Albums that blew you away the first time you heard them

Fresh Cream

jerol

 

Some have already been mentioned in this thread, so I would like to particularly highlight:

Sugar - Copper Blue
Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells
Death Cab for Cutie - The Photo Album
The Muggs - S/T
The Strypes - Snapshot
George Harrison - All Things Must Pass
Jethro Tull - Stand Up

in a league and way all its own on first release...

The Beatles - Ultra Rare Trax Vol.1 & Vol. 2

 

Jackson C. Frank (via the Mooncrest Blues Run The Game issue)
The Stooges - Fun House
Meet The Beatles
Bruce Springsteen - Bottom Line '75 bootleg - my first of him. His studio albums suck in comparison to the incredible '70s bootlegs, no matter how great (Darkness, The Wild, The Innocent and The E Street Shuffle) some of them are. (though the studio Rosalita blew me away completely the first time I heard it)
Hearing The Stooges' Search and Destroy for the first time was pretty incredible.
City Slang too! but that's not originally from an album...
and the first Link Wray I heard....had an album called Rumble on Line Records...
The Hitmen - Tora Tora DTK
The Dictators - Bloodbrothers
Radio Birdman - Radios Appear (Overseas [U.S.] Version)
also the first time I heard the 13th Floor Elevators' single of You're Gonna Miss Me, I thought I had heard the greatest song and single of my life then...
The Circle Jerks - Group Sex
Minor Threat's first two EPs
Los Olvidados' demo tapes
The Clash (U.S. version)
AC/DC - If You Want Blood, You've Got It and Back In Black
Stiff Little Fingers - Go For It, Nobody's Heroes and Hanx!
The Avengers' White Noise label EP
Ramones Leave Home, all the first four probably
The Best of Hoyt Axton blew me away completely the first listen, as later did Thunder 'n Lightnin'.
The Beat (Paul Collins)

 

Just a few:

Hendrix - everything
The Rolling Stones - Beggar's, Get Yer Ya Yas Out, Exile, Brussels Affair (original bootleg)
Led Zeppelin - I, II, II, IV, Houses, Grafitti
The Who - Live At Leeds, Who's Next
Marvin Gaye - What's Goin' On
Van Morrison - Astral Weeks
The Doors - LA Woman
Bob - Live, Rastaman Vibration
Curtis Mayfield - There's No Place Like America Today
The Stooges - Fun House
Iggy Pop - Raw Power, Kill City, The Idiot, Lust For Life, New Values,
Miles Davis - Jack Johnson, On The Corner
James Brown - In The Jungle Groove
The Jacksons - Triumph
Randy Newman - Sail Away
Aswad - New Chapter Of Dub
Keziah Jones - Blufunk Is A Fact!
John Coltrane - A Love Supreme, Coltrane, Olé,...
Johnny Guitar Watson - A Real Mother, Ain't That A Bitch
Funkadelic - Hardcore Jolies
Frank Zappa - Hot Rats, One Size Fits All, The Grand Wazoo, Apostrophe, Overnite Sensation,...
Captain Beefheart - Clear Spot
Spirit - 12 Dreams Of Dr Sardonicus
The Allman Brothers Band - All albums with Duane (and beyond)
Johnny Burnette Trio - Rockabilly Boogie
Earth Wind & Fire - Raise
Michael Jackson - Off The Wall
The Cramps - Psychedelic Jungle
David Bowie - Hunky Dory, Station To Station, Low, "Heroes"
ZZ Top - Deguelo
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Nuthin' Fancy
Pretenders
Neil Young - After The Gold Rush, Ragged Glory
Mighty Two - African Dub Chapter 3
The Clash - London Calling
Manassas - s/t
Stevie Wonder - Songs In The Key Of Life
Sex Pistols - Never Mind TheBollocks
Heartbreakers - L.A.M.F.
Dion - Born To Be With You
The Only Ones
Siousxie - The Scream
The Cure - Desintegration
Whire Stripes - Icky Thump
Blackberry Smoke - A Little Piece Of Dixie
White Denim - D, Corsicana Lemonade
...

 

Liked it straight off!

 

whatever the first album I heard Howlin' Wolf on was!
(Real Folk Blues maybe?)

