Five albums that changed your life

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Mike Oldfield: Tubular Bells - First LP I ever bought

Genesis: A  Trick of the tail - First Genesis LP I heard when I was 15

Santana: Caravanserai - Wow. I can still remember hearing the sound of Carlos's guitar for the first time when at a pen pal's in Germany

Frank Zappa: Roxy and Elsewhere - It was so different from anything I had ever heard...and yet so right.

Dream Theater:- Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence - Rediscovered prog via this DT album 3 years ago

A topic that I love thinking about. I shudder to think what I would be listening to if it weren't for these albums. There are many other albums that have changed my life besides these five, but these had the most impact (particularly the first three).



1) Close to the Edge   
To say this album changed my life would be a gross understatement. This is the album that changed my life. It was my very first experience with prog, much less an artist that focused on the album instead of merely a single track. Up to this point I had listened to the garbage on the radio and whatever greatest hits collections were lying around the house (Billy Joel....cringe...). The opening of "And You And I" still takes my breath away. The album that served as the starting point for my whole taste in music.



2) Tago Mago
This was the album that introduced me to what other people call "weird" music, if I can get them to call a piece like "Aumgn" music. Anyways, the moment opening track "Paperhouse" kicked into high gear, I was hooked. Needless to say, "Halleluhwah" is incredible. Oddly enough, I quite enjoy "Peking O". I still can't comprehend how amazing Jaki Liebezeit is on drums.



3) Frances the Mute

Not a whole lot to say with this one. It's flawless (not that the two above weren't). "Cygnus...Vismund Cygnus" is still incredible, as are the other four pieces. It took me a little longer to warm up to "Miranda That Ghost Just Isn't Holy Anymore", but now I can't get enough of it (particularly "Pisacis (Phra-Men-Ma)"). This is still my favorite album ever, and it remains the "hardest/heaviest" album (and band) that I listen to.



4) Rock Bottom
Up until I heard this album, vocalists had never really been a factor in whether I liked an album or artist. Unless I couldn't stand the singer (very rare), they didn't really sway my opinion of an artist. This came crashing down as soon as Robert Wyatt starts singing the magnificent opener, "Sea Song". His voice sends chills down my spine, as does the story behind the album. Of course, the music behind the voice is equally phenomenal; it's soothing with a subtle hint of "madness", as Wyatt puts it. Sadly, this album (and his piece "Moon In June" written with the Soft Machine) remains my only exposure to the Canterbury scene of the late 60s. Hopefully I'll get around to hearing more.



5) Pink Moon
Nick Drake is tied with Robert Wyatt as my favorite vocalists ever, and this album makes a compelling case for the former. The first song I heard off this masterpiece was "Place to Be". Wow. Possibly the most beautiful piece of music I've ever experienced. As soon as he started singing, I just sat there. I couldn't grasp how emotional his voice was. I was frozen long after the song ended. The rest of the album is just as entrancing. Additionally, his skills as a guitarist are fairly impressive as well. If only he had been around longer than the 26 years he lived. I know it's not prog, but it doesn't matter to me. This may be the most emotional album I've ever heard.

I know I used a lot of superlatives to describe these albums, but they really do mean this much to me. Truly awe-inspiring music.

I spent 10 years enjoying music via free radio (Top 40, AOL, Live365 etc.). I didn't start purchasing music until mid 2006. 
Radio is free, but buying all those albums was WORTH the money. 

1. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust

The first classic album that I liked (and eventually loved). Without this, my music taste would have sticked to the likes of Spice Girls and Pink.

2. Blackwater Park

The first metal album I liked, and the first prog album I liked. Now I'm a progressive metalhead (or metallic proghead). Blackwater Park started it all for me.

3. Alive in Athens

My all-time favorite album. Pretty much explains who I am in three plastic discs.

4. Oceanborn

Expand the soundscape in my brain to a whole new symphonic era. Everything is broader, deeper and more beautiful.

5. (insert my breakthrough album here)

yeah, I'm a prog musician, and this spot is reserved for the album that would make me famous. 

Agaetis Byrjun - Sigur Ros


Deadwing - Porcupine Tree (Before this album, I didnt really listen to music)


Close to the Edge - Yes


The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place - Explosions In the Sky


( ) - Sigur Ros

---Honorable Mentions (Other albums I considered while making a top 5)---
Between Now and Then - O.A.R.
F# A# Infinity - GY!BE
Lift Your Skinny Fists... - GY!BE
Ghost Reveries - Opeth
Part the Second - Maudlin of the Well
Dowsing Anemone With Copper Tongue - Kayo Dot
Viva La Vida - Coldplay
Per Un Amico - PFM
In Rainbows - Radiohead
Fear of a Blank Planet - Porcupine Tree
Crack the Sky - Crack the Sky
10000 Days - Tool

Wow, five that changed my life. That's tough because there are so many. Okay, right off the top of my head:

Edited by meptune - June 17 2009 at 02:58

My Five:
De- Loused In The Comatorium - The Mars Volta- This album started my prog career off, yes a new band. From begining to end what a amazing roller coaster of a album.

