Albums That Changed Your Life

I always wanted to do this thread but I felt on AP, it wouldn't of gone anywhere. So here's how this works, you pick an album that in some way changed your life. Doesn't matter what it is, because we don't judge in here, just talk about the album and how it impacted you. I'll start with one album that changed how I looked at music.


Daft Punk- Discovery

I'll never forget the first time I heard of Daft Punk. It was early spring 2001, I was at my grandmother's house and I was watching MTV2. Back in those days, it was a refreshing alternative to an increasingly music-less MTV. I was watching a block of up and coming artists, just taking in everything I saw. Pretty sure that was the first time I heard Gorillaz now that I think about it, via the video for Clint Eastwood. Out of nowhere, this video came on and it was anime. I was obsessed with the medium at the time so I was drawn in. It was then that I heard One More Time for the very first time (no pun intended).

I watched wide eyed as I saw a video filled with blue anime people dance to what was the strangest thing I heard at the time. It was like an old disco record my parents had but it had this pounding modern beat and bassline. Add Romanthony's vocoder-enhanced vocal singing that timeless hook, I was took the first hit and I loved it. After it was over, I scrambled to see who it was. I got one name, Daft Punk.

Discovery is an album that has a profound and long-lasting impact on my listening habits as well as my own music. There's something truly timeless about the record, I've listened to it countless times and I always love it as the first time I listened to it. A true pop record if there ever was one, each song slithers through your veins and refuses to leave. Through an abundance of samples and beats, Daft Punk created both a loving tribute to the music of their youth and a road map to the future of electronic music.

If I had to pick a particular favorite song off the album, I'd go with Digital Love. The song opens with a sample of George Duke's unforgettable synth line from I Love You More, setting a mood of nostalgia from the get go. Soon, robotic vocals kicks in, serenading you with heartwarming lyrics of dreaming about the one you yearn for that's so close but feels so far away. Not long after, the song kicks into a perfect blend of the past,present, and future, with a pulsating drum pattern and a soaring pad. The song just lifts you, making you close your eyes and imagining you soaring a field of roses while holding the hand of the one that makes you smile when you of them. A true romantic classic.

Discovery will always hold a place in my heart. It made me dream of the future when I was just a snot nosed kid looking towards the future. As of now, it makes me reminisce of my youth and all the times I would blare this record to the surrounding people around me's dismay. It is a timeless piece of music, one that will never age or grow irrelevant. It is a record I come back to anytime I feel a writer's block with my music or I just need a pick-me-up. If I were to pass one record to my future children and only one, it would be Discovery.

 

Mineral - The Power of Failing



I was sixteen years old and browsing one of the old B-Sides R Us blogs when I came across a post with a link to Mineral's first album, The Power of Failing, accompanied with a challenge: "If you can listen to this and feel nothing, then you don't have a heart." It was rare in those days to see a full-length album on the B-sides blog, so with no other context or background on the band, I dove in.

To this day, it remains one of my most memorable first listens. It's an imperfect record in so many ways, but the songwriting and the passion shone through the messy production and rough musicianship to a degree that I've yet to hear replicated. The guitar tones aren't what any producer would pick out today, but Scott McCarver's parts stand out nonetheless, from the tension of the feedback solo on "Slower" to the cathartic release of the pre-chorus riff in "Parking Lot." Chris Simpson is not a technically proficient singer - his voice cracks and strains in ways that make trained vocalists cringe - but he puts every fiber of his being into every word he sings. And the lyrics were exactly what I needed to hear at the time. Simpson writes about perennially relatable topics like overcoming loss and personal failure, and his lyrics are steeped in Christian themes and imagery that made the songs hit even harder for me. I was in tears by the end.

The Power of Failing also challenged how I told people about music I loved. My friends ignored it because it wasn't on the radio. My brother wouldn't listen to it because of the production. I had to beg people to drop any preconceptions they had about emo or whatever and just close their eyes and listen. I would print out the lyrics and include them when I burned the CD for someone. I'm not sure any of my friends ever really got Mineral the way I did, but I recently heard Frank Turner tell a story about doing almost the exact same thing, so I know I'm not alone.

