Five albums that changed your life

#1:  Undertow - Tool.  Saw the Sober video on Headbangers' Ball at 14 and thought it was the coolest thing I had ever seen/heard
 

#2:  Ocean Machine - Devin Townsend.  Knew of Devin from his work with Steve Vai and this is easily his best work imo.


#3:  In the Court of the Crimson King.  Found this in my dad's vinyl collection and really sprouted my early prog exploration


#4:  Faith No More - Angel Dust.  First Mike Patton album I owned


#5:  Hot Rats - Frank Zappa.  My first Zappa.

The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band


Charly García - La Hija De La Lágrima


Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon


Oasis - Be Here Now


David Bowie - The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars

Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture - This introduced me to the world of classical music and played during music lessons at school - my first goosebump moment.

1. David Bowie- "Low" (The instrumental songs on the second half of this album blew my mind despite how minimalistic they sounded)




2. Genesis- "Seconds Out" (This is what got me into prog. This live album remains my favorite to this day)




3. Radiohead- "Kid A" (An album that demonstrated how a band can completely shed its original sound and still sound incredible, if not better)




4. Magma- "1001 Centigrades" (My first foray into Zeuhl, which was unexplored territory for me.)




5. Pink Floyd- "The Final Cut" (Not really an album that changed my life, but it was the first I ever bought with my own money.)

TOP 5 PROG ALBUMS (ALSO CHANGED MY LIFE):

1. IN THE COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING (KING CRIMSON)

2. ROCK BOTTOM (ROBERT WYATT)

3. THIRD (SOFT MACHINE)

4. FAUST (FAUST)

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - F#A# oo
from the opening monologue to the final triumphant climax this album changed the way i looked at music. i could argue that lift yr skinny fists like antennas to heaven is equally as deserving of this spot on the list but this was THE album that moved me past being just a casual listener of music.


Kayo dot - Choirs of the Eye
holy sh*t i like weird music. The most emotionally moving work i have heard and still my favorite album. THE band that kick started my foray into minimalism, avant composition, ambient, rio, just about everything aside from standard rock ish type things.


Led Zeppelin IV
The first album i can remember liking. dad used to play it in the car and i would crank it up. still know all the words and all the solos to every song. i credit this album with the first step in my musical journey


 Creed Human Clay
ha ha surprised to see this on the list? First album i ever bought. me and my friend really got into music here, after school listening, exchanging, trying out new things it all began with creed... i credit my love of music with this album. with aaarrrrrmmmms wide Ooooppaaaaann! lol



The Album that got me into prog. random google search led me here to this site and to pretty much everything else i now listen to. dream theater was the first band i was fanatical about and was, as the cliche goes, my gateway drug into all sorts of other wierdness.




Edited by keiser willhelm - April 08 2009 at 10:54

Really hard to decide, but i choosed 6 albums that had a real influence on the music i've listen to over the years



1.QUEEN: Jazz. First album i ever bought been a teenager, after that i focused only on buying music albums (before that i was pretending to collect post stamps, coins, keychains ... but since then i left all that behind)



2. ELO: Out of the blue. Once i had almost all Queen albums this was my first studio double album and i used to love it (instrumental passages, strings and vocal arrangements, love songs ... well i was 14 years!) this led me to get most of ELO's albums, and then to some other groups like Styx, Alan Parsons, etc.



3. RAINBOW: Rising. This album led me to hear more heavy rock (Deep Purple, Iron Maiden, Led Zeppelin) and to some other hard rock groups of the 80's. I used to love Blackmore's guitar playing style and he became my favourite guitarrist for a while.



4. RICK WAKEMAN: Journey to the centre of the earth. First prog album i ever listened and it shocked me (i already wrote about this in the "How did you fing prog" thread)



5. FLAIRCK: Variaties op een dame. After listening one track of this album on the radio, i started searching for it but it took me a long time to get a bad quality tape and then the album (a cousin's gift that brought me from Germany) since then i went into folk music wich is my second love after progressive.



6. DEAD CAN DANCE: Within the realm of the dying sun. A friend of mine borrow me this on vynil and i discovered something completely new, completely different from the prog rock i was listening at the time, so then i went to dig more into 4AD catalogue (Cocteau twins, This mortal coil, etc).

I think these were the albums that in a way changed my life, and although i've not listen to some of them in many years (Queen, ELO and Rainbow)i think i will still enjoy them when i listen to them in future.


Edited by rosenbach - April 07 2009 at 14:30

1. King Crimson - Discipline - This was the first album that got me into Prog rock, and needless to say, I'm eternally grateful for that.


2. Jaco Pastorius - Jaco Pastorius - In simplest terms, showed me what a bass could really do and got me started into fretless bass


3. Dun - Eros - My introduction to Zeuhl.


4. Charles Mingus - Ah Um - This one was what really started to draw me into the more normal side of jazz after listening to Mahavishnu Orchestra, fusion era Miles, etc...


5. Can - Tago Mago - This was my intro to Krautrock, and is still probably my most listened to in the genre.  It's just always clicked with me.


I'm sure there are others that I would like to have on this list, but these were all some of the biggest musical eye openers for me.

Stand up - Jethro Tull
Close to the Edge - Yes
Obscured By Clouds - Pink Floyd
Leftoverture - Kansas
In the Wake of Poseidon - King Crimson

I Guess you can tell from these albums that I'm quite old, but I think I have a good taste in music, specially prog