and serial killing, but they had fun with it. A lot of the violence is almost on a macabre slapstick level. While ICP, along with their ilk Twiztid and Dark Lotus, are probably my third favorite music group behind Green Day and Dragon Ash I feel like I must go on record as saying that I absolutely hate most ICP fans. I hate juggalos, and I hate that they ruin the image of what I believe to be one of the most unique and imaginitive musical acts of the past 20 years.

Dragon Ash - Lily of the Valley A few years ago, as much as I hate to publicly admit it, an Anime Music Video(one of the few good ones called "Tainted Donuts") got me into japanese music. This led me to Dragon Ash. I believe that Dragon Ash is one of the most versatile bands on earth. I've never seen a band who have attempted and succeeded at so many different styles and tones. From punk rock to hip hop to electronica to metal and combinations of all. From fast and heavy punk and rap-metal to the most beautiful and calming songs I've ever heard in my life. The closest thing to an accurate description of the band I can think of is- Imagine if the Beastie Boys were much much better at punk rock music, and instead of evolving into almost pure hiphop, they combined the two, then added more electronic elements, then went through a westernish phase. Imagine if Linkin Park didn't suck. Then you'd have something along the lines of the pure unfettered awesomeness of Dragon Ash. Anyway, yeah, Lily of the Valley was the first full Dragon Ash album I'd ever heard.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

"Homogenic" by Bjork

"Polythene" by Feeder

"Showbiz" by Muse

"Avant Hard" by Add N To (X)

"Surrender" by Chemical Brothers

There's an easy five, all for different reasons...

[Toe]

CKY - Volume One

The first CD that I listened to that I could listen to all the way through without skipping songs, the first CD that didn't get boring after a week (it still isn't boring). CKY just fucking rock, seeing them live is one of my best memories. Plus, listening to CKY got me to enjoy rock in general more, like Metallica and Guns N' Roses.

[Dr. Rated-R]

Audioslave's first album.

I know it's not the greatest album in the world or anything, but it's the CD that got me to stop listening to shitty radio-friendly music and really start searching for the real material, all because I loved the way Cornell sounded and wanted some "Cornell-esque" material. It's the album that transitioned me from "mark" to "smark" in relation to music, for lack of a better thing to make a comparison to.

Too bad Audioslave's new album is so goddamned underwhelming. =\

Out of Exile or Revelations? I like Revelations a hell of a lot more than Out of Exile.