From there, the floodgates opened. I couldn't get enough of this "midwest emo" sound, and within months my iPod was full of The Get Up Kids, Texas Is the Reason, the Promise Ring, and many others that I still count among my favorite bands.

It wasn't until their reunion tour in 2014 that I finally got the chance to see Mineral. I truly thought it would never happen, and I could do little more than stand against the stage and stare at the four people whose words and music had affected me so deeply over the past seven years. I cried again during "Five, Eight, and Ten" and "Parking Lot" and especially "Unfinished," and I'll never forget it.

 

It's hard for me to really pick one, so I'll probably do a few.



H2O- GO

This is the first album I owned that really defined the type of music I would listen to going forward. I had purchased albums before that I loved, like 40 oz to Freedom, but none of them had the lasting impact this did.

The odd thing about my love for H2O is how it started. I was a Hot Topic frequenter. I picked up my Blink-182 and System of a Down shirts often. One day I picked up an H2O GO NYC license plate shirt because I liked the design. Didn't even make the connection it was a band tee. I wore it to school and my high school crush came up to me saying, "Oh man, you love H2O too!" Of course I did. Haha. I walked to the record store that night and picked it up.

The record definitely isn't their best, but it didn't leave my cd player for months. Even as an angsty teen, the lyrics resonated with me. Their fast hitting brand of pop punk just hit a chord with me that stuff like Blink never had before. I like to think that this album/band paved the way for a lot of the bands I ended up listening to a lot in high school and college. It's hard to think bands like Tiefighter, Set Your Goals, and Daggermouth would have existed without H2O.

But yeah. I probably wouldn't recommend this record to anyone. lol. It's not even their third best record. Go listen to FTTW.

 

Posting so I remember to do this. This is a great thread so far.

 

Ya I'll definitely write something in here later

 

I've actually begun working on a blog series about this. It feels weird that the first one I wrote about wasn't my top three favorite albums, but it's also the album that answers this thread best.

Emery - The Weak's End



I truly got into music in roughly 02-03. I remember watching Fuse and seeing Brand New, Taking Back Sunday, Dashboard Confessional, Story of the Year, Yellowcard, AFI, Fall Out Boy... I'm sure many of you have a similar story. A friend of mine overheard me listening to Dashboard one day and was like, "Hey, I'm gonna burn you an album I think you may like."

I still remember putting the burned copy of this into my walkman while lying in bed. "Are you listening?!" screamed, my eyes shot open (she hadn't warned me about the screaming) and suddenly I was very intently paying attention. The melodies contrasting with the chaos captivated me.

I didn't know it at the time, but I was entering the beginning phases of depression and I had finally found a sound that recognized and embodied the way I felt as I moved between the emotions. Tap in the typical high school heartbreaks and songs like Ponytail Parades or Fractions, and I'd found a soundtrack that met me where I was.

This album opened the door for so many different types of heavier music for me, and in a lot of ways, turned me into an album listener instead of a single listener. I became invested in lyrics, which opened even more doors musically.

 

Placeholder

 

Third Eye Blind - Self Titled



I got this record when I was in third grade for Easter. I really wanted this record, but my mom wasn't jumping at the bit to buy it for me since there was no real reason to coming off Christmas. As Easter was approaching, I put the record on my gift list. Every year growing up, my parents gave us a gift in our basket, along with the candy. Instead of an Easter egg hunt we did a search for our basket.

I had been hearing Semi-Charmed Life and How's It Going To Be on the radio and I was completely sold. How's It Going To Be was my favorite new song at the time. Why this is important is because this was one of the first records I found on my own. I grew up listening to what my parents had and what my sister was into. For my parents, this meant classic rock and singer-songwriter stuff on vinyl, cassette, and CD. Stuff like Petty, the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Led Zep, Billy Joel, the Eagles, etc. My sister was into a lot of cool stuff in the '90s and I ended up going through her for current music most of the time. This is where I heard groups like Live, Nirvana, Counting Crows, Weezer, the Cranberries, etc.

