Albums most influential in developing your music tastes?

J

Jeffre

New member
What was your gateway album to what you listen to now? I mostly listen to instrumental hip hop and indie music now, and these albums did it for me:

1. Ok Computer - showed me what music could sound like, not a lot more to say.

2. DJ Shadow - Entroducing: I listened to this high school year and my friend and I immediately went out, bought a turntable, bootlegged Fruity Loops and started making beats (all the beats we made sucked, but that was the most fun I ever had making music). It also got me into crate digging, which opened up a whole history of music I would have never considered had I not heard this album. People say that though "VU and Nico" only sold a couple hundred thousand albums, everyone that bought a copy started a band. I don't know how much this album sold, but I'm pretty sure everyone that bought a copy either became a DJ or at least bootlegged Fruity Loops. That's a right of passage.

3. Aphex Twin - Richard D. James Album: This knocked down all the barriers in my mind. There were no rules after I heard this. Anything sound was fair game.

4. Brian Eno - Here Comes the Warm Jets: Similar reaction to the Aphex Twin album. Whenever I'm lost, I listen to this and it all makes sense. Whereas Aphex Twin broke down the walls, Eno put them back together in a strange, beautiful way.

Next.
 
These aren't really in any order but here's a few of mine:

Atmosphere, God Loves Ugly - discovered this accidently, made me realize there was good hip-hop out there, more than just what MTV played.

Blink-182, Enema of the State (I was young and reckless )- First CD I ever bought, what got me into music in the first place.

System of a Down, Toxicity - First hardcore music that was also popular in my day, gave a little more variety to my then very limited collection.

Rage Against the Machine and Immortal Technique, all albums - Opened my eyes, got me into political activism and made me question the status quo instead of just accepting it.

Bob Marley, Legend - I don't think I need to explain this one
Sublime, self-titled - Same

Bad Religion, No Control - got me into true punk and out of the pop-punk I was listening to that I thought was punk. Made me appreciate lyricism in songs as well ("There's no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end. When we all disintegrate it will all happen again" )

Shpongle, Tales of the Inexpressible - Listened to this while tripping shrooms, best experience I've ever had
 
I'd like to add the albums "Monk's Dream" and "Brilliant Corners" for Thelonious Monk.

I would also like to recommend "Mingus Ah Um" by Charles Mingus and "Saxophone Colossus" by Sonny Rollins. In my opinion anyway, definite must haves for anyone interested in Jazz.
 
This is exactly like me. Hail to the Thief is my favorite radiohead album. It's rare to see someone else liking it most. Usually people pick OK Computer, The BenRAB, or Amnesiac.



If you haven't heard their most recent 'Alive' 2007 live album you need to get it ASAP. As good as daft punk is, Alive is pure electricity. Well recorded and you really get the energy of the crowd. If I could only have 1 house/electronic album for the rest of my life it would be this one.


That's funny. I also watch Bleach like a drug addict. I like some of the songs they use, but mostly the older stuff. There was one song they used for a while that I really loved, but I don't remember which one it was.

Nice choices all around. We have similar listening prefs.
 
Jane's Addition - Nothing's Shocking
It took three or four times of listening to it to actually hear the songs. It was so completely different from anything i was listening to at the time

Elvis Costello - Armed Forces
The first album that i heard where i understood you could be pissed off at everything and not have to scream to get the point across.

The Descendents - Everything Sucks
First punk album i liked top to bottom. Completely changed my view of what punk was and how it sounded

Soul Coughing - Ruby Vroom
Beat Poetry, Spoken word over Jazz style beats with Hip Hop undertones. Still one of my favorite albums

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Now I Got Worry
If punk got in a fight with the blues, it would sound something like this.
 
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Changed my view on what was possible within Rock music. That songs could have movements like Shine on You Crazy Diamond or be shorter and just as complex.

Metallica - Master of Puppets
Made me fall in love with Hard Rock/ Prog Metal. Cliff Burton was amazing.

Pearl Jam - Ten
I will forever be in love with all Grunge and 90s Alternative because of this one album.

Armin Van Buuren - A State of Trance 2004
Most people would say this is long after the downfall of trance, but this album struck a chord with me and single handedly got me obsessed with electronic dance music for many years to come.

Dredg - Lietmotif
Progressive Rock and Metal fused together to make arguably my favorite album of all time.

Explosions in the Sky - The Earth is not a Cold Dead Place
The most beautiful album I have ever heard. 5 songs that fill your head with purely instrumental induced euphoria
 
Radiohead - Amnesiac was my entry into the radiohead universe.

Godzilla Soundtrack - particularly A320 by the Foo Fighters. This album alone took me out of a nearly pure classical library. Overall it is an OK soundtrack and a few songs like A320 and Silverchair's Untitled really got me thinking. I ventured into the rest of the Foo Fighter's albums and have cemented them as my top band. This also served as my entrance to progressive/death metal like Opeth.

Dave Brubeck - Time Out was my gateway drug into jazz. I still don't have a decent jazz collection but it does at least include Kind of Blue.

