Best Ever Albums

Re: Albums that changed your life the most?

Anonymous — Tue, 24 Jun 2014 19:19:52 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 06/24/2014 23:19

Works of music regularly inspire paradigm shifts for me. There are aesthetic paradigm shifters. The Beatles, The Velvet Underground, Kraftwerk, Robert Wyatt, Captain Beefheart, Slint, and Godspeed You! Black Emperor in the early phases of my musical development were key. GZA, Nas, and OutKast helped inspire me to listen to more hip hop. Following the Kraftwerk and Robert Wyatt arcs, I was introduced to a variety of electronic vectors. Jazz was spurred on mainly by Mingus and Black Saint and the Sinner Lady, with Peter Brotzmann's Machine Gun serving as the catalyst for going on three or four years of intense love for free and avant-garde jazz. Classical was probably instigated by composers like Bach and Beethoven for the power of their pieces and Feldman for the cerebral pleasures he offers.

Just as important for me, however, are the intersections between music and philosophy and politics for me. These shifts are much more satisfying. The Velvet Underground and their punk lineage and fans of that sort of thing introduced me at a pretty early age to Marxist ideas and resistance to existing structure. Frank Zappa, for as dramatically flawed as he was in many of his political views, helped to ignite a spark of questioning that led me to be curious enough to explore a lot. Brotzmann and really all of that crazy plane of jazz he occupies helped me to cement feelings about anarchism and the beauty that comes with true freedom. Lately, listening to classical music has done a lot to shape my views of the transcendent and to reel further and further from descriptive modes of art that seek merely to lampoon ideology and instead to find those third ways between academic tedium and incredibly elevated compositions. Here I speak specifically of Scriabin's work.

Ugh kinda rambled so here's the short list of what I think got me to where I am today, politically and aesthetically:

The Beatles - Revolver, Abbey Road
The Velvet Underground - & Nico, White Light/White Heat
Devo - Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!
Kraftwerk - Trans Europa Express, Die Mensch Maschine
Frank Zappa - Freak Out!, We're Only in It for the Money
OutKast - Stankonia
Charles Mingus - The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady
Nas - Illmatic
GZA/Genius - Liquid Swords
Robert Wyatt - Rock Bottom
Captain Beefheart - Trout Mask Replica
Can - Future Days
The Peter Brotzmann Octet - Machine Gun
John Coltrane - Ascension
Current 93 - I Have a Special Plan for This World
Annapurna Devi - Debut Surbahar Recital
AMM - AMMMusic
Keiji Haino - C'est parfait...
Fela Kuti - Roforofo Fight
Twa Toots - The Peel Sessions
Basic Channel - BCD, BCD2
Bach's Cello Suites
Beethoven's Late String Quartets, Piano Sonatas
Schnittke's Symphonies
Morton Feldman - String Quartet No. 2, Crippled Symmetry
Sofronitsky's interpretations of Scriabin

a lot of stuff probably left out there tbh

Re: Albums that changed your life the most?

Mdemauri — Tue, 24 Jun 2014 15:20:56 GMT

Author: Mdemauri

Posted: 06/24/2014 19:20

I would have to say there are about five albums that "changed" my life. Not really sure what that means here, but to me it means they made me appreciate and start a life long love affair with music. My dad had a few albums that he listened to that did nothing for me like, The New Christy Minstrels and The First Edition.

But I would have to say these really caught my ear as a youngster whenever my dad played them:

The orchestration, the drums, the singing, the songs. This was late 60's, early 70's Neil. He still looked cool in his jean jacket on the cover of the album.

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Hot August Night by Neil Diamond

How could so many great songs be on one album? I found out later this was a compilation, but still...

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Hey Jude by The Beatles

Then when I started buying my own music, these were the first albums I ever bought:

A double album! A poster! A die cut spaceship you had to assemble! Cool!

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Out Of The Blue by Electric Light Orchestra

My favorite drummer who just happened to pass away at the time I bought it.