 

Ok Computer-Radiohead
Dog Man Star-Suede
The Holy Bible-The Manic Street Preachers
Up the Downstair-Porcupine Tree
Plays Live-Peter Gabriel
The Name of This Band is Talking Heads-Talking Heads
Candy-O-The Cars
Station to Station-David Bowie
Quadrophenia-The Who
Disintegration-The CURE
Ocean Rain-Echo & the Bunnymen
Night & Day-Joe Jackson
Origin of Symmetry-MUSE
Absolution-MUSE
Gentleman-The Afghan Whigs
Blood Sugar Sex Magik-Red Hot Chili Peppers
Moving Pictures-RUSH
Ladies & Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space-Spiritualized
UmmaGumma(Live 4 Songs)-Pink Floyd
After Bathing at Baxters-Jefferson Airplane
ST-Franz Ferdinand

 

Beatles - Sgt. Pepper
Talk Talk - Spirit of Eden
Peter Gabriel - So
Peter Gabriel - 4 (Security)
Giant Sand - The Love Songs
Pixies - Doolittle
The Cure - Disintegration
Bill Callahan - Sometimes I wish we were an Eagle
Red House Painters - Ocean Beach
Bonnie Prince Billy - I see a Darkness
Tortoise - Millions Now Living Will Never Die
Pat Metheny Group - Travels
Van Morrison - Enlightenment

 

Quite a few albums left an immediate impression, that doesn't mean they are my favourites now, other music took me longer to digest and understand, for example Eno's early work left me puzzled and disappointed after what I'd heard with Talking Heads and the Eno/Byrne projects. It clicked a couple of years later.

Thelonious Monk- Genius Of Modern Music ( more so than any other music before or since )

Some others that left me gasping... I'm sure there are others.

Stravinsky Works- Ansermet/Swiss Romandie Orch.
Miles Davis- Porgy and Bess
Miles Davis- In A Silent Way
Miles Davis- Nefertiti
Charles Mingus- East Coasting
Charles Mingus- Mingus (x5)
Wayne Shorter- Adam's Apple
Prince Lasha- The Cry
Ornette Coleman- The Shape Of Jazz To Come
Gustav Mahler- Symphony #2 Simon Rattle/CBSO
Baba Maal & Mansour Seck- Djaam Leeli
Bowie- Station To Station
Bowie- Low
Joy Division- Closer
Eno/Byrne- My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts
John Cale- Music For A New Society
Jimi Hendrix Experience- Are You Experienced?
Jim Hendrix Experience- Electric Ladyland
Can- Future Days
Love- Forever Changes
Stevie Wonder- Innervisions
Stevie Wonder- Songs In The Key Of Life
EWF- That's The Way Of The World
EWF- All N' All
Talking Heads- Fear Of Music
Talking Heads- Remain In Light
Milton Nascimento/Lô Borges- Clube da Esquiña
Burning Spear- Marcus Garvey
Funkadelic- Maggot Brain
D'Angelo- Voodoo
Erykah Badu- Baduizm

 

Wolfmother's debut album. I was blown away at how they were able to recapture that 70's sound so well. It instantly became one of my favorite albums.

 

more...
Afghan Whigs - 1965
ABC - The Lexicon of Love
Prince and the Revolution - Parade
Earth Wind and Fire - I Am
Thomas Dolby - The Golden Age of Wireless
Destroyer - Kaputt
Steely Dan - The Royal Scam
Robert Byrne - Blame It On The Night
The Dream Academy - S/T
Dexys Midnight Runners - Searching For the Young Soul Rebels
Saint Etienne - Good Humor

 

The Beatles Second Album (Easily my happiest, most joyful first listen to any album.)
Magical Mystery Tour
Hot August Night (My first live album experience.)
Tommy (The first time I was challenged by an album)
Jesus Christ Superstar
2001 A Space Odyssey soundtrack (My introduction to classical music.)
Face The Music (I got chills from Fire on High and swept away by Waterfall.)

 

Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
Faith No More - The Real Thing
Radiohead - Pablo Honey

Instantly hooked with all of them. Of those three, Siamese Dream was the only one where i hadn't heard anything from or of the band before. It was a complete revelation. From the first minute to the last, i couldn't function until i had finished listening to it. I've never been rooted to the spot like that by an album since.

 

From this side of the Atlantic, The same happened to me with Achtung Baby (Almost your same story)... but equally and more emotionally with The Joshua Tree

 

The unfortunate news of Chris Cornell made me get out this record today, and it most definitely qualifies. I remember when it hit. I worked in a restaurant and we kept Superunknown and AIC "Dirt" on heavy rotation. Not a bad track on this one at all.