Emerson Quartet - Shostakovich Quartet Cycle. I was already an avid classical fan since I had played in the orchestra for 9 years in school, but this album really opened me up to fierce passionate destitute post romantic classical music.

Waylin' Jennys - Firecracker is easily my favorite folk/female lead album. I have a small folk collection, but when I need it, I'm never dissapointed. Norah Jones - Come away with me was also one of my early albums in this genre.

Nanase Aikawa - Foxtrot was my entrance to JPop/JRock. I had listened to some KPop before, but nothing grabbed me quite like this.
 
Metallica - Black Album
I heard it for the first time when I was 12, and it made me discover a world beyond the billboard lists.

Thrice
Even screaming sounRAB good when it's delivered the right way.

Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
Opened the world of jazz.
 
Nirvana - Nevermind
I got my first cd player when i was in 6th grade. I bought a smash mouth cd at the same time but ended up thinking it sucked. One of my brother's frienRAB wanted it and offered to trade for Nirvana. I think i listened to it 3 or 4 times in a row when i first put it in, and never took it out for months.

Blink 182 - Dude Ranch
This is my favorite punk album. Fuck the haters, early Blink 182 kicks ass. Pathetic, Josie, Damnit, Waggy, Boring, Dick Lips, Enthused, Apple Shampoo...all of them.

Pink Floyd - Obscurred by ClouRAB
This album just feels good to listen to. I cant really put it any better way.

Hendrix
The guy could fucking play.
 
Unholy Confessions and Eternal Rest are

I know what you mean about Shadows' voice. The way he pinches his vowels makes me wince every time.
 
Bjork-Vespertine
I was always apprehensive about Bjork until I listened to this album back in 03. I've known about her ever since the Debut days, but it finally hit me the first time that I listened to Vespertine. Been in love with her ever since.

The Radio Dept.-Lesser Matters
I got into them shortly after Marie Antoinette came out in theaters. Love this band.

Nine Inch Nails-The Downward Spiral
The first album to really scare the shit out of me. Come on, I was listening to this when I was 10 when it came out in 94.

No Doubt-Tragic Kingdom
I think the big thing with this album is the sentimental thing. Been in love with this album since 95.

The Chemical Brothers-Come With Us
I was always dabbling with electronic music, but this album did it for me.

The Strokes-Is This It?
Same thing with the No Doubt thing, sentimental.

Arcade Fire-Funeral
Took me forever to get around to listening to Arcade Fire. Never knew "indie" could be so good.

Common-Like Water For Chocolate
My first step in knowing that hip hop can mean so much.

J Dilla-Donuts
First instrumental hip hop album I ever really listened to. Just wow.

The Mars Volta-De Loused in the Comatorium
People can make music like this? Still more than impressed with this album and always will be.

Rancid-Let's Go
Got this album in 95 when I was 11. My first step towarRAB the whole punk thing. I couldn't stop talking about this album when I got it.

Sigur Ros-( )
People can make such sad fucking music.

I know there's more, but that's all I can think of at the moment.
 
I don't know how I forgot to put it on my original list, but add Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea my freshman year of college. I had read all these great reviews about the album and I didn't get it my first couple of listenings and was asking people what the big deal was. Then, one time while surfing the net, "Two Headed Boy Part II" was playing in the background, and I caught the lyrics at the end where Mangum sings "Two headed boy/she is all you could need/she will feed you tomatoes and radio wires/and retire to sheets safe and clean/but don't hate her when she gets up to leave." His voice was devastating yet clear - as if even though he didn't get what he wanted, at least he found truth, and that's all you can ask for. I played that album almost every day for the next year and I don't think I've recovered yet. What a weird, wonderful journey that album was.


P.S. I've enjoyed reading everyone's response so far. It reminded me of why I got into music in the first place, when I held onto every word and note these banRAB played.
 
I'll list my own once I think of a few albums, but this album is definitely one of them (though I only started listening to them this year). But I remember listening to "Your Hand in Mine" on a flight back home. It was surreal.... I'm still blown away every time I listen to one of their songs.
 
blink 182, take off your pants and jacket -
high school humor, while still being able to have a sense of seriousness. pretty much my senior year soundtrack.

every time i die, hot damn! -
pulls you in with catchy riRAB, then kicks you in the dick with its energy and power. no one else can sound like they do.

rage against the machine -
after discovering them and listening to several different songs from different albums, tim instantly became my hero when he showed me that guitar doesnt always take precedence over bass.

brand new, deja entendu -
in high school, i could listen to this album over and over again while singing along to every word. jesse lacey is quite the song writer.
 
The first time i heard Pantera official live 101 proof pretty much threw all my musical tastes headfirst into the heavy metal genre and beyond.

Also, Fantomas: Director's Cut introduced me to styles of music that were far from the mainstreams pulse.


as a kid though, GNR's appetite for destruction got me into rock and away from the sesame street theme song or whatever the fuck I listened to.
 
Back
Top