Who Are You by The Who

A live album with so many screaming fans and so much energy jumping right off the grooves of the album.

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At Budokan by Cheap Trick

This all happened over 35 years ago, yet I have vivid memories of all these albums when they were brand new. This was the start of it all for me!

Re: Albums that changed your life the most?

Jimmy Dread — Tue, 24 Jun 2014 15:15:37 GMT

Author: Jimmy Dread

Posted: 06/24/2014 19:15

Without a shadow of a doubt...

Substance by New Order

I bought this in WHSmith in 1989. It was RIDICULOUSLY expensive for a double tape. Blue Monday had me hooked, but the rest of the collection was amazing to ears exposed to SAW ad infinitum. It was the start of my own Revolution In The Head which saw me embrace everything from techno to post-punk. I still give it a spin occasionally but to my 12 year-old self it was a game-changer.

Re: Albums that changed your life the most?

Anti — Tue, 24 Jun 2014 15:11:44 GMT

Author: Anti

Posted: 06/24/2014 19:11

My top 3, easily:

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My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West

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Take Care by Drake

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Good Kid, M.A.A.d City by Kendrick Lamar

Also:

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The Queen Is Dead by The Smiths

Re: Albums that changed your life the most?

Anonymous — Tue, 24 Jun 2014 00:56:52 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 06/24/2014 04:56

Moon and Antarctica, Diary, and LCW have been the three albums which probs have changed my life, but

Ice - t, GZA, and Coolio had collectively changed my view on hip - hop.

Re: Albums that changed your life the most?

CA Dreamin — Tue, 24 Jun 2014 00:44:17 GMT

Author: CA Dreamin

Posted: 06/24/2014 04:44

For me, this is Nirvana's In Utero. I first listened to it in high school. Before this album, I strictly listened to classic rock. I was 16, my little brother was 13 and he was learning to play guitar. My mom played this album for him to try giving him some songs to learn. From another room, I overheard the album and it caught my attention. A couple days later, I popped it into my Walkman, and listened to it straight through. It was unlike anything I had heard before (I know that may sound strange being it's such a well-known album, but try to imagine what's like to have grown up with only The Beatles, Alan Parsons Project, America, Don McLean, Bob Dylan, CSNY, James Taylor, etc...and then hear Nirvana for the first time.). In Utero opened my ears to a new style and a new era. Nowadays, I can't imagine my life without '90s alternative. In Utero isn't best album I've ever heard, but it was the most influential.

Re: Albums that changed your life the most?

andy_hunter — Wed, 8 Jan 2014 11:53:48 GMT

Author: andy_hunter

Posted: 01/08/2014 16:53

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First album I ever bought.

First album I ever loved.

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First non-current album I ever listened to.

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Thought me to be patient, that really good music sometimes needs a few listens before you can get into it.

Then the following three all came at the same time and thought me to be more open minded towards non-rock music.

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And now here we are today....

There are some albums that I'm sentimental about (like () or Bon Iver) but they didn't change my life, they were just there at the same time as other stuff happened to me.

Re: Albums that changed your life the most?

Anonymous — Wed, 8 Jan 2014 10:15:08 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 01/08/2014 15:15

I'm not comfortable with the phrase "changed my life", but whatever, important stuff for me:

So I saw this guy on TV when I was six; thought he was dope and then I became interested in music, which I still am today. You have to start somewhere. I eventually came to own his two albums too, and I thought they were pretty good

One or two years later:

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Get Rich Or Die Tryin' by 50 Cent

Some guys in my class had probably lent some hip hop records from their older brothers, which they brought to school and played, and I thought they were cool as fuck for doing so. So I told my parents that I wanted some rap music. In the next two or three years, I grew a little collection of 20-30 cd’s which included artists such as Eminem, 50 Cent, Kanye West, Akon, The Game, N.W.A, Jay-Z and 2Pac. Eminem was my favorite artists, but I believe Get Rich or Die Tryin’ was the first cd I got in that period

