Album That Made Biggest Impact On First Listen

[nodepression]

[karosko]

[karosko]

[garageland]

[sprout the creator]

[superfurryanimal]

[nodepression]

Feb 26, 2011 23:56:09 GMT -5 sprout the creator said:

This is a serious thread wolf.

[TheDruid]

Laugh away, but I was 14 and in love.........

[Zapp Brannigan]

[hummingbird]

I am, as a rule, superfluous.

[sprout the creator]

[cheeky]

[Zapp Brannigan]

Can't believe I left this off..probably the album that had the most impact the first time I heard it. This is one where I'll never forget that feeling it gave me or even where I was/who I was with when I first heard it. One of the most powerful moments of my life, for sure. One of those "life-changers".

[hummingbird]

As I peruse everyones selections, I'm curious about HOW/WHAT about each of the albums that people chose impacted them.

I think mine fall into 3 categories, with some albums "Venning"(I made this word up but you all understand the reference).

Music that completely changed the course of my musical journey and influenced my preferences from that day forward.
1)Led Zep: IV (ZOSO)
2)Nirvana: Nevermind
3)STP: Purple
4)Incubus: Make Yourself
5)Wilco: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
6)Death Cab: Transatlanticism

Music that made me say WOW! This is amazingly innovative or the composition is woven of magic! or the lyrics are like poetry in motion, etc.
1) Getz/Gilberto
2) Neil Young: Everybody Knows This is Nowhere
3) Nevermind
4) RHCP: Blood Sugar Sex Magic
5)Smashing Pumpkins: Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
6)Tupac: All Eyez on Me
7) Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
8)Transatlanticism
9)Sufjan Stevens: Come on Feel the Illinoise
10)Band of Horses: Cease to Begin
11) The National: High Violet

Music that "spoke to" me emotionally. I found it poignant, moving, affecting, or it reflected my emotional state at the time (primarily relating to the death of my son).
1)Getz/Gilberto
2)Sarah McLachlan: Surfacing
3)Transatlanticism
4)Illinoise
5)William Fitzsimmons: Goodnight
6)Cease to Begin

[cheeky]

Feb 27, 2011 14:19:44 GMT -5 Zapp Brannigan said:

Can't believe I left this off..probably the album that had the most impact the first time I heard it. This is one where I'll never forget that feeling it gave me or even where I was/who I was with when I first heard it. One of the most powerful moments of my life, for sure. One of those "life-changers".

Same way with Ágætis byrjun, for me. I don't think anything has ever moved me quite like it to date.

[Maniac]

[Zapp Brannigan]

I think Animals affected me the way it did because I was already really into Floyd, I had Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here, Meddle, The Wall, but somehow hadn't heard Animals yet. I really didn't stand a chance. From the moment that flithy slide guitar solo hit in "Dogs"...it was over. I always tend to gravitate towards music that takes me to the abyss. Floyd has always been able to get me there, just dark overtones and spaced-out synths. That's why it always comes back to Animals.

Kinda goes hand-in-hand for how Lateralus hit me so hard. I remember it was the summer after middle school and I saw the "Schism" video on MTV. That's right. MTV. Anyway, the video was pretty much the coolest thing I'd ever seen (obviously it was the first time I'd seen a Tool video), and went out and bought the album the next day. That record seriously twisted me up inside. It almost made me uncomfortable how deep it was able to get to me, but at the same time I was just marveling in the musicianship and the actual beauty that was coming through.

Oh, Inverted World and Demon Days had more impact on me in the sense of really opening my eyes up to new styles of music. I was never much of a pop fan, besides like Beatles/Beach Boys, and when I heard that Shins record it showed me that pop could still sound really unique and cool. Demon Days is just straight up nasty and all over the place. Not much I can say about that except it opened me up to a lot more electronic-based artists.

The Blues And The Abstract Truth helped me break through into the world of jazz. I had heard and dug on some Miles and early Coltrane by that point, but had NO clue about anyone else really. Ol' Oliver melted my face.

( ). Sigur Ros has accomplished something special with their music. To be able to elicit such strong emotions, whether it be intense happiness, or even sadness, which it's known to do from time to time, blew me away. They say nothing in the literal sense, but they spoke to me more loudly than any other music ever had up to that point. Their music is almost tangible to me. You can feel it run slowly over you like you're laying at the bottom of a stream. That was definitely a first.

[nodepression]

Antics was very different from anything I had ever listened to when I was 15-16. I honestly don't remember liking music too much before then, except for like Coldplay and shit. Interpol was obviously very different, and a lot better. I liked how detached Paul Banks voice sounded. I also remember thinking "I want you in my space" was about the social network of the same name.

Illinoise just absolutely floored me. I was honestly more impressed with the music before finding a deep emotional connect with it, but Chicago really hit my hard. The image where he's in the van with his friend sleeping in the parking lot, that.

On The Beach was more recent, and I honestly can't believe it doesn't get more attention outside of our little circle here. It's my perfect album, Neil's voice is spot on, the lyrics are fantastic, and the mood just always hits right. I don't think I've ever heard the beginning of the song "On The Beach" and not been in awe.

