5 Albums That Changed Your Life

[woodhenge]

steven wilson - insurgentes All I can say about this one is WOW!!!

king's x - gretchen goes to nebraska A very well written, recorded, and produced record that even the Beatles would have been proud to have made.

OSI - office of strategic influence Again, great songs, and fantastic production! Highly influential on my personal writing/production.

steely dan - gaucho almost too clean to take!

pink floyd - the wall the production is awesome, but the emotional value is even better!

[Top_Shelf]

Radiohead - Ok Computer

Fugazi - In on the Killtaker

Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon

Clash - London Calling

OutKast - Stankonia

[EX2352]

1. The Chicago Transit Authority

2. In A Silent Way - Miles Davis

3. Are You Experienced? - The Jimi Hendrix Experience

4. Caravanserai - Santana

5. The Inner Mounting Flame - The Mahavishnu Orchestra

[Burnt Ernie]

Rezillos-Can't Stand The Rezillos
Stooges-1st
Chrome-Half Machine Lip Moves
Robert Fripp-Exposure
Pink Floyd-Piper At The Gates Of Dawn

[egr]

In order from little kid to now:

1. Weird Al -- Dare to Be Stupid
2. The Doors -- The Soft Parade
3. Violent Femmes -- Violent Femmes
4. The Beatles -- Abbey Road
5. Atari Teenage Riot -- Burn Berlin Burn

[Seej]

In no particular order:

BB-Pet Sounds
Badfinger-Straight Up
Green Day-International Superhits
The Yes Album
Beatles-Revolver

[alexdingley]

In chronological order (of my first hearing them)

Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine Made me want to write music
Peter Gabriel - 3 (Melt) Challenged me to write better music*
Weezer - Pinkerton Made me realize it doesn't have to sound pristine to be beautiful
A Perfect Circle turns out bands could still rock even in the new millennia
Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot not only a great record, but a great story of 'band > record label'

Don't be fooled by the lack of Brian Wilson & John Lennon records on my list... It's just that these records started and turned each tide of my musical life... And led me to both the Beatles & Beach Boys, which I adore as well.

[tateeskew]

The Beatles - Revolver - this still changes my life when i listen to it. this made me want to record everything with my dad's reel to reel and soon thereafter the handheld cassette player/recorder.

Black Sabbath - We Sold Our Souls For Rock and Roll - my dad used to play this a lot when I was growing up and it made me really want a guitar.

Talking Heads - '77 -- Awesome recording, awesome grooves, awesome quirkiness, just awesome.

Sonic Youth - EVOL, Sister and Goo I had to add all of these, a huge influence in my early teen years and still love these albums.

Yo La Tengo - I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One No reason other than it's just an amazing record

Honorable mention:
Laddio Bolocko - In Real Time - i miss this band terribly and this is a stupid good album

This Heat - Deceit - this album is still ahead of our times. i still listen to this weekly and it still inspires me.

XTC - Black Sea - when i was younger and maybe even now, i wanted every album to be as good as this one. recording and songwriting.

[EasyGo]

My Bloody Valentine 'Loveless' ? When this album came out, it was obvious nothing would be the same afterward. Their live show also changed my life, leaving part of my brain wrecked along the way.

Air '10,000 Hz Legend' ? An amazing mix of synths, live drums, great songwriting, and killer production. 'How Does It Make You Feel' in particular changed my life with its humorous synthesized lead vocals and choral refrain. Amazing live as well.

The Flaming Lips 'The Soft Bulletin' ? I'd heard earlier material by the Lips, but 'The Soft Bulletin' was their big bang for me. With its emotive songwriting and explosive Dave Fridmann production, this was the album that kicked off the new millennium, a few months early.

Yellowman 'Mister Yellowman' reissued on CD? This was a huge change in the sound of reggae, going from the roots of the 70s into the harder hitting rub a dub of the 80s. This was one of the first examples of an album produced by Henry Junjo Lawes recorded through the API console at Channel One studio with the incredible Roots Radics backing band. Killer production.

