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Last Active 02-16-11 5:19 am
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| Important Albums
Some of this list is probably pretty embarrassing, and I'm not at all trying to claim that these are the ten best albums of all time or anything like that. But, for their time and place, they were ten of the most influential and important albums for me personally, and opened a lot of doors. | | 1 |  | Linkin Park
Hybrid Theory
This was really my catalyst for getting into music. I mean, sure, I had a few odds and ends before the new millennium began, but seeing "In the End" on MTV (yeah, there's a throwback for you) really vitalized my interest in music, taking it to an entirely different level. I got Hybrid Theory a few weeks after first hearing the song, and the album's now-cliched fusion of rock, metal, and rap was something entirely new and innovative to me. Songs like the DJ-driven, largely instrumental "Cure for the Itch" stood side by side with furious cuts like "One Step Closer" and "By Myself." The blend was simply astounding. In retrospect, it's all a little too clean-sounding for its own good, and the songwriting here is definitely lacking in complexity, but it's still damn fun and the impact it had cannot be denied. In fact, I'd say it put me on the fast-track to eventually discovering albums such as... | | 2 |  | Killswitch Engage
Alive or Just Breathing
The first genuinely "heavy" record I got into (with the possible exception of the soundtrack to Freddy Vs. Jason), I really had no idea how great a place I was starting when I picked this one up, mostly because I had nothing to compare it to. This lack of familiarity definitely played a part in how important the album would become, but so did the quality of the music itself. "My Last Serenade," "Fixation on the Darkness," and "The Element of One" all showed me how even in the midst of crushing chords, screaming vocals, and distorted riffs, there could be sublime beauty. Likewise, the lyrics here were really meaningful, especially for a genre like metalcore; they eschewed the popular "anger for anger's sake" mentality for a much more nuanced, thought-provoking approach. Introspective lyrics such as these have always been a draw for me, starting all the way back with... | | 3 |  | Counting Crows
August and Everything After
One of my parents' favorite albums, this was played almost non-stop in my household when I was growing up. For this, I think I was pretty lucky. The somewhat stripped-down arrangements (at least comparatively) presented by Adam Duritz and the gang were apt reflections of his vividly bleak lyrical landscapes, ranging from the album-opening character study "Round Here" to the wistful yet ultimately hope-fueled closer "A Murder of One." Between these bookends, songs like "Perfect Blue Buildings," "Sullivan Street," and "Raining in Baltimore" were full of melancholy meaning, yet weren't overly dour to the point that it distracted from the beauty of the music itself (and the fact that the last one namedropped my hometown didn't hurt its appeal any). In short, the stuff on display here felt real. Of course, this was hardly the only influential performance my parents exposed me to, another highlight being... | | 4 |  | Talking Heads
Stop Making Sense
Though I hardly knew it at the time, this is widely considered one of the greatest concert DVDs ever released. In retrospect, it fits. But what I remember most clearly back in the day was this gangly, geeky, bug-eyed maniac singing everything from slow, vaguely mournful pieces ("Heaven") to powerful anthems ("Burning Down the House"), while offering glimpses of gospel ("Take Me to the River"), vague funk ("Life During Wartime"), and even (relative) pop (the Tom Tom Club's "Genius of Love"). That "geek" turned out to be David Byrne, and those songs, along with the remainder, all turned out to be crucial parts of my childhood, both musically and otherwise; my mother sang "Psycho Killer" to me as a lullaby, which probably explains a lot, and joins the ranks of other slightly traumatizing listens, such as... | | 5 |  | Pearl Jam
Ten
My first exposure to grunge wasn't from Mudhoney, or Mother Love Bone, or Soundgarden, or even Nirvana, but Eddie Vedder and company, whose distinctive soaring vocals and crunchy guitar sound would go on to define an entire decade of artists, not necessarily for the better. Regardless of the repercussions, though, this was my first taste of the genre, and definitely left its mark. It's hard to pick favorites from an album that I know and, yes, even love so thoroughly from start to finish, but the vastly underrated "Once," the heartrending "Black," and the relatively restrained (for the most part) "Garden" are particularly resonant. And "Jeremy" remains as lucid and startling now as it did when I first heard it, giving it a staying power that is shared by few artists, including... | | 6 |  | Miles Davis
Kind of Blue
Truth be told, I only started seriously listening to jazz a few years back, when I was in the jazz ensemble at my high school. And while Miles has become sort of a cliche, go-to jazz artist over the years, people seem to forget that there's a reason things become cliches. They need to be incredibly powerful to begin with. Power is something Miles had in spades; it is also something that was tragically fated to suffer from his own personal demons and burdens. Still, to paraphrase The Wire, when he was good, he was the best we had, and nowhere is this better encapsulated than this seminal record, which features nearly every Davis classic this side of "Milestones" and "A Night in Tunisia." This album effectively opened my eyes to an entirely new genre, much like... | | 7 | | Godspeed You! Black Emperor
