6 Albums That Changed Your Life

[Tick]

I thought hard and these are mine. Not really in any order but these have had the biggest impact on me in terms of my musical directions during key points in my life.

 

Marillion - Marbles

It made them an all time favorite of mine

 

Rush - Hemispheres

The one that started my obsession and led to almost 40 live shows

 

Dream Theater - Scenes From A Memory

The album that made me a lifetime defender of this band!

 

Neal Morse - ?

One of the most brilliant albums I have ever heard

 

Stevie Wonder - Musicquarium

Turned me into one the of thye biggest Stevie fans on the planet

 

Transatlantic - The Whirlwind

Maybe the most brilliant prog album of all time as far as I'm concerned!

[tangy]

fly by night- my first rush purchase on 8 track. i was 10 or so.

 

nevermind the bollocks- sex pistols- another 8 track, as a kid i loved the vulgarity and attitiude.

 

it takes a nation of millions to hold us back- public enemy- saw this tour, love this record.

 

the royal scam- steely dan- amazing

 

passion and warfare- steve vai- one of the greatest guitar records ever.

 

second helping- lynyrd skynyd- southern fried goodness

[greg2112]

Kiss- Destroyer. The album that started my love for rock n roll

 

AC/DC- Back in Black. Built on destroyer, enter "metal"

 

Rush- Signals. My intro to Rush and my favorite album to this day

 

Grateful Dead- Europe 72. Pivotal intro to the world of the Dead, outstanding

 

Iron Maiden- Number of the Beast. Another level of metal.

 

Led Zeppelin IV- Enough said.

Edited June 5, 2011 by greg2112

[driventotheedge]

Meet The Beatles..........it changed everything

Black Sabbath

Are You Experienced?

The Doors

Highway 61 Revisited (Dylan in case you didn't know)

Live at the Fillmore East (Allman Bros.)......the first quintessential live album

 

[Akron162]

for me it would be the first prog rock album that ever heard:

 

ELP - Pictures at an Exhibition.

 

I don't have 6 albums in that category, sorry.

[tel]

made in japan....deep purple

 

let there be rock ...ac/dc

 

space ritual....hawkwind

 

farewell to kings.....that canadian lot.

 

trick of the tail.....genesis

[WCFIELDS]

Black Sabbath - Master of Reality

Van Halen - S/T

Metallica - Master of Puppets

Led Zeppelin - III

Alice in Chains - Dirt

King's X - Gretchen Goes to Nebraska

 

 

[Ancient Ways]

Moving Pictures - it got me into Rush and into music in a deeper way.

Paranoid - it's when I got into heavier music.

Physical Graffiti - made me see you can have a lot of sounds and styles going at once.

Ride the Lightning - made me realize that music would keep evolving.

Nevermind - bridged the gap between the old i grew up on and the new stuff I might not have given a chance to such as AiC, Live, etc...

 

Edit: didn't read the title closely - it says 6....

 

Wow, I could pick the Beatles, and a lot of other important bands but.....

Fear of a Blank Planet - got me excited about music in a way I had not felt in many years.

Edited June 5, 2011 by Ancient Ways

[apetersvt]

In chronological order:

 

All The World's A Stage - made me a Rush fan

Moving Pictures - made me obsessed with Rush

Led Zep IV - discovered that other bands could rock other than Rush

Fillmore East (Allmans) - Duane Allman rules

Live Dead (Grateful Dead) - opened up a whole new dimension for my mind.

 

Not a clear #6 for me but it would be one of the following: Floyd - Animals, Yes - Relayer, Jimi - Are You Experienced, Derek And The Dominos - Layla, Live At Leeds - The Who, Gov't Mule - Gov't Mule (certainly not thier best album, but it's what started it for me)

[Soni]

Tubular Bells- My introduction to progressive music

Moving Pictures- "Hey prog can also be songs! cool!"

Red- So powerful

Weezer- Pinkerton A masterpiece of songwritting

Rancid V- Pretty much the heaviest punk album ever

Bill Hicks- Arizona Bay. Changed my way of thinking. True!

[ghostworks]

Stevie Wonder - Songs In The Key Of Life

Rush - Signals

Material - Hallucination Engine

Dave Brubeck - Jazz At Oberlin

Robert Rich - Numena

David Sylvian - Dead Bees On A Cake

 

as soon as I saw the thread, I wanted to post the first 6 that came immediately to mind, without reading the thread

 

I've done that

 

now I'll peruse...

 

[ioc]

I can only think of one album that I can say truly changed things fundamentally for me when I was young: Def Leppard - High N' Dry. I checked the LP out from the library (because all I had at my disposal was a record player). Not that it is the greatest album or musically ground-breaking (sure, Def Leppard were essentially AC/DC knockoffs-but damn good ones) but because of the way it moved me (it was just simple and raw) and opened up music that had until then been closed to me.

