That Meme Thing

[waitingman]

Think of 20 albums that had such a profound effect on you that they changed your life or the way you looked at it. They sucked you in and took you over for days, weeks, months, years. These are the albums that you can use to identify time, places, people, emotions. These are the albums that, no matter what they were thought of musically, shaped your world.

Like others, I suspect, I originally thought 20 was too many. Well
In vague chronological order:

1. Abbey Rd ~ The Beatles First record I remember consciously listening to when I was extremely young.
2. Country Life ~ Roxy Music Another high-rotation album at home in my youth. The ladies on the cover may have had something to do with it...
3. In Your Mind ~ Bryan Ferry The first record I 'bought' for myself. From little things...
4. Heroes ~ David Bowie Where pop music & I began to part company. Produced by Brian Eno, lead guitar by Robert Fripp... little did I know it was the start of an education... & an obsession.
5. Aja ~ Steely Dan Another pop departure. If this was jazz, I liked it!!
6. The Wall ~ Pink Floyd Sure, Dark Side... had been played around the house for years, but this was the first time I really got into them. I still am & I still love this album.
7. Discipline ~ King Crimson An album that changed the way I listen, think about & (later) play music. Completely. Irrevocably.
8. Layla & Other Assorted Love Songs ~ Derek & The Dominos Or rather, Eric Clapton & American Friends, including Duane Allman. The album that made me want to play guitar & doomed my pointless piano practice.
9. Leichenschrei ~ SPK Until a schoolfriend played this to me, I'd thought my music taste was weird (given that everyone else was into INXS, Midnight Oil or the cool kids with their Violent Femmes), but this album bent my brain & was directly responsible for the formation of my first band Pelican Daughters
10. Ian Hunter And this album was responsible for my second ~ a 70s glam/rock/pop covers & bad originals band mostly called The Platform Souls
11. Machine Head ~ Deep Purple Always did & still do prefer these guys to Black Sabbath... Better tunes & better singers, at least 'til Sabbath recruited Ronnie James Dio.
12. Computer World ~ Kraftwerk When this came out in about 1980, it sounded like music from another planet... What's not to love about that!?!
13. Adventures In The Ultraworld ~ The Orb A perfect blend of ambience, electronica, dub & neo-psychedelia... everything Pelican Daughters had been trying to get people to listen to for years! If only we'd been British...
14. Mercy, Mercy, Mercy ~ Cannonball Adderley My first real immersion in jazz was via this guy, after hearing Galapagos Duck play some of his tunes in the Manly Hotel on various Sunday afternoons.
15. How The Hell Do You Spell Rythum ~ Amazing Rhythm Aces I never paid much attention to country music 'til I heard these guys. Keith Urban owes them a debt, of gratitude at least.
16. Nuages ~ Django Reinhardt & The Hot Club Of France Jazz you could groove to rock'n'roll style, led by the irreplaceable, incomparable & incorrigible gipsy & his mate Stephane Grappelli.
17. Gold Afternoon Fix ~ The Church Sure, it had no hit singles, but it was the most interestingly diverse the band had ever been... & that made me notice them more than I had before. Been a major fan ever since.
18. Pretty Hate Machine ~ Nine Inch Nails The new wave of industrial/experimental welded to deceptively catchy songwriting. Another favourite in the Pelican Daughters household. Both an inspiration & another realisation we were in the wrong country. If only we'd been American...
19. Aenima ~ Tool Don't remember thinking much of their first album at the time, but this one blew the top of my head off! With King Crimson only recording sporadically, this was the next best thing... only much LOUDER!!
20. The Black Parade ~ My Chemical Romance The album that restored my faith in American rock'n'roll. Still getting a regular thrashing in OBluV8's CD player to this day.

Honourable mentions to:The Elephant Table Album ~ various early 80s industrialists, Kind Of Blue ~ Miles Davis, New England ~ Wishbone Ash, The Collected works of Erik Satie, Lionheart ~ Kate Bush, Nunsexmonkrock ~ Nina Hagen, Catch A Fire ~ Bob Marley, African Headcharge... & others I'll think of right after I hit the 'Post Entry' button.

Comments

[sarin-girl.livejournal.com]

I left so many out that I've now remembered..
but nice work there.. :)