For some reason my sister never mentioned T3B around me, so when I heard it on the radio I felt like I found my own group rather than something that was passed down to me. It was such a cool feeling discovering something new on my own and set the stage for how I approached finding new music going forward. I loved and still love the idea of the "hunt" when it comes to finding new music.

Going back to Easter of third grade, we did our basket search in the morning before we were to go to church, and finding the basket and tearing off the wrapping paper to this CD is one of my more vivid childhood memories. I yelled with excitement, fist-bumped with my dad and hugged my mom. I played that CD to and from church, and then pretty much any long car drive going forward for several years. This record established my love for upbeat rock music mixed with hooks and interesting lyrics. I loved how this record ebbed and flowed, but was always sort of bouncy.

I am so grateful I found this record in grade school and that my family established good music habits in me early. They always challenged me to find music that means something to you. Don't settle for something just because it's popular. To be fair, T3B did really well on this record, but at the time, it's not like they were taking over rock music either. The economies of scales were just way different and there were more pieces of pie to go around. They had several singles and did large tours, but they disappeared after the self-titled cycle and most people forgot about them.

I still love this record today, I played it last week actually. The bottom line is that this band wrote really good songs that for the most part, happened to be catchy as well. It's a timeless record imo and it was a clear inflection point for my musical tastes and motivation for finding new music.

 

Jerry Blavat - For Dancers Only

There are many albums that I could speak about in relation to my early interest and love of music. My cousin turned me on to bands like blink-182 and Weezer, my father with Van Morrison's Greatest Hits and The Rolling Stones. This particular compilation, however, was one that has always captivated me.

Jerry Blavat is a DJ and Radio Host from Philly popular circa the 50s-60s (and he still hosts parties around Philly and the Jersey Shore). During this time, he released a series of "For __________ Only" branded compilation albums featuring mostly Motown and Soul singles of the times. For Dancers Only was the album that found its way into my dad's car, and my dad's car was the vehicle of choice when we'd take long trips. I vividly recall my summer vacations soundtracked to The Four Tops and the Isley Brothers. I can't hear a track on this album without being transported back to those trips. Safe to say, nostalgia plays a crucial part in why I love the record so much.

Being a compilation album, there isn't necessarily a nice cohesion between the tracks; however, the singles are able to stand on their own for the most part. There's a decent amount of filler on the album, but Blavat has a decent enough ear to pick generally listenable songs, if nothing else. Highlights include Mary Wells, Four Tops, The Versatones, and Isley Brothers

 

may write one for emperor x, because this feels far easier to write from a personal standpoint rather than the more objective one i had to for the "albums you need to know" list

 

I can't really digest how to write about that album in ways that don't come across as surface level or "reviewer"-y. It's probably the work of art I hold most closely to my personal experience, while not really connecting with the lyrics on any sort of deeper level. I already know that no one will connect to that record the way that I do because it's so dependent on the time and place in which I heard it, as opposed to themes or lyrics throughout the record.

 

This is a cool idea. I'd write something in here if I hadn't already written novels about most of the albums that changed my life over at AP.net. Haha

 

Placeholder, I'll write something about an album I dont talk about too much. Great thread idea.

 

By the way, you can totally do more than one album if you wish.

 

Either gonna do Siamese Dream or oceanic

 

Gonna do The Mars Volta - Deloused In The Comatorium and Main Attrakionz - 808s & Dark Grapes III most likely

1 older impact 1 more recent impact

But yeah about to head home so will do some actual writing for em when I get there haha

 

The 1975 - I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful, yet so unaware of it


I just got this album one month ago, but it has already been the soundtrack to my 2016. I feel entirely comfortable saying it will be sitting well in my top 10 at the end of the year.

