Your Personal Ten Most Influential Albums

What would be a "personal influential" album?

 

Ten? Hmm, we'll see how this pans out...

King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King
Not my favourite Crimson album I was introduced to Prog at a young age by my older brothers. (FWIW my favourite KC album is Red)

Van Der Graaf Generator - Pawn Hearts
What can I say about this masterpiece, it set the bar high and never surpassed in my opinion. VdGG remain one of my favourite bands.

Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
When I went to Uni in the late 70s, my tastes were changing from Prog to New Wave (I never got on with Punk). When this album came out it hit me between the eyes. Fantastic album, much copied, never bettered (unless I happen to be in the mood for 'Closer').

The Chameleons - Script of the Bridge
Another debut album, all jangly guitars and great tunes. After reading about them in the music press I went to see them in an arts centre (a deconsecrated church) and was blown away, this hadn't happened with a band I was not familiar with before or since. The album didn't disappoint and the 2012 re-master is sublime.

Porcupine Tree - In Absentia
My first PT album which led me into the (very expensive) world of Steven Wilson.

Five. That's about it.

 

Excellent post! Thanks for sharing all that!

Grease was an early influence on me too, completely forgot about it! Your post also reminded me to dig deeper into Joni's catalog and to give Fiona's latest another try. And Aretha didn't click for me at all until I heard I Never Loved a Man, that's some soul-enriching music right there.

 

The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour
Neil Young - Harvest
Bob Dylan - Rolling Thunder Revue
Cocteau Twins - Treasure
Nirvana - In Utero
Nas - Illmatic
Burzum - Filosofem
Autechre - Chiastic Slide
Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile

Bonus : Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life

 

The Fragile and Songs In The Key of Life are huge for me too! It's been too long since I heard The Fragile. Gonna give it a spin today!

 

Oh man good call on the Massive Attack! I remember hearing that the LFO’s Frequencies in early 1990 and both of them turned my head inside out for sure. I owned both albums on all three available formats even (LP, CD, cassette).

 

Iron Butterfly/ In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
Frank Zappa/Hot Rats
Pink Floyd/Ummagumma
Pink Floyd/Meddle
John Prine s/t
Best Of Bread
Moody Blues/ In Search Of The Lost Chord
Grass Roots/16 GH
Alice Cooper/Schools Out
The Beatles (W.A.)

 

Kinks - Village Green Preservation Society
Alice Cooper - Killer
Cheap Trick - Heaven Tonight
Talking Heads - Fear of Music
The Cars - Candy-O
Iggy Pop - New Values
Devo - Freedom of Choice
Buzzcocks - Different Kind of Tension
The Alarm - Declaration
Sonic Youth - Goo

 

Lists are always tough for me, as I never seem to want to adhere to the cutoff amount, haha. Anyway, here are my ten (in alphabetical order of artist, then chronological order) as of right now:

The Beach Boys: Surfer Girl - Stereotypical cheesy early 60s pop, but done to the best it can be. I especially appreciate the early indications of Brian's exceptional compositional talent and his ability to write introspectively. As a whole, it plays like a greatest hits package with only a few "speed bump" filler tracks.

The Beach Boys: Pet Sounds - Deserving in every way of the praise it gets, this one is so influential because of how it plays as a complete piece as opposed to a song collection. That's not to say that one can't cherry-pick some obvious hits, but they pack some extra strength when part of the complete package. The same could easily be said for a number of albums of the mid/late-sixties, but Pet Sounds was arguably the perfection of the formula. Experimental yet inoffensive, it showed an impressive evolution of the band's sound without sacrificing accessibility. It's such an absolute pleasure of an album to experience.

The Beatles: A Hard Day's Night (UK) - This may be my ultimate pleasure-listen album. It's an odd duck in that for a "song collection" type of album, it doesn't pack as many hits as a number of other albums I rate lower, but it's still such a captivating record. I could play it over and over and never really get tired of it. It never fails to put me in a good mood.

The Beatles: Rubber Soul (UK) - Much of what I like about Pet Sounds I also like about this one, with a few trade-offs. In spite of a few lulls in the action, when it hits, it hits hard, and there are just so many legendary songs to be had. Even with differing styles amongst the various songs, they complement each other well, and in many ways the variety lends itself to engagement. Even when the contrasts are sharp, they still come off complementary (Drive My Car into Norwegian Wood doesn't seem like it should make sense, but it does). I also enjoy how much it succeeds as a transitional album, moving to the album-as-a-whole concept without having to deviate too much from the pop successes of their music up to that point.