F#A# (Infinity)
For the longest time, post-rock was something I'd only heard about. It was the music of elitists, a structurally-challenging, constantly shifting beast that had no set precepts other than those it broke. Well, time and experience has shown that post-rock can be just as rigidly prepackaged as any pop act, but Godspeed, in keeping with (or perhaps in spite of) their reputation, has always managed to bring something interesting to the table. This holds particularly true for my first listen of this album, a watershed which combined obscure vocal samples, orchestral instrumentation, thunderous guitar riffs, powerful, intense dynamics, and a slew of other buzzwords into one affecting, remarkably cohesive whole. Sure, it was challenging, especially for a novice, but repeated listens revealed more and more layers to this ogre of an album. The same can be said for... | | 8 |  | Coheed and Cambria
In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3
The first Coheed CD I bought, this remains my favorite to this day. Going in, I had only heard "A Favor House Atlantic," which, next to "Blood Red Summer," is unquestionably the most straight-forward number on the album. Needless to say, I was in for a shock when I listened to this, expecting a cut-and-dry pop-punk album only set apart by its distinctive, Rush-esque vocals, and finding a pristine example of modern day prog tinged with indie, metal, and, yes, a little bit of pop-punk. The eclectic and progressive tendencies of the music were hardly its only selling point, though, as the sharpness of the performance and production is excellent, and the lyrical scifi story itself is interesting if not particularly poetic. Still, songs like the title track, "The Light and the Glass," The Camper Velourium Trilogy, and album highpoint "The Crowing" all receive heavy rotation to this day. The album is metallic, heady, and progressive, yet innately accessible, and in that regard stands shoulder to shoulder with the likes of... | | 9 |  | Tool
Aenima
Though many consider Lateralus the best Tool effort, I still have to side with their sophomore full-length, if only because it marked my introduction to the band. Tool was always something of an enigma to me (and still, to a certain degree, remains one), coupling pseudo-industrial and heavily distorted sludge with moments of genuine beauty (witness "H." or the dynamic catharses of "Pushit" and "Third Eye") with a grace and finesse that is often attempted but rarely achieved by lesser acolytes of the band, not to mention many of their predecessors. At the same time, Maynard James Keenan's fascinating lyrics, which run the gamut from Christian-baiting, socially disenchanted vitriol to cryptically personal and meditative, are yet another facet to this complex collective. Sure, there are missteps (the excess of filler, the repetitiveness of "Forty-Six & 2"), but overall, Tool in general and Aenima in particular are apt examples of that old adage a sum being greater than its parts -- and when the parts are as good as Adam Jones' distinctive guitar sound, Justin Chancellor's shimmering, serpentine bass lines, Danny Carey's now-legendary percussion, and Keenan's simply beautiful vocals, that's really saying something. All the factors that contribute to making this an excellent release serve as a counterpoint of sorts to... | | 10 |  | Dashboard Confessional
The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most
Another somewhat embarrassing inclusion, this remains one of my favorite albums to this day, if only because it is such a bare-bones, emotionally-driven release. Back before Dashboard became a pappy, glitzy caricature of itself, there was this album, which (along with The Swiss Army Romance and especially the So Impossible EP) offered little in the way of musical sophistication but compensated greatly in both catchiness and the rawness, honesty, and relatability of the lyrics. Today, even they can seem a little hackneyed, but chalk it up to nostalgia, I'm still a sucker for the heavy-hearted troubadour shtick of Chris Carrabba, at least in the early days. It's been done better, and more sincerely, but this CD was in the right place at the right time, and so, for me, it's ace from start to finish and will stay the quintessential, unabashed emo album. | |
thecheatisnotdead
06.18.09 | It was really tough narrowing this down to ten. Honorable mentions: The Downward Spiral by Nine Inch Nails, In Absentia by Porcupine Tree, Let It Bleed by the Rolling Stones, What It Is to Burn by Finch, Blonde on Blonde by Bob Dylan, Stunt by Barenaked Ladies, The Wall by Pink Floyd, The Colour and the Shape by Foo Fighters, Tell All Your Friends by Taking Back Sunday, and Whatever & Ever Amen by Ben Folds Five. | Nagrarok
06.18.09 | I NEVER see albums such as 1 along with those such as 5, 6 and 7. | Nagrarok
06.18.09 | in a list, I mean | OliverCampbell
06.18.09 | lol, Linkin Park on same list as Godspeed. Pretty weird. | SeaAnemone
06.18.09 | great list... a lot of music i don't like, but some very good descriptions nonetheless | burnafterbreeding
06.19.09 | Do a review. Interested to see what you can crank out man. | Knott-
06.19.09 | 10 rules don't knock it! |
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