 

I remember distinctly the title track: hearing the light crackle of the record and then...BAM! that power riff, then the drum hits. It was at that moment that I realized, among the other things I liked, I was also a rocker at heart.

[1-0-0-1-0-0-1]

Aerosmith - Toys In The Attic. The first album that got me into heavy rock. I'm sure it had a similar effect on thousands of kids my age back then. It's a perfect hard rock album, and the music still holds up today.

 

Boston - debut album. The first album I'd heard that successfully married guitar heaviness and pop melodicism, packaged in a sound I'd never heard before, and hasn't been duplicated since. A watershed moment in rock music.

 

Ted Nugent - Cat Scratch Fever. Ted was my first guitar hero, and he, Boston and Aerosmith inspired me to pick up the guitar.

 

Van Halen - debut album. "Eruption" and "I'm The One." Ted who?

 

Kansas - Leftoverture. "Carry On Wayward Son" was both rocking and melodic, but there was something else there. That song has four great rock guitar riffs, including that famous one. And what were those odd-time thingies I was hearing? Then I bought the album and heard the rest of the songs, and that was it. I was now a prog fan. And without that album I might not have fell into...

 

Rush - Permanent Waves. 'Nuff said.

[Tommy Sawyer]

Mine is easily Moving Pictures. It got me started into Rush.

Also...

 

Back in Black

Led Zeppelin II

The Who: Greatest Hits

Boston

The Grand Illusion

 

Those albums got me into rock music some years back. I haven't looked back!

[metaldad]

In no order

Kiss -Love Gun -First album i Ever got, got me into Rock

Alice Cooper - The Alice Cooper Show - Found out Kiss did not come up with it first

Queen -News Of The World - Never heard singing like that

Kansas -Two For The Show - My intro to Prog Rock

Black Sabbath -Heaven and Hell- Then went back and got all the Sabbath albums

Buddy Rich v.s Gene Krupa -Drum Battle -Opened up the doors for Jazzmusic in my life

[ColdFireYYZ]

Lynyrd Skynyrd - Second Helping (they were my first favorite band, love all the songs on it)

Rush - 2112 (not their greatest but it's one of their albums that got me into Rush)

ELP - Brain Salad Surgery (got me into prog in general)

Porcupine Tree - In Absenia (one of my all time favorites)

Marillion - Marbles (2nd Marillion album I listened to and I was hooked)

Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon (Another favorite, masterpiece)

[invisible airwave]

Smashing Pumpkins/Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

Outkast/Speakerboxxx The Love Below

The Clash/London Calling

Elvis Costello/Very Best Of - The beginning of me getting into classic alternative rock when I started college just over a decade ago and a much needed outlet from the frat boy junk that was dominating alternative stations at the time.

Pearl Jam's Ten and STP's Core (tie) - Got both at same time for Xmas 93 and it was the beginning of me listening to alternative music and I haven't looked back. My Kriss Kross/Color Me Badd/BoyzIIMen days were over.

[ReRushed]

The Beatles - The Beatles

They threw everything into the pot. Eclectic and experimental. Everything I love about Popular music can be traced back to this album.

 

R.E.M. - Murmur

It's an album that flows perfectly. It is also one of the first albums I could claim as "my own". Every band I like before R.E.M. was somebody else's band. R.E.M was mine.

 

Wire - Pink Flag

Intelligent and edgy Punk music. I realized the music can be simple and uncomplicated plus intelligent.

 

Rush - Moving Pictures

The musicianship. The words. It came at the right time in my life.

 

Prince - Purple Rain

Music written to be popular can be good. Also, "When Doves Cry" is still one of the weirdest songs I've ever heard. And it was a hit.

 

Brian Eno - Another Green World

This may be my favorite album of all-time. I simply feel relaxed after listening to this album. It's musically simple, but I find it has more emotional depth than anything I've ever heard.

Edited June 5, 2011 by ReRushed

[Tony R]

All The World's A Stage - The album that turned me on to Rush

Selling England By The Pound - The album that raised my expectations about what Rock music could achieve.

Close To The Edge - has 1970s all over it and made self-indulgence acceptable, nay, desirable!

In Absentia - I found my new favourite band

Black Sabbath (debut) redefined guitar rock, created heavy metal. Still one of the most stunningly powerful guitar albums.

Led Zep IV - never really rated them til my mate slung that on his brother's turntable. Awesome transcending rock album.