[hummingbird]

I constantly find it puzzling what this social group defines as "pop". Perhaps it is the generational difference, or maybe there was a huge disparity in the music that was readily available or common or truly "popular" in your areas of the country. The Shins would NEVER be considered pop where I came from, and definitely not Gorillaz.

Mind you, I spent the majority of my life in an area of the country where all but three radio channels were country, and two of the remaining were hair band channels. The only place in a 40 mile radius that one could buy music was KMart or the now defunct Musicland, we didn't have MTV, we were too poor to be very mobile and the internet wasn't wide-spread. Even today, in my hometown, The Shins are virtually unknown. In fact, listening to the music of the 90's that I noted as being an impact (Nirvana, STP, RHCP, Smashing Pumpkins etc), made me a TOTAL weirdo at the time. I heard Nirvana in some rich, progressive hippie's windowless music listening room in the country. I was wide-eyed and amazed because it wasn't Poison or Garth Brooks.

I fear some music ends up disregarded as frivolous "pop" by current generations as they take it for granted because it has existed since the genesis of their musical awakenings, or the wide availability of alternative musical genres due to the internet has skewed the understanding of "pop".

At any rate, I find the different perspective to be interesting. And I think that all of us, and all artists, are lucky to have the internet widely available. We've all benefited so much. I could still be rocking out RHCP thinking they were the creme de la creme of "obscure" music.

[hummingbird]

I find it so amazing how music can open up veins of emotion. Something we had no part in creating becomes a part of us, or relates so much to a part of us that it becomes OURS.

Thanks for sharing.

[superfurryanimal]

I should have put a little more thought into my first post and added more bands. For now, I'll explain the ones I posted.

Rubberneck- Being from the bible belt and growing up in a strict Southern Baptist culture, this album really spoke to me. All of it's anger and frustration is countered with an underlying sense of guilt. Which is a feeling I know all to well. Trying to understand my place in the universe and how to reconcile that with evolution, politics, sexuality and the general hypocrisy of modern life. This album captured all these emotions and feelings but then ends on the suggestion that humans do all these things to themselves. We create our own hell.

End Hits - This was the first Fugazi album I owned. That is all. I even have the T-shirt.

Rings Around the World - This is one of the defining albums of my life for several reasons. It's encapsulates my world view, which is bleak, humorous, and downright silly at times.

It goes from a song making fun of extreme sports, to a song discussing technology as a double edged sword, to a song saying "when people talk about saving the world they're really talking about saving humans. The reality is that humans are the problem".

Then you have Paul McCartney biting a carrot as a looped beat on "Receptacle for the Respectable." Shortly followed by "No Sympathy" and Juxtaposed With You."

I'll never understand why this band isn't more revered. They are brilliant!

[Airline]

WHITE BLOOD CELLS/ELEPHANT

CHUTES TOO NARROW

ELECTRIC VERSION

ODELAY/SEA CHANGE

[sangreal]

[cheeky]

HELL YES! The Crow Soundtrack!

[cheeky]

Feb 28, 2011 0:45:43 GMT -5 hummingbird said:

I constantly find it puzzling what this social group defines as "pop". Perhaps it is the generational difference, or maybe there was a huge disparity in the music that was readily available or common or truly "popular" in your areas of the country. The Shins would NEVER be considered pop where I came from, and definitely not Gorillaz.

Mind you, I spent the majority of my life in an area of the country where all but three radio channels were country, and two of the remaining were hair band channels. The only place in a 40 mile radius that one could buy music was KMart or the now defunct Musicland, we didn't have MTV, we were too poor to be very mobile and the internet wasn't wide-spread. Even today, in my hometown, The Shins are virtually unknown. In fact, listening to the music of the 90's that I noted as being an impact (Nirvana, STP, RHCP, Smashing Pumpkins etc), made me a TOTAL weirdo at the time. I heard Nirvana in some rich, progressive hippie's windowless music listening room in the country. I was wide-eyed and amazed because it wasn't Poison or Garth Brooks.

I fear some music ends up disregarded as frivolous "pop" by current generations as they take it for granted because it has existed since the genesis of their musical awakenings, or the wide availability of alternative musical genres due to the internet has skewed the understanding of "pop".

At any rate, I find the different perspective to be interesting. And I think that all of us, and all artists, are lucky to have the internet widely available. We've all benefited so much. I could still be rocking out RHCP thinking they were the creme de la creme of "obscure" music.

This is what deeply bothers me about the genre game... It's impossible for every single person to agree on what music is defined by a certain term. To me, pop means popular at times, and also a sound that has consumed and re-processed an existing theme of it's predecessors. One definition is pretty much concrete while the other is extremely abstract. I, like Zapp, consider the Shins "pop" music if I have to tie them to something.

I just feel a general distaste toward genres. I see them simply as a point of reference. Music is limitless, I never understand why people try to put a lid on it.

(not that that is what you lovely people are doing )