[chadbang]

Pink Floyd "Animals" helped ease me into a life of artificial stimulants. Boy, what a change....

 

[CRESCENDOPOWER]

The Police – Synchronicity / Van Halen – 1984
I listened to these albums on the cheapest Turntable you could ever imagine in Junior High, and High School, and loved every minute of it.

Metallica – Black Album / White Zombie – La Sexorcisto: Devil Music, Vol. 1
A time in my life when I cared about only 4 things: beer, women, fighting, and education, probably in that order; what a jarhead!

Marilyn Manson – Antichrist SuperStar / Tool – Anemia
The “I don’t see why all my friends are getting married years; freedom rules!”

Tool – Lateralus
Music has sucked for almost 3 years now; thank God Tool is still around to save the day. Also, the “I can’t do what I used to years.”

 

[usc goose]

Dr. Dre - The Chronic

 

[SumB]

It was listening to cuts from Michael Jackson's "Thriller" album on my hand-me-down radio at a pre-kindergarten age that kicked off my interest in music.

 

[Trounce]

Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick

Until that album, I had a naive preconception that complicated music had to be lyrically infantile or the opposite, like Bob Dylan. It opened me up to a world of progressive rock that I didn't know existed, which then led the way for Genesis, Yes, and in recent weeks, Scofield, Dimeola, Coltrane, Davis and others.

The shift is substantial.

 

[Arzela]

Thick as a Brick is not "lyrically infantile"?
Even Ian Anderson admits the lyrics were all
off-hand nonsense.

Of course, it is
interesting off hand nonsense.
I rather enjoyed the album, and "A Passion Play".

 

[Matthew-Spaltro]

Deep Purple in concert with the London Harmonic. 30 years before those ****heads in Metallica recorded with the San Fran orchestra.

 

[stymie miasma]

Hey - cool thread! That said, it sure is a tough one. A couple of albums come to mind because they fit the following criteria:

1. After hearing them, I immediately FORCED friends to listen to them.
2. I am still WOWED when i listen to them.

SCORN Collosus

I picked this up just after it was released, more out of curiosity than anything else. I had no idea what to expect, but the first listen floored me. A hypnotic and sinister mix of dub, grindcore, ambient/electronic and horror movie samples. Sounds absurb, but it really pushed my buttons. I actually listened to it this morning before coming to work.

VLADISLAV DELAY Entain

My good friend loaned me this. The first listen didn't do much for me, but during the second listen, something clicked. I can't explain how this 'music' affects me, it just does, and it opened a whole new realm of exciting and like-minded artists.

BEASTS OF BOURBON

Actually, this 'revelation' happened at a gig rather than via record. I saw The Beasts of Bourbon by chance, and was totally blown away. I have copied some of an interview with Henry Rollins, where he discusses the first time he saw the band. While it was a completely different gig, Heny's thoughts are concordant with my own:

Quote:

I mean when I heard The Mark Of Cain didn't have a record out in America I was like 'well **** that, let's get busy with that. When you hear them..., I mean they could come to America and devastate nine tenths of what is touring right at the moment. When I saw The Beasts Of Bourbon I thought exactly the same thing, let's just get them to America so they can kill everyone. I mean I watched them blow Nirvana offstage just so pitifully at the first Big Day Out. Oh man that was tragic, I was so glad I wasn't those guys that day. I was standing on the side of stage and Tex came out and just owned it. It was the Horden Pavilion and the place was packed and he came out there like Mick Jagger or something, just rude, bad-assed, totally charismatic and the band was amazing. Then Nirvana came out and were great but not..., everyone knew the day belonged to the Beasts. And I was like 'you guys don't have any records out in America You can't get The Low Road in America?' That's one of my favourite albums and I got involved with Tex and I started shooting my mouth off to all these people...

 

[Kieran Comito]

Quote:

Originally posted by Masonjar Husker Du - NEW DAY RISING kicked so much more ***** than any of the "metal" I was listening to at the time.. the SST bands (Black Flag, Minutemen, Meat Puppets, along with the Huskers) let me to stuff like R.E.M., the Violent Femmes and the Replacements. Then soon the British stuff followed (Joy Division, the Cure) and my Quiet Riot and Motley Crue albums were soon gathering dust. -jar

Wow, I took a very simular path. I used to be into 80s metal bands. After listening to The Alarm's "Declaration" album, I discovered all of the bands you mentioned and then some. My favorite is The Church.

 

[TheMuffinMan_01]

i guess mellon collie and the infinate sadness. really opened me up to some great music.

 

[Zanth]

This is VERY interesting. Three times this has happened to me. Three albums three different periods in my life. All equally as enlightening/destructive.

U2 - Joshua Tree/Rattle and Hum (I place them together as R&H was the JT world tour) This was back when I was passing into middle school and was dealing with some heavy issues at school and in my personal life. It got me through some TOUGH times and I am forever greatful to Bono. He knows it too. I pay hommage to him daily, his photo hangs in my living room next to my bazillion cd's. I revisit these albums often.

Radiohead - The Bends. I had discovered this album a bit late. I was just exiting my first year of university when I was first exposed but it was only after my second year that I purchased the album. Some serious mayhem had gone on in my life and this album single handedly kept me from going insane. I actually took a few neuro-psyc/phys classes and psyc-music classes to discover how this album could have quite literally saved my mind. Especially since it is so depressing.


Matthew Good Band - Underdogs. I had just asked my wife to marry me but I was doing my masters far far away from her. She was finishing up her undergrad and we would only be together the following year. Even though this year was hte year that determined my future in a really cool field, I HATED this year and daily I wanted to perish. This album I would listen to on repeat and kept me going until I could see my beloved.

There are other albums that have touched me deeply throughout time, a few that are really hitting me hard lately, but no catastrophes as great as those three aluded to above. No three albums still affect me, give me chills and fill me with such emotion that I can cry. Good times, and one of my forceful arguments that music is really the only drug a person ever needs. Music cures....

 

[dsavitsk]

Dead Kennedys -- Frankenchrist
Crass -- The Feeding of the 5000

 

[loveheadphones]

Tool - Aenima

amazing album. listened to it non stop for two years. now it's like an old shoe =)
listened to it all throughout high school. i didn't really have tough times in high school, but no one lived close by so I was alone a lot.

 

[Iron_Dreamer]

Judas Priest - Turbo

Yes, it was the attemped sell-out wanna-be hair-metal career nadir of these metal pioneers that actually made me get really interested in music, to the point where it became a major part of my life. The title track was the first I'd ever heard Halford, and I remain hooked on his voice to this very day.

I would also mention Dream Theater - Images and Words, which I bought after reading favorable opnions on some random metal site, and it really opened my ears to the possiblites of more complex music, as well as the sheer beauty that music makes possible.

 

[strohmie]

Heh, in chronological order from when I first heard them...

1997: Radiohead - OK Computer
-- would you believe that I fell asleep the first time I heard this?
1999: Basil Poledouris - Conan the Barbarian OST
2000: Massive Attack - Mezzanine
2001: Philip Glass - Koyaanisqatsi OST
2003: Amon Tobin - Bricolage

Each of them in some manner changed the way I looked at music and life in general, though all obviously in different ways.