During the same period, I must’ve heard my dad playing this one day:

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Freedom by Neil Young

And I was converted to rock music from that point, which I guess I still am today. It was the song Don’t Cry that did it for me: this guitar thing sounded like the greatest thing ever. Consequently, I started to dig up some rock albums from my parents’ collection. I remember particulary liking Nirvana’s Nevermind and a greatest hits collection with Jimi Hendrix

When I was 10 or 11, I got this idea that hip hop was bad (my parents most likely had a huge influence on this; they must’ve been worried that their little son jammed songs like A Bitch Iz a Bitch on his stereo); even to the point where I got rid of my hip hop cd’s. Instead I started focusing on guitar based rock music, which I continued with for four years or so. The most important album for me was possibly:

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Songs For The Deaf by Queens Of The Stone Age

At least it was my favorite for some time, and it has a lot of qualites which I appreciated at that time. Other important artists from that time includes Kyuss, Arctic Monkeys, Sex Pistols, Kings of Leon, The Clash, Metallica, Tool, Black Sabbath, Sonic Youth, Anti-Flag, Rage Against the Machine, Alice in Chains, Eagles of Death Metal and others

When I was 12, I had to write a longer assignment for school, and I chose to write about rock music: thus I became familiar with names of the more acclaimed rock artists, which sparked my interest to listen to some of them. Most importantly, it led me to buy this cd:

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The Velvet Underground And Nico by The Velvet Underground

Which I immediately claimed to be the greatest album I had ever heard, which it might just still be today (though I don’t really listen to it anymore; it’s in my DNA or something). Although I my primary interests continued to be guitar based alt/hard rock, I added The Velvet Underground and a few bands like The Cure, Joy Division, The Beatles and Pink Floyd to my list of favorite bands

At 15, I discovered BEA and I realized there was a great load of awesome albums waiting for me to listen to them. The first internet-inspired purchase I did (possibly because of the intriguing artwork) was:

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In The Court Of The Crimson King by King Crimson

And I was blown away by how good it was. From this point, BEA became my #1 reference for album recommendations, and in the first seven months of 2011 I bought or became familiar with lot of the albums in the top of BEA’s overall list. The most important purchase I made during this period was this:

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A Love Supreme by John Coltrane

I was a bit frightened to buy this, as jazz was something completely foreign to me (I had heard Kind of Blue from my parents’ collection, and I didn’t understand what I was supposed to enjoy). Therefore, I treated the album a bit as task I had to overcome: I listened to it more closely and with greater attention than I had ever done with anything previously. I eventually grew to love it, and I believe this album made me grow a lot as a music listener (I also bought Mingus Ah Um that same day, but I gave Coltrane the most attention in the first place)

And then, at some point in 2011, I bought this motherfucker:

Trout Mask Replica by Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band

And I was convinced that better music could possibly not exist. I loved it so much that some of the albums I had previously picked up that year started to seem boring: why the fuck would anyone listen to The Beatles, Pink Floyd or David Bowie when they could be listening to this?
So my interest in classic rock got reduced greatly. Instead, in search of music similar to Captain Beefheart, I discovered Piero Scaruffi’s website. And at the end of the year, I was listening to stuff like Neu!, The Pop Group, Tim Buckley, Can, Slint, Pere Ubu, Suicide, My Bloody Valentine and The Red Krayola. Artists who pretty much shaped my taste and whose music I still love today. And in fact, I think my music journey has continued from that point; not that I haven’t discovered important albums in the last two years, but I feel like they’ve been a part of a natural progression which started at this point

Well, one last mention:

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Illmatic by Nas

Bought this in March 2012, and today I’m luckily reconciled with hip hop again. Rock is still my comfort zone and what I listen to the most, but today I’d rather be a rapper or a hip hop producer than a rock guitarist if I had to make music in a serious level, just like I would've said before I turned 10

Re: Albums that changed your life the most?

revolver94 — Tue, 7 Jan 2014 18:47:14 GMT

Author: revolver94

Posted: 01/07/2014 23:47

Albums Throughout My Life by revolver94

I have a chart for this, actually. I feel like I've posted this a million times, but what the hell, right...