Phil Collins: No Jacket Required - This album is a monster, and it's probably the best example of why Phil Collins has been so successful. 80s in so many ways, yet it doesn't sound nearly as dated as most 80s pop rock does. I suppose that's because it used synthesizers in a complementary fashion as opposed to building everything around them, but even beyond that, it often rocks HARD. Craftily shifting between soft rock calmness and stadium-level intensity, the album never bores, and there's plenty to discover even beyond the hit singles. This album showcased a master songwriter at the top of his craft and is essential listening for anyone who wants to see just how powerful rock and roll can really be.

R.E.M.: Document - This is the one album where you can find everything R.E.M. ever did right all in one place. Hard rock, indie, alternative, whatever you like: it's all here, and it all blends so nicely. Where it especially succeeds, though, is in packing hooks into it all, granting it a greater accessibility than one might typically find with their albums.

Tom Petty: Full Moon Fever - This is probably the only American album I'd put up against Pet Sounds for the greatest rock album an artist from this country has ever produced. It's a consistent album with a consistent sound on top of it, and even more reassuring is that despite being an 80s album, there's not an 80s sound. It doesn't age because the simplicity of its instruments granted it a timelessness to its style. For the songs themselves, the hits were just the appetizers. Those who go for the full experience are rewarded with a treasure trove of exceptional work, and I dare say that many of the album cuts best the singles. Put it on and put tape over the skip button. You won't need it.

U2: The Joshua Tree - This is my vote for the absolute best album of all time. The album is a unified front, and yet every song is a hit. Engaging from start to finish, U2 hit the ultimate musical grand slam with this album. Grandiose in sound and subject matter, it isn't so much catchy as it is impressive. For anyone seeking to record an album of consistent greatness, this is the album against which it'll be measured.

U2: Achtung Baby - Where The Joshua Tree represented the best U2 album, Achtung Baby represented the best U2 creative period. While I can't award points for incredible b-sides, remixes, or Zooropa, I can say that for the cracks Achtung Baby had that maybe The Joshua Tree didn't, it compensated by being more engaging, or at least less likely to get tiring after you play it a whole bunch of times. I'm especially impressed at how they took a style of rock that comes off pretty niche and turned it into a more universally appealing work.

The Who: Who's Next - I don't know if Pete Townshend regrets Lifehouse never properly coming to fruition, but I sure don't. This album is so incredibly good that putting any additional songs on it would likely have been subtraction by addition. I liken it to an older version of No Jacket Required as far as the power it packs, with a bit of sacrifice in radio friendliness but more aggression. Of the albums on this list, this one is the most tenured, a testament to its enduring excellence. The Who were my gateway drug to classic rock, with this being the gateway album, and to this day, it still brings the heat.

 

I tried for chronological, one per band/artist.

Rubber Soul - Furthest I can think back to an album I played front to back.
Bad (MJ) - Dancing on my parent's bed to this album.
Footsteps in the Dark (Cat Stevens) - Funny how it was Greatest Hit 2 but I rarely wandered from it.
No Jacket Required - Played this during some bad times.
Led Zeppelin II - My dad's vinyl that was the gateway to harder rock.
In Rock - Bought the vinyl at a thrift shop just because of the cover. They ended up being my rebellion band.
Velvet Undergound & Nico - I "borrowed" this CD from our renter often, played Heroin a lot.
Plastic Ono Band - Listened to this constantly during high school years, patterned my songwriting after it.
August and Everything After - High school years again, angsty deep feeling stuff.
Blue Album (Weezer) - Gateway to power pop, my favorite genre.

 

Miles Davis et al - Birth of The Cool (got me into jazz) and Kind of Blue.

The Velvet Underground and Nico (made me want to play guitar)

Hendrix - Kiss The Sky (the comp that made me a Hendrix diehard for life)

Soundgarden- Superunknown
and
Nirvana - Bleach
and
Neil Young - Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
and
The Only Ones - Peel Sessions
(the sounds of my teenage depression and formative in shaping my taste in rock music)

The Beatles - Hey Jude (my first musical love at 5 years old)

Stooges - Fun House. The best rock album!

