Dru Thru the Years
I turn 24 next week, so I made a list of albums that I loved through the years. They're def not all my favorites, but at one point, they're all I could listen to. |
| 2 |  | Johnny Cash
At Folsom Prison
Although Scruggs was my first introduction into having a specific musician I enjoyed, Cash was my introduction to music fan-boying. Once I heard Johnny Cash, I had to hear everything by him. Cash is an easy pick because he’s accessible and likeable by nearly everyone. I like Johnny Cash because I could listen to him on my own, with my friends, or even with my grandparents. His death really affected me, even though I was only 9 at the time. |
| 3 |  | Jack Johnson
In Between Dreams
Most of the music I remember from early on I remember listening to in the car. Although I had my own Walkman, I never had my own CDs until middle school, so I wound up listening to what my parents had. “Banana Pancakes” is a masterpiece. |
| 4 |  | Green Day
American Idiot
My very first CD. I got it in sixth grade and my mom was pretty hesitant to let me listen to it because it had the Parental Advisory sticker popped on the front. I was a nerdy, shy, back-of-the-class sixth grader, so owning something that was so **controversial** made me feel cool. |
| 5 |  | Papa Roach
Infest
Alright, y’all, we’re about to enter ~~~the middle school tastes~~~ |
| 6 |  | Disturbed
Indestructible
I was so excited to find a ~~metal~~ band that wasn’t so screamy. I could be hardcore AND beta! |
| 7 |  | Linkin Park
Hybrid Theory
I feel that there are two types of Linkin Park fans: 1) people who find them in middle school and listen to them so much they end up hating everything about them once they’re a senior in high school, and 2) people who find them in middle school and then never let up their love for this band until the day they die. I’m the former, but let me tell you, I know too many people who are the latter and are still pretty weird about Chester’s death. RIP, tho, sad af. HT and Meteora are tight.. |
| 8 |  | A Day To Remember
Homesick
My last ~heavy~ band for a while. The cool punk kid in my class (who is now making major waves with his emo band here in Denver) loved ADTR and I decided that to be cool like him, I should listen to them. I still jam some of their stuff from time to time, but their new stuff really doesn’t even hit the nostalgia button anymore. |
| 9 |  | The Fray
How to Save a Life
My very first concert. I went with my dad right before starting high school. It was their last day of a year-long world tour, they were headlining Red Rocks Amphitheater (which if you’ve never been to a show at Red Rocks, idgaf if you don’t live in CO, you need to find a way to see someone here) and it was pouring rain, which is rare for CO. I saw them again for free last year, when they headlined a CO Artist festival in Fort Collins, and I’ll say that they haven’t really aged super well. |
| 10 |  | blink-182
blink-182
I got into blink-182 after all of my friends did. It was after they had broken up, but still before they got back together. My mom never gifted me any of their albums because she had heard from her friends that the band was vulgar. And I guess you could say that Dude Ranch wasn’t the cleanest album, but I feel like I was listening to worse stuff in middle school. |
| 11 |  | Weird Al Yankovic
Straight Outta Lynwood
The pinnacle of comedy to a 13 year old. |
| 12 |  | Porcupine Tree
Stupid Dream
My uncle got me this CD for Christmas my freshman year of high school. I respected my uncle a lot, not knowing much about him because he was constantly moving around the country, trying to find the university that would give him tenure, but I did know that he was an audiophile, super into prog. Back then, my definition of prog rock was “Bands who made albums that told a story”, but when I asked him what the story behind Stupid Dream was, he kind of chuckled and explained the intricacies behind “prog” genre. I actually found Sputnik from doing some research on SD. It was right around the time they were releasing the End of the Decade list. I watched that list get posted every single day and every single day I would go onto the library’s website and put a hold on every album I could find. I had every album put on a specific playlist in iTunes called “Sput’s 100” and went through them day by day. |
| 13 |  | Streetlight Manifesto
Everything Goes Numb
The first concert I went to without a parent. I drove my friend and his brother in my 1992 Buick LeSabre to the venue and my friends’ brother told me to park in a specific church parking lot for ease. Turns out, it wasn’t a church lot and my car got towed and I had to spend $300 to get it back. The show was worth it, though. |
| 14 |  | Say Anything
...Is a Real Boy
Max Bemis spoke his fancy words to my angsty, heartbroken teenage soul. |
| 15 |  | Eminem
The Marshall Mathers LP
Another artist I couldn’t listen to when all of my friends were, so when I got my own iPod, I put everything my mom hated (except metal, I was very anti-metal for most of my time in high school) on it immediately. I thought it was pretty impressive that I knew all of the words to “The Real Slim Shady”. |
| 16 |  | The Wonder Years
Suburbia I've Given You All and Now I'm Nothing
Still one of, if not my favorite band. Hank the pigeon is sitting on my left bicep, shouting “I’m not sad anymore”, so I feel like I do have to like the band forever, so I’m glad I didn’t latch onto The Story So Far or Knuckle Puck or some other shitty pop-punk band that does nothing to revise and grow in their sound. Like Say Anything, TWY lyrics were super important to me in high school and early college. I still sing along in the car and spin each of their records from time to time, but for a while these guys were the only thing that entered my ears. |
| 17 |  | Brand New
The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me
I'm still mad at Jesse Lacey. |
| 18 |  | The National
Boxer
Possibly my #1 album of all time. Although this wasn’t a top-tier album for me at the beginning, the older I got, the more I liked the National and the more I grew to adore Boxer. In my eyes, the National can do no wrong. I even like “Turtleneck” for god sakes. |
| 19 |  | The Decemberists
The Crane Wife
This was one of the only CDs I still had when I got my first car. I would always jam this whenever I went anywhere that summer, so it quickly grew into an early-June must. I still spin it when the sun is shining. |
| 20 |  | mewithoutYou
Brother, Sister
Much like the National, these guys grew on me hard. |
| 21 |  | Opeth
Blackwater Park
My jump back into metal was once again a mixture of my uncle and Sputnik. I saw that Steven Wilson of PT had produced this album and my uncle, when we were driving from Denver to Chicago to see PT in concert (for the show that is actually on the Octane Twisted live album), he showed me some of their stuff (starting with Damnation, to help me ease in tonally) and I eventually grew to love them. I jumped headfirst into death metal and, although it’s still not a staple genre in my tastes, I enjoy what I find every now and again. |
| 22 |  | Bomb the Music Industry!
Vacation
The album that took me off to college. I was actually unable to see BTMI! on their last tour because I had to be up a week early for band camp. My friend went though, he broke his glasses in the pit during “Skye! Life is Awesome” |
| 23 |  | Kendrick Lamar
good kid, m.A.A.d city
When I was in college my freshman year, my roommate would have his girlfriend over and I would pop in my headphones and walk to the 24/7 coffee shop a mile down the road. Sometimes, just to give them as much time as I could, I would take the long way through campus. When this album dropped, we were approaching the snowy season in CO (October through March and then sometimes in April and at least once in May) so I would bundle up in my nice coat, pop in some Kendrick, and walk through the snowy campus. It was nice and I this album still transports me back there. |
| 24 |  | Julien Baker
Turn Out The Lights
The most recent to make it on my “albums that will most likely have a lasting impression on me even though they may not be my favorite” list. I’ve struggled with depression for quite a few years now, and although there are so so so so so many albums that deal with that topic, this just seemed to be the first one that I thought got it all right. |
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