 

King Crimson In The Court of the Crimson King
Yes The Yes Album
Genesis Trespass
David Bowie The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
Bob Marley Rastaman Vibration
Ambrosia Ambrosia
ELP ELP
Neal Morse Sola Scriptura

 

^ ^ ^ Superunknown comes to mind. A few others:

Helmet - Meantime
deadhorse - Peaceful Death and Pretty Flowers
PJ Harvey - Rid of Me
St. Vincent - Strange Mercy
Clutch - s/t
Napalm Death - Diatribes

 

Many but basically summarize them in these:

-The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway: Genesis
-Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere: Neil Young
-12 x 5: The Rolling Stones
-London Calling: The Clash
-Sandinista: The Clash
-The Joshua Tree: U2
-Achtung Baby: U2
-Vol.4: Black Sabbath
-Outlandos D' Amour: The Police
-Ghost In The Machine: The Police
-Tattoo You: The Rolling Stones
-Dejá Vu: C,S,N & Y
-Ready & Willing: Whitesnake
-Snap!: The Jam
-Wish You Were Here: Pink Floyd

 

Kraftwerk-Computer World-1981, 11 years old and was playing football in the park next to my house, which I don't really see kids do nowdays, and someone was blasting this on their boombox and I absolutely had to know what this music was. As you know this came out in 1981 and me being 10-11 years old I had never heard anything like this previously in my life.
Early Slayer
Danzig S/T
White Zombie-La Sexorcisto Devil Music
Beastie Boys-License to Ill
Trance #1-#6 (Rumor Record series UK)-During my Rave Days
Gary Numan Tubeway Army S/T, Replicas Gary Numan Pleasure Principle
ELO-A New World Record
Geto Boys-S/T
Celtic Frost-Various 1983-1987 (approx)
Queensryche-Operation Mindcrime
Paris-The Devil Made Me Do It
Ice-T-Power
2 Live Crew-2 Live is What We Are and As Nasty as They Wanna Be
Exodus-Fabulous Disaster and Impact is Imminent
Various Judas Priests
Too Short-pre major label Don't Stop Rappin, Players, Raw Uncut and X-Rated and bigger label Born to Mack, Life is too Short and Short Dogs in the House
Love-Forever Changes

 

This one for sure--this and To Bring You My Love both certainly blew me away at first listen.

 

Albums that "blew me away" (and not merely "liked") and the year I first heard them:

The Rolling Stones

I "liked" everything (Got Live If You Want It LP being the sole exception) they released up to Exile on Main St. in 1972. Lost interest in the band and their subsequent releases.

These albums "blew me away":

The Rolling Stones (1964) in 1964. I was 12. Most amazing music I'd ever heard.
Aftermath (1966) in 1966
Beggars Banquet (1968) in 1968
Let it Bleed (1969) in 1969

Bob Dylan, became a fan in '65, have 'liked' everything.

These absolutely "blew me away:

Highway 61 Revisited (1965) in 1965
Bringing it all Back Home (1965) in 1965
Blonde on Blood (1966) in 1966
The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963) in 1965
Blood on the Tracks (1975) in 1975
Love and Theft (2001) in 2001

Others

The Pretty Things - Get the Picture (1965) in 1966
Jimi Hendrix - Are You Experienced (1967) in 1968
Cream - Fresh Cream (1966) in 1967
Van Morrison - Astral Weeks (1968) in 1968
The Mothers - We're Only in it For the Money (1968) in 1968
The Fugs - It Crawled Into My Hand, Honest (1968) in 1968
Johnny Cash - At Folsom Prison (1968) in 1968

I "liked" many albums by Traffic, Spencer Davis Group, Lovin' Spoonful, The Byrds, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, etc. ....but can't say I was "blown away" by any of them.

Later on I got into Jazz and was "blown away" by the likes of Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Bird.

I've "liked" albums by The Clash, Bowie, Cranberries, Radiohead, etc., but again, can't say I was "blown away" by them.

 

Horses- Patti Smith
Cheap Thrills- Big Brother & The Holding Company and Janis Joplin
Hunky Dory- Bowie
Boys For Pele- Tori Amos
Dry- PJ Harvey

 

I've been contemplating this (you'd think it would be obvious), but I realized that most all my favorite albums blew me away over time, rather than at the outset. If that makes any sense? Even the albums in my all-time top 20 are all there because they kept sounding better to me the more I listened to them, more so than they blew my mind on just one listen.

Still, the two I came up with that might qualify for this are:

Alive II - Kiss 1977
This one blew my wide-eyed mind almost literally. From the announcement of "the hottest band in the world" to the explosions, to the brisk rock and roll, to the crowd (manipulated or not), to the cover art...everything was there...the epitome of what rock and roll was all about. The impression this album gave to me has yet to be matched.

Pet Sounds - The Beach Boys 1966
An almost opposite kind of "blown away" than that delivered by Kiss. Sometimes you are simply blown away by great beauty and production rather than sheer invigoration.

Either way, both albums remain in my Top 10 and keep sounding better and better. I guess the blown away aura never fades for those albums that truly strike a chord.

 

Black Sabbath - Paranoid

 

John Mayall's Bluesbreakers With Eric Clapton
Fresh Cream
James Gang - Rides Again
Allman Brothers Band - At Fillmore East
Blues Project - Projections
Moby Grape - Moby Grape