Re: Albums that changed your life the most?

CellarDoor — Tue, 7 Jan 2014 18:18:28 GMT

Author: CellarDoor

Posted: 01/07/2014 23:18

For people who want extra insight into my musical upbringing... Sorry for the length, so many important artists and songs I didn't add :

WA Mozart "Symphony N°40" : made me want to play the violin.

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WA Mozart "Requiem Kyrie" : goosebumps, very early round the house

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Benjamin Britten "Saint Nicolas" : sung this as a kid in a choir. The harmonic arrangement is really strange yet exciting. It has stuck with me ever since.

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JS Bach "Goldberg Variations Aria" : Bach is the best

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The Beatles "Blackbird" : I used to hear my father sing this in the morning.

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Buddy Holly "Peggy Sue" : more of dad's records, 'my peheggy Sue' 😁

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Carpenters "Yesterday Once More" : OK this is from mum. THAT VOICE.

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Swingle Singer "Bach Concerto for Two Violins" : played this with orchestra and couldn't stop syncopating the lines à la Swingle Singers. I bought all their records.

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ELO "Blue Boy" : symphonic rock...

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Chic "Le Freak" : yeah I was listening to Chic instead of Nirvana

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Belle & Sebastian "Fox in the Snow" : God I never want to go back to highschool ever again.

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Arcade Fire "Wake Up" : I woke up to indie rock

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The Shins "Caring Is Creepy" : well it is

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Eels "Novocaine For the Soul" : getting a sad vibe anyone ?

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Nick Drake "Day Is Done" : baroque pop periode

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Joy Division "Disorder" : OH MY WHAT IS THIS ? IT'S BEAUTIFUL

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Sonic Youth "Total Trash" : the most experimental thing I'd heard until then, how to fuck up a song and make it sound glorious

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My Bloody Valentine "Sometimes" : can't understand anything in the lyrics, but mmmhhhh it sounds nice !

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The Velvet Underground "Venus in Furs" : yay, the kinky banana album!

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The Stooges "Down on the Street" : from the very first notes this burnt my brain

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CAN "Soup" : first track I heard from krautrock, weird weird weird

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Slint "Breadcrumb Trail" : frightened me to death the first time I heard it at full volume

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Red House Painters "24" : sadcore at 24

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William Basinski "Disintegration Loops" : loop this forever please

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Re: Albums that changed your life the most?

Anonymous — Tue, 7 Jan 2014 16:54:20 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 01/07/2014 21:54

an_outlaw wrote:

:lol: 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 :lol:

What's funny? Are you watching Close Up episode on MSP again? That's not healthy dude.

Re: Albums that changed your life the most?

Anonymous — Tue, 7 Jan 2014 14:35:41 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 01/07/2014 19:35

Kool Keith Sweat wrote:

Albums and songs that changed my view on music include:

Talk Talk's Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock for music as landscape
John Cage's "4'33"" and his I-chang music for music as philosophy
William Basinski -The Disintegration Loops as well as Brian Eno for music as philosophy and emotion at the same time
Oval - 94diskont for philosophy and emotion
Pavement, Built to Spill, and Modest Mouse on cleverness
Joanna Newsom on poeticism
Suicide on darkness

🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣

Re: Albums that changed your life the most?