While I love every song on the album, there are a few that stick out for me. If I Believe You nearly completely echoes my own struggling with faith and religion. Growing up in a religious household, it's been difficult on my parents to see me shed my faith as I pursue a degree at a liberal institution. This track is sonically incredible and lyrically indelible.

The second that has stuck with me is the Ballad of Me and My Brain. I've got a local burgeoning comedy career where I live, and I insist on it being a DIY project, mostly because I have a hard time trusting other people with my work. After selling out one venue, my comedy partner and I insisted on taking our next show to a venue nearly twice the size, which meant we'd be doing all of our own marketing. Between writing, rehearsing, and doing business, it was extremely cathartic for me to shout along with Matty, "WELL I THINK I'VE GONE MAAAAAAD!!!"

A more subdued follow-up track, Somebody Else, takes into account my penchant for working too hard. The past few years I've poured so much time into my comedy that I've certainly neglected having romantic relationships. There's no consolation like the blunt lyrics in the bridge, "Get someone you love. Get someone you need. Fuck that, get money. I can't give you my soul, 'cause we're never alone." My current wish is that someday soon I find someone I care enough about to show them how vulnerable this song makes me.

 

Deftones- White Pony

2000 was a crucial year of my musical development. I'd listen to the radio, permanently stuck on 105.7 The Point, while I just played video games since I didn't have any friends to really hang with. One night, I heard Change (In The House of Flies) come onto the radio. I was drawn in by the dark intro, Steph's guitar riffs filling my head. By the end of the song, I knew I had to find this record.

When I look back on records that had a true impact on my tastes, White Pony stands as a guide that lead me getting into heavy music. I was drawn into Deftone's full on attack of loud and quiet. Few bands do the quiet/loud dynamic quite like Deftones. When they were heavy, it just grabbed you with a death grip and shook your ears violently. When they were quiet, their sample driven pieces took you to spacey, otherworldy plane of existance inside your head.

Since then, Deftones have remained one of my top personal favorite bands.

EDIT: Will expand more on this later, there is so much more I could talk about.

 

The Hotelier - Home, Like Noplace Is There

the notion of an album "changing my life" is interesting to me. as i thought about this, i weighed out possible albums in my mind that could fall into the category of actually "changing my life". Right off the bat some of my favorite albums every came to mind. I thought about how pretty much every Jimmy Eat World or Brand New album could fall into this definition of "albums that changed my life".
But then i thought about this some more. As much as i credit a lot of who i am to those albums, i would say before they changed my life, they shaped my life. It could be argued that a person taking shape and becoming something is in fact undergoing a change, but with those albums... it was my first change then. Thats not really what i want to focus on. I was exposed to those records at such a young age, they're quit literally what got me into music. To that end, i think they played a stronger role in shaping me. Change cant really occur unless there is some form already taken, and thats what albums like Clarity, Futures, TDAGARIM, Deja, Bleed American etc did.

When i was 19 years old i left my home in Edmonton Alberta Canada and went on a mission for my church for two years in the state of Georgia. I left behind everything familiar. I left my family, i left my friends, i left a girl i was in love with at the time. I was scared to go, but i knew i wanted to do it. I knew i would go, and i would help people.
Living the life that i did during that time was really different. I was fairly removed from media. I didnt have internet access or even the time to access the internet. the only time i would go on the computer was to email my family and friends once a week for a couple hours. I realize this seems weird to most people if this kind of mission trip is previously unheard of to them. But, it was without a shadow of a doubt the happiest time of my life. i have never more consistently been happy and felt love for the relationships that were being formed in my life. I left home, and knew nobody. But after 2 years of complete giving myself to a task / place / people, i had found a new home. My friends and the families id met in Georgia became so much of me.

