Albums that blew you away the first time you heard them

Some records are slow-growers that take time or a few listens to appreciate. Others hit you like a freight train that you never saw coming. What are some of yours?

I can think of 3 offhand:

John Lennon - Plastic Ono Band: I think I had read about JL's "Primal Scream" therapy years before I heard this, but I wasn't prepared for this record--the lyrics and the approach startled the crap out of me, and I first heard it nearly 25 years after it was released.

David Crosby - If I Could Only Remember My Name: I was deep in a Byrds phase, and went on to CSNY because Crosby was also a member there and I liked his material. Found this unassuming record at the store, even put it on there before I took it home. I could hear right away it was something special.

David Bowie - The Man Who Sold The World: I was just getting into Bowie, and had already heard Ziggy (and of course Nirvana's cover of the title track of this album), but I was taken with this album right away, by the pummeling near-metal riffs of Mick Ronson and the sheer theatricality of Bowie's delivery. It's still one of my faves.

 

Pink Floyd - Animals
RATM - RATM
Janes Addiction - Janes Addiction
Snoop Dogg - Doggystyle
Miles Davis - Bitches Brew
Link Wray - Link Wray
Beastie Boys - Paul's Botique
Ray Lamontague - Ouroboros
My Morning Jacket - At Dawn
WILCO - Sky Blue Sky
Frank Zappa - One Size Fits All
To name a few

 

Most recently:
Immortal - At The Heart Of Winter

How this soon to be 20 year old masterpiece got passed me, i don't really know.

 

I could add these to my list as well.

 

OK Computer - I remember pulling the car over to listen when I first head Paranoid Android on the radio, and the following album didn't disappoint. Scary Monsters by Bowie was another. Also Hazards of Love by the Decemberists - even managed to get my wife to agree to having The Drowned as our first dance at our wedding, though to be fair she insisted it segue into "Livin' on a Prayer" by Bon Jovi.

 

Going to keep this short...
ALL Beatles albums
ALL Dylan albums
ALL King Crimson albums
ALL Hendrix albums

oh yeah... there is in fact numerous others.

 

Sgt. Pepper's blew me away the first time I heard it. After a while it just blew.

 

Definitely, Jefferson Airplane's Surrealistic Pillow. Loved it from first play on!
And the Fabs' Abbey Road.
[Edit:] Also Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon. Though when I was listening to it the first time (in a hotel room at night, no light) I was falling asleep during the mid of the album.^^

 

Responses gave me a few more ideas:

Crimson: In The Court Of The Crimson King, Lark's Tongues In Aspic
Van Der Graff Generator: H To He Who Am The Only One
Hendrix: Electric Ladyland

 

Van Halen self titled
Boston self titled
The Motels self titled
The Cure Seventeen Seconds
Sex Pistols Never Mind the Bollocks
The Pretenders self titled.

so many over the years.... too many to list

 

I wont list The Beatles albums as most of them blew me away. Here's ten, in no particular order.

The Associates - Sulk
U2 - The Joshua Tree
Sex Pistols - Never Mind The Bollocks
David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust
Vienna - Ultravox
Tubeway Army - Replicas
Kate Bush - The Kick Inside
Queen - Queen II
Queen - Sheer Heart Attack
Billy Joel - The Stranger

 

Al Stewart - Year of the Cat
Gordon Lightfoot - Don Quixote
Kate Bush - The Kick Inside
The Beatles - Catalogue

 

Sgt Pepper
Aqualung
Led Zeppelin One
Are You Experienced
Jeff Beck Truth
Chicago Transit Authority
Highway 61 Revisited
Blonde On Blonde
Astral Weeks
Allman Brothers Live At The Fillmore
Sticky Fingers
Exile On Main Street

 

Are You Experienced - Jimi

 

Opeth - Blackwater Park
Zappa - Waka Jawaka
King's X - Faith Hope Love
Iron Maiden - Piece Of Mind
Faith No More - The Real Thing
Voivod - Nothingface
Mr. Bungle - Mr. Bungle
Naked City - Naked City
Masada - Alef
Fishbone - Truth and Soul
Hedningarna - Kaksi

 

Metallica And Justice For All. It was a guitar sound and music I couldn't have imagined possible. I know many will write it off as thrash garbage, but to me it was Mozart.

 

Still probably my favorite Metallica record.

 

Born In The USA's rather an instant attention grabber, isn't it.

 

- John Coltrane, Lush Life. It's not one of Trane's better albums, but it was the first one of his I heard. As a young tenor player it had a pretty major impact over the next several years. Several other Coltrane albums would have similar effects.
- Cleveland Orchestra, Pierre Boulez, Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring. Classical you can bang your head to.
- Public Enemy, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. While rap wasn't a genre I generally listened to, that album made me understand how powerful and effective it can be.
- Clutch, Blast Tyrant. Just good blues based hard rock, but I dug it.
- Horace Silver, Song for My Father. It grooves.
- Thelonious Monk, Thelonious Himself. Monk's brilliance in pure solo form.
- Smashing Pumpkins, Gish. I had begun working as a mastering engineer when that was released, and just the sound of the opening was astounding.

I'll stop there.

 

Awesome album, great songs. Not-so-good production...but the SQ sure beats their last few albums here in the 21st century.

 

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Are You Experienced?
The Beatles - Abbey Road
The Zombies - Odessey and Oracle
The Who - Who's Next
Milton Nascimento & Lo Borges - Clube de Esquina
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue

Oh, and a couple compilations:

Buzzcocks - Singles Going Steady
Os Mutantes - Everything is Possible