Various Artists 'Dub Chill Out' ? This was a great compilation of 70s dub, mixed mostly by the master himself, King Tubby. A great illustration of how insane dub was at that time, this CD inspired me to seek out the original vocal versions that were being remixed here. Although it's a shady compilation (some songs are listed with wrong titles to avoid paying royalties), it's still an awesome introduction to dub.

[LupineSound]

As a preface, I feel I should admit that tone and groove have always been my most stringent of requirements. Songcraft was never really that high on my list. I'm sure that as studio jockeys many of you can identify. I'm always looking to hear new sounds. Those types of albums get the highest marks from me. Even if the songwriting is not the greatest.

In chronological order:

The Beastie Boys: Paul's Boutique
This was one of the first albums I ever owned and fell in love with. I have fond memories of listening to it on my walkman while riding the bus in elementary school. I listened to that tape until it started to wear out/sound really weird. Went a long time without listening to it and then heard it again my junior year of high school. I believe it was the second time I ever did acid and my friend put that album on. It blew my mind a second time--and this time on a whole different level. Now a bit older and wiser, I was able catch a lot of the references. I had no idea how clever the lyrics were. A lot of the lyrics I would sing along to as a pee-wee didn't make any sense to me, but now they did. To top it off, the Dust Brothers production on that album is unbelievable. The sheer amount of different sounds, moods, and styles all packed into one album makes for quite an experience.

Minor Threat: Discography
I vividly remember picking this CD out of my sister's collection when I was 11. I didn't like much of her music, but I was bored with all my tapes and I wanted to listen to her fancy CD player (I only had a tape deck). I picked it out of the bin because of the cover. I thought the yellow cover with beer bottle guy looked bad ass and figured the music probably was, too. Holy shit was I right about that. I'd never heard music this fast and aggressive. And was that guy...yelling? Awesome! "My parents will hate this," I thought; which, at that age, makes it that much more enjoyable. Til this point, I was mostly listening to rap, but that ended with this album. Now I wanted to hear guitars. Loud, fast guitars.

Helmet: Meantime
I owe a lot of my interest and taste in music to my sister. She really showed me a lot of shit that I might not have heard until years later. When our parents bought a new house on the other side of town, we devised a brilliant plan to rip off BMG. We would order the 12 CD's for a penny just before we moved and then they would never be able to collect! I'm sure there was some flaw in that logic, but fuckin' A, it worked! I had no fucking clue what to pick for my 6 CD's. I think I got Cypress Hill and then some other shit I was mostly ambivalent about. I was out of ideas so I asked my sister recommend a "hardcore" record like Minor Threat. She suggested I get Meantime. In hindsight, she was kind of off, but thankfully so. Minor Threat introduced me to hard and fast, but Helmet introduced me to heavy. It was like the perfect blend of the big hip-hop beats that I grew up listening to married with harsh, distorted guitar sounds of Minor Threat. That album began a lifelong obsession with 'heaviness'. I'm always looking for bands and sounds that are 'heavier,' which to me is a sort of combination of tone and groove. I remember thinking Helmet was the heaviest shit ever! Now-a-days I would probably say it's Cult of Luna. But yea, Meantime: fucking awesome record. Stanier is still one of my biggest influences as a drummer. And I love those wild noise solos Page would throw in to give his nu-metal riffs (oh, I went there!) some aire of sophistication.

Nine Inch Nails: The Downward Spiral
As an angsty 14-year-old this album really struck a chord with me. It makes sense as the lyrics have all the emotional complexity of pubescent teen. lol. But words aside, Trent does have excellent voice and scream. What really drew me to this album was the arrangement. Holy shit--car doors as snare drums? Chainsaws and bees that sound in-key? WTF? The beat to Reptile sounds like he just went and recorded an automobile assembly line. So many awesome keyboard sounds. Plenty of dynamics throughout the whole record, literally from a whisper to a scream. This is the high water mark to me. I wish he just stopped after this album.