Lateralus - Tool - This is know as the Tool Masterpiece and it is, the music is so powerful on this album, Still I have never hared such beautiful dark music.

2112 - Rush - This was my introduction to the greatest porg trio of all time. The title track speaks for itself. All three memebers display such great musicanship. And this band is very dear to my musical heart.

Red - King Crimson - Not my first KC album, but this album really intoduced to the dark side of prog. The last album of my favorite KC lineup. Brufrod,Fripp and Wetton..... and it could not get any better.

Panopticon - ISIS - This album introduced me to the post metal scene. My brother lent me this cd and i was amazed. I never heard a metal band sound like this. The atmosphere is like nothing else. Very epic music,now the post metal genere is a fave of mine.

Mmm...life changing. Good idea for a thread!

1. Dark Side Of The Moon - When I was around 16 years old, I was searching through my Dad's LP collection looking for something to listen to. I had never been much of a music fan before but I was curious to find something worth listening to. I ran across this striking album cover with no wording on it. I took it to my room and put it on the turntable. The record was scratchy as hell, but the strange vibe and laid-back, dreamy sounds came through loud and clear. I fell deeply in love with the album over the next couple of weeks and listened to it over and over until I had to buy the cassette tape and hear the music without the pops and cracks. This led me on a voyage of musical discovery over the next couple of years wherein I slowly acquired the entire Pink Floyd discography. Remember, this was before the internet and, living in a small town, most of the albums were tough to come by. This was a magical time in my life.


2. Yes - Classic Yes. A compilation, but it definitely changed my life. And it won't be the only compilation on my list. I was working at a Pizza Hut in my late teens. I had this really cool boss who had a CD collection numbering in the thousands and a $20,000 hi-fi home theater system (laserdisc baby!). We struck up a friendship and one day we were talking about music at work and he said, "If you're into Floyd, check out some other bands like Yes and ELP". I took his advice and went to the Wal-mart looking for some Yes to buy. All they had was Classic Yes so I scooped it up and went home to put it on my new CD player (this was one of my very first CD's). I was instantly blown away! If I remember correctly, "Heart of the Sunrise" is track 1 on that CD, and, well, you can imagine my reaction. Here was a band with music as adventurous and epic as Floyd but with the ability to play circles around any other band I'd ever heard. I started to seek out new albums, not just by Yes, but by all the classic prog bands. The rest is history.


3. Rush - Chronicles. Yep, another compilation. I had always liked the little I'd heard from Rush as my older brother and one of my uncles had been fans while I was growing up. That same uncle told me one day, "If you're into Yes, start buying some Rush albums."
Man, I'm glad I did! I decided to go with Chronicles as it was a good cross section of their career to that point. I wasn't sure which "era" would be for me. I fell in love with disc 1 and started from the beginning as far as filling in the discography. It took me a few years to begin to love the later stuff as well.


4. Genesis - The Lamb. I had already bought Nursery Cryme, then Foxtrot, but it hadn't clicked for me yet. I just couldn't put my finger on why, and to this day, I'm still not sure why I didn't like those albums at first as they're two that I absolutely love now.
But when my uncle (the same one as above) put on The Lamb one day while I was at his house, it finally clicked. From the first piano diddles to the end of disc 1 (we only listened to disc 1 that day), I was enthralled. I think part of it was the sound. It was so much more dynamic sounding than the two albums I had previously heard. That nasty, massive bass sound particularly fascinated me.
After I bought the CD for myself, I bought Selling England, and again I loved it from the start. I decided to give Nursery Cryme and Foxtrot another chance, and I could finally see the brilliance. And again, the rest is history.
The Lamb isn't even in my top 3 or 4 Genesis albums now, but it's the one that started the fascination for me.


5. Porcupine Tree - In Absentia. After discovering ProgArchives, I started to explore some of the highly regarded bands here that I had never heard of before. By far, my favorite discovery was Porcupine Tree, and the first CD I got was In Absentia. I immediately liked "Blackest Eyes", "Trains", and "The Sound of Muzak" especially. This led me to exploring more of their back catalog. And yet again, the rest is history. They are now my favorite modern band bar none.


Sorry for writing a book.

ClemofNazareth wrote: The energy this album exudes is incredible, and all the songs are timeless. If you have to ask, you won't get it. Made for a powerful soundtrack to an interesting time in my life.

I second the vote on Chicago II - a classic in jazz-rock fusion (do we get an "Amen" from Dick Heath?)  I also "get it" regarding Heart's first album - truly under-rated as far as pseudo-prog goes.  Definitely, you nailed it with Marillion's MC - probably my all-time favorite album from them, and from the 1980s in general...

Hmm. Not as drastic as the thread title suggests, but albums that were my embryonic prog interest, and thus transformed me into an elitist music geek wasting too much time here (joke) (or is it?) (joke again) (OR IS IT?) :

Kansas - Song For America
Rush - 2112
Yes - Fragile
Uriah Heep - Demons And Wizards
Jethro Tull - Aqualung

or something like that.