Anonymous — Tue, 7 Jan 2014 01:45:08 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 01/07/2014 06:45

Albums and songs that changed my view on music include:

Talk Talk's Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock for music as landscape
John Cage's "4'33"" and his I-chang music for music as philosophy
William Basinski -The Disintegration Loops as well as Brian Eno for music as philosophy and emotion at the same time
Oval - 94diskont for philosophy and emotion
Pavement, Built to Spill, and Modest Mouse on cleverness
Joanna Newsom on poeticism
Suicide on darkness

a few others come to mind...

but albums that changed my life for no percieved reason include Entertainment!, Pink Flag, Damaged, Los Angeles, Fire of Love, Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill, and others

too many others

Re: Albums that changed your life the most?

Anonymous — Tue, 7 Jan 2014 00:36:57 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 01/07/2014 05:36

Can't pick. Too many albums change my life every week.

Re: Albums that changed your life the most?

PatrickD — Mon, 6 Jan 2014 23:57:28 GMT

Author: PatrickD

Posted: 01/07/2014 04:57

Mid 90's Columbia House changed everything for me. haha

Re: Albums that changed your life the most?

Anonymous — Mon, 6 Jan 2014 23:41:08 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 01/07/2014 04:41

Boz Scaggs,Silk Degrees. It was on when I unhooked my first bra.

Re: Albums that changed your life the most?

Zalmoxis — Mon, 6 Jan 2014 03:16:00 GMT

Author: Zalmoxis

Posted: 01/06/2014 08:16

Whatever People Say I Am, That's what I'm Not - Arctic Monkeys
(The most important and influencial in my life).

Others:

Discovery - Daft Punk
ReLoad - Metallica

Re: Albums that changed your life the most?

Applerill — Mon, 23 Dec 2013 18:11:29 GMT

Author: Applerill

Posted: 12/23/2013 23:11

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Little Earthquakes by Tori Amos

When I first heard this album on April 29, 2009, my life really was changed forever. Up until that freshman year of high school, I was among the most ornery of conservatives evangelical, seeing everything as black and white, deleting any songs off my iPod with swearing, and saying the most terrible of politically offensive remarks without a shed of guilt. But with Little Earthquakes, I ran into a dilemma: This was the most beautiful music I've ever heard, and despite it's regular blasphemy throughout the album, it SPOKE to me. Much like Lester Burnham in American Beauty, I slowly started to realize that there was more to the world than hard facts, and that music is something that is worth obsessing over. And in the years since then, Tori has continued to be a life coach of mine, teaching me how to love myself for who I am and respect others who are different than me.

Re: Albums that changed your life the most?

Anonymous — Mon, 23 Dec 2013 17:46:38 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 12/23/2013 22:46

I'd have to say Rage Against the Machine was a life-changing album for me in my early teens. I became politically educated, and read several books from conservatives to liberals in my early teens, especially Noam Chomsky, due to the band. However, now I'm largely economically conservative and just socially progressive.

During college/uni, I depended upon the cleverness of Pavement (Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain), Built to Spill (Perfect From Now On; There's Nothing Wrong With Love), Modest Mouse (The Lonesome Crowded West), Dismemberment Plan (Emergency and I), Guided By Voices (Bee Thousand, Alien Lanes), and others to guide my humor and elitism and musical journey

The bands Red House Painters (esp. Down Colorful Hill) and Low (esp. I Could Live In Hope and Drums & Guns) both aided and encouraged my depression whilst in Illinois, and I continue to cherish them both; now outside of that situation I still do.

That doesn't even speak to Joanna Newsom, Oval, Dirty Three, et al. that have guided my music taste in some incalcuble way throughout the years

not to mention, the users CellarDoor and the harrisonfords have guided my tastes each year. Nowadays, I only look to Norman and lethal for recs... EDIT: and DLGGLD

Re: Albums that changed your life the most?

Necharsian — Mon, 23 Dec 2013 17:32:28 GMT

Author: Necharsian

Posted: 12/23/2013 22:32

Puncture Repair wrote:

I guess I've yet to experience a life changing album.

Yeah, me either. Music as a whole probably has, but I cant single out one specific album as drastically changing my whole life.