Bjork: Homogenic
I love the soundscapes and arrangements. All the songs sound expertly composed. She is probably my favorite vocalist of all time. Beautiful beautiful music.

Honorable Mentions:

Aphex Twin: I Care Because You Do
Aphex Twin was really unlike anything I had ever heard before (or since). This album began my fruitless foray into the world of IDM, only to discover nobody does it as good as him.

De La Soul: De La Soul Is Dead
I listened to this album a ton in gradeschool/middle school. I loved how much variety there was. Prince Paul is one of the best hip-hop producers of all time, in my opinion. Always hated those stupid fucking skits, though. Gravediggaz. first album is another of his masterpieces.

[gregovertone]

metallica - master of puppets
this was the product of being bored in middle school with playing nirvana / green day songs. little did i know it would be the gateway drug to tons of rifftastic metal.


SRV - Texas Flood
really inspired me to play more guitar, and learn how to jam / groove.

jimmy eat world - static prevails
huge impact on me. guitar teacher threw out my green day cd, and gave that to me. changed my life. mid-late 90's indie became a huge part of me.


Radiohead - Kid A
just blew my mind as to how versatile one band could be. it also turned me on to more electronic music / synths / etc.


shiner - starless
man oh man. this was it. riding the jimmy eat world indie wave, i ran into shiner. everything about shiner was just a perfect fit for me. great vox. mathy. big drums. starless and the egg are about as perfect as it gets for me.

[fireproof]

The Clash -- London Calling
The Beatles -- Revolver
Pavement -- Crooked Crooked Rain
The Pixies -- Doolittle
Nick Drake -- 5 Leaves Left



Adam



www.fireproofrecording.com

[mjsemtex]

in no particular order and by no means definitive or comprehensive (and i somehow ended up with 6 for now):

- Front 242 'Front by Front'
this was one of those 'i want to hear everything and anything that sounds like this' kind of records... it really opened up an entirely new world for me. previously, i was aware of bands like ministry and nine inch nails but, the early front 242 was so stripped down and straightforward. they also kind of helped to open up all things wax trax to my developing ears and from that point forward there was really no turning back.


- Glenn Branca 'Songs '77-'79 - The Static & Theoretical Girls'
this was one of those, 'you've gotta hear this song' albums... primarily because of 'fuck yourself' which at first was more of a joke than anything else. then, realizing what else this guy had been responsible for.


- The Cure 'Disintegration'
i'm not sure what to say about this one... i've listened to it a lot. i've got it on cassette, vinyl and cd.


- Marillion 'Misplaced Childhood'
i was into pink floyd, yes, king crimson, gabriel-era genesis and a good friend of mine turned me onto these guys... he was like a 'super-fan' of sorts with this band and had actually told me to go out and buy it and if i didn't like it he would buy it back from me. musicianship, emotion, pure wanky prog-ness (all of that in a good way to my ears). and then to watch the band change vocalists and keep such a devoted fan base and continue to release some really incredible music. this is another one i've got on multiple formats.


- Coil 'Love's Secret Domain'
this was another thing that opened up lots of new worlds for me, particularly the 'world serpent' label which in turn introduced me to things like current 93, death in june, boyd rice, etc. etc. etc. it was that sort of dark magical (or is it magickal) side of the 'industrial' world.


- Tortoise 'TNT'
i saw them live touring in support of this album... amazing live musicians. and again, kind of got me into a lot of other things on thrill jockey.

[YRLK]

Making my own album has changed my life... I feel more confident in that I actually finished something that daunted me for SO long.

Here's a sneak peak: http://yrlk.bandcamp.com

The full record will be released 3/11/11. I'm excited to share it with others. =)

Thanks for listening.

Brad | YRLK
Detroit Musician, Composer, Producer

[Judas Jetski]

Hey, that sounds pretty good!