 

[circumstantial tree]

Rush, "Signals" - The first time I really paid attention to lyrics and their overall message (as opposed to being able to simply "sing along"), particularly lyrics that spoke to me about my current situation or what I was going through.

 

Rush, "Hold Your Fire" - Marked a period in my life where I had to look inside myself to find the inspiration to make some positive changes and to not only dream about something but to put the work into it to make a reality. Setting personal goals. Also, putting the past behind me and parting company, like high school (i.e. turn the page)

 

Enya, "Watermark" - Turned me onto atmospheric/soundscape music - a big departure from the rock and pop I was generally accustomed to.

 

Yes, "Close to the Edge" - My first foray into progressive rock as a style.

 

Electric Light Orchestra, "Time" - Probably the first album I ever got wherein all the songs were developed around a concept. In this particular case, time.

 

The Dream Academy, "The Dream Academy" - I discovered that it was possible to merge two different styles of music into one. In this case, classical/romantic merged with rock/pop.

 

noteworthy:

 

Pink Floyd, "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" - The first (and maybe only) time that an album reminds me of a concert performance by another band. Everytime I hear this album, I think of the night I saw Rush on their "Hold Your Fire" tour.

Edited June 5, 2011 by circumstantial tree

[Gilby]

No particular order

 

Back in black - first proper hard rock album I owned.

Holidays in Eden by Marillion - brilliant album, has too many songs that fitted in with what was going on in my life when it came out.

Wish you were here by floyd - first album I got wasted to, great album, great experience at the time.

Only Revolutions by Biffy Clyro - kinda restored my interest in current rock music

Strangitude by Ozric Tentacles - been a fan for about twenty years, struggled with the last few albums but this is one of the best they did IMO. Proper festival band and the first instrumental band I had heard back then.

Hatful of Hollow - I loved The Smiths first album for Johny Marrs guitar in it. Taught me that there's more to life than power chords and blues riffs but like a lot of people, I struggled with Morriseys lyrics. Hatful of Hollow started to show Morriseys humour a bit more, besides, How soon is now is on it and that's such an awesome piece of music.

[1-0-0-1-0-0-1]

QUOTE (Tony R @ Jun 5 2011, 04:58 PM)

All The World's A Stage - The album that turned me on to Rush Selling England By The Pound - The album that raised my expectations about what Rock music could achieve. Close To The Edge - has 1970s all over it and made self-indulgence acceptable, nay, desirable! In Absentia - I found my new favourite band Black Sabbath (debut) redefined guitar rock, created heavy metal. Still one of the most stunningly powerful guitar albums. Led Zep IV - never really rated them til my mate slung that on his brother's turntable. Awesome transcending rock album.

That's like part two for me. "Leftoverture" opened that door for me, and I then discovered all of the English prog bands.

[priest_of_syrinx]

The five I'll discuss aren't by any means my favorite albums of all time, but they're sort of "gateway" albums, particularly in musical growth. I can't say that any album has single-handedly changed my life outside of music, but I guess that music has led me to places it otherwise wouldn't have. But these are the ones that most changed my musical direction.

 

Green Day's American Idiot was my introduction to avidly listening to music and buying albums. I wallowed in poppy, simplistic stuff for a while, but if I hadn't, I may have never gotten to the good stuff at any point.

 

Coheed and Cambria's In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 opened my mind to music beyond conventional pop standards, and would eventually bring me to Rush and other prog.

 

Sigur Ros's Agaetis Byrjun helped me appreciate dynamics in music, as well as more avant-garde approaches to songwriting.

 

Dream Theater's Octavarium was my first metal album that started me on a path toward more and more technical and extreme music, and inspired me to become much more technical than I even would have been on guitar or trumpet, and has greatly aided me in working with odd meters both in composition and performance.

 

I'm going to go out of rock music for a second and say that my recording of Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring by Esa-Pekka Salonen and the LA Philharmonic was the album that has sent me in the direction of possibly being a music professor someday in the future, and is also my favorite piece of recorded music I have ever heard.

[RUSHHEAD666]

Good thread Tick!

 

1. "Moving Pictures" Rush

2. "Restless And Wild" Accept

3. "Van Halen" Van Halen

4. "Killers" Iron Maiden

5. "Black Tiger" Y&T

6. "Fire Of Unknown Origin" Blue Oyster Cult

[Good,bad,andrush]

Different Stages and Hemispheres, Rush

Selling England By The Pound and at the Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, Genesis

Still Life and Pawn Hearts, VdGG

 

Honorable mentions:

Moving Pictures

Queen 2

Foxtrot

The Yes Album

Mer De Noms

Fear of a Blank Planet

Aerosol Grey Machine and H to He Who Am The Only One

Thick as a Brick

 

 

A lot more...