Coming home was the hardest time of my life. It was pretty much the definition of an identity crisis. I was supposed to be excited and happy to see my friends and family that i hadnt seen for 2 years... and dont get me wrong, i was totally glad to be with them again. but i also knew there was a phase of my life that was over that i would never get back. i realized that in Georgia i talked so much about eventually "going home", when in reality, that place felt more like my home than anywhere else in the world. I loved it so much, and loved what i was doing. When i got back to Canada, after the initial excitement of being back and seeing everyone i missed, the depressing realization began to settle in that this is my life now. "Home Like Noplace Is there" just as a sentence alone rung so true in my mind. i dont know if this makes rational sense to someone on the outside looking in unless you've experienced something similar yourself. But it had been so long since home was actually my "home", that i didnt even know if it was what i wanted my home to be anymore.

The lyrics in the bridge of "The Scope Of All Of This Rebuilding" illustrates perfectly how i felt:
"I’m scared, fingers broken,
and ill-prepared to let this drag out.
When you forgot the words to our song.
When you can’t remember names its been too long.
When you stopped asking what was wrong
all the pressure built up it was too strong.
I can't make this better.
It fell out of my hands because
I just wasn't built to hold on.
and I can’t remember names its been too long.
and I can’t find your face in the crowd."

It had been so long since id been to this place. so much was different yet so much was the same. one of the big differences thought was some relationships i left behind no longer existed. I now had to find out what i wanted to do in school. I felt like i couldn't relate to anyone because i felt like i wasn't actually a part of this place.

"And with your nature reversed and our home as our cage,
you caved and you asked "is this coming of age."

During my mission i didnt listen to new music. I didnt have time and youre encouraged to stay as focused as possible. again, to people unfamiliar with this missionary program it seems strange and controlling, but i assure i did the things i did because i wanted to, and it really did make me happy. Anyway, when i got home i had a lot of catching up to do in terms of music. The Hotelier's Home, Like Noplace Is There was the first album i listened to that i had missed while i was gone. I remember being instantly grabbed by "An Introduction To The Album". Ill never forget how i felt when i heard Christian belt out for the first time in my life "So if I call, should I beg? Because I'm desperate here; a couple steps from the edge. I can't seem to burn bright enough. I'm cold and I'm left alone. We're all alone."
This album would be the first thing i felt truly connected to upon returning home. in that sense, this album changed my life during a time in my life when life was naturally changing itself. i felt like even though my struggles were not on issues of matters like suicide, or losing someone you love to death, i could relate remarkably well to the words of Home. every lyric seemed to explain to me the way i was feeling.

Connecting with this album helped me to realize i can connect with other things in this place. It somehow helped me accept the fact that i have a home in two places. I can love both without resenting the other. I still miss those 2 years a lot. but it is less of a "i hate my life now, i wish i could go back to what it was before", and more of an attitude of being so grateful i had those years of my life, and knowing that now i have new phases of life i need to live that can eventually lead to even greater joy.
This record changed my life because it made me feel heard in a time when i never felt more alone and misplaced.

 

holding place :)

 

I mean, AP.net will someday die, so you could just copy and paste here. Unless they'd be annoying to scroll through, lol.

 

Haha, they are probably way too long for this page. I did re-post them all on my blog, though.

 

I need to find some time to sit down and write about The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me for this. Definitely going to check out all the albums on this thread. Great idea, DarkHotline!

 

The Lawrence Arms - The Greatest Story Ever Told

For Christmas 2003, I asked for a bunch of new-ish Fat Wreck Chords CDs. I had gotten really into NOFX and wanted to see what else the label had to offer. It took me a few months to really get into it, but it eventually became my all-time favorite album.

For me, this was the album that showed me what punk rock could be. Most of the bands I'd been listening to (blink, Green Day, MxPx, etc.) hadn't really gotten too complex, musically or lyrically. Greatest Story was a breath of fresh air in that regard. It was layered, meaningful, and funny all at the same time.

I hear Brendan Kelly talking about how the album pretty much fell flat when it came out, and not even the people at Fat Wreck Chords were that into it. Not gonna lie, that makes my soul hurt.

 

Simply adore that album. Massively underrated and forgotten in my opinion. Also infuriates me that is isn't on Spotify.