 

Murmer-REM

House Tornado--Throwing Muses

Led Zep #4

So--Peter Gabriel

Sound Dust-Stereolab

Mutations--Beck

Decade--Neil Young

Whip Smart--Liz Phair

Cosmic Thing--B52's

Joshua Tree--U2

Dots and Loops--Stereolab


That's all for now

 

Most of the other albums i listed were more or less my first exposure to the artists or to entire music genres. I already knew Pretty Hate Machine, Broken & Downward Spiral when i heard The Fragile and didn't expect it to be the huge shock / game changer album it was for me. Now it's been a while and i'd have to be in the mood for it but what a journey.... Anyway have a good time.

 

Meet The Beatles
Rolling Stones - 1st album
The Kinks - 1st album
Rory Gallagher - Deuce
Jim Lauderdale - This Changes Everything
Los Lobos - Kiko
McCoy Tyner - Song For My Lady
Temptations - With A Lot O'Soul
Allman Brothers - Idlewild South
Little Feat - Dixie Chicken

 

All Things Must Pass by George Harrison. Nothing comes close as far as its influence on ME.
The other nine albums all have stirred my emotions, which I value more than music solely for its rock/pop/fun components.
Revolver
Imagine
Blood on the Tracks
Bridge Over Troubled Water
Beatles White Album
Duke
Living in the Material World
Rubber Soul (US)
Madman Across the Water

 

Influential for what?
I don't play in any band

 

I was 13 when Abbey Rod was released. My sister brought it home and played it and I was immediately captivated. I had heard of the Beatles of course, I grew up in England, but as a 13 yr old boy they didn't really register, I was much more interested in running around with my mates. But, entering adolescence and hearing this (in stereo) changed everything for me and since then I've been trying to experience as much music as possible. My list could certainly be added to, or changed, but the albums I chose all represent some moment in my life/listening experience that affected me greatly.

 

maybe we should have defined “influential”.
I took it as albums that influenced music going forward.
Not something that was personal to us.

 

I took it as albums that influenced music..not me personally.

 

It's albums that were personally influential to us as individuals. Check out the OP's post #51 where he goes into detail about the 10 albums he picked for himself.

 

Randomly listed:

- Can - Tago Mago
- Suicide - Suicide
- David Bowie - Low
- The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground (1969)
- Spacemen 3 - The Perfect Prescription
- Roxy Music - Stranded
- Neu! - Neu!
- The Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers
- Kraftwerk - Trans Europa Express
- Einstürzende Neubauten - Kollaps

 

Beatles, Zeppelin & Scorpions in no particular order....As far as Influential Albums go!

 

Why stop me at tem when you can have 100?

Top 100 Greatest Music Albums

 

Van Halen I-my late cousin played it for me in 1978 when I was 8. Only being exposed to Top 40 radio it changed my understanding of what music could do.
The Knack-Get the Knack. First album I ever asked for as a Christmas gift. Started a lifelong love of power pop.
AC/DC-Back in Black. Not my favorite record by the band but the first one I owned. The gateway drug to loud rock & roll for me.
Squeeze-East Side Story. The Beatles broke up the year I was born. Saw Squeeze on Saturday Night Live and by the time I was in college I was hooked.
Bowie-Ziggy Stardust. Let's Dance was my intro to Bowie. He became one of my holy trinity after I dove into his catalog starting with this one.
Springsteen-Darkness on the Edge of Town.-Born in the USA was everywhere and Tunnel was the first one I bought but he became the 2nd member of my holy trinity once I got Darkness. An album that never fails to inspire me to this day.
Prince-Sign o' The Times-The third member of my holy trinity. Loved Purple Rain but it was Sign that really showed off his range as a performer. For my money, the best thing he ever did and it's not even close. A lot of his material sounds dated now but this one always sounds fresh to me.
Crowded House-debut. Don't Dream It's Over remains my favorite song ever.
Richard Thompson-Rumour & Sigh-my introduction to a performer who I continue to follow and purchase records from as soon as they are released.
James McMurtry-Too Long in the Wasteland-described it at the time as Lou Reed meets Mellencamp. Like Richard Thompson he's been a constant companion since this came out.
Honorable mention-Marshall Crenshaw-debut. Girls, girls and more girls. Perfect music for a teen age kid with girls on his mind.