Post a list of your 10 "landmark" albums in chronological order

Cafe Society
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::blows whistle::

velomont, may we get a sampling of the artists off the Canadian jazz LP please? Are we talking Oscar Peterson? That’d be a helluva Wine Board compilation.

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And by the way, your choice of Strangers in the Night by UFO is a wonderful thing. Best damn live metal IMHO. Lights Out? Rock Bottom? So good. And Morcheeba, too. What’s track 9 I think off that? The slide instrumental? Who knew it fit with trip hop?

ETA: the name is Diggin a watery grave

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Hi WordMan,

It’s not a compilation of Canadian jazz, but rather an Ontario Liquor Board compilation of jazz. However, here’s the track listing:

“They Can’t Take That Away From Me”, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong
“Blue Moon”, Billie Holiday
“I’m Beginning to See the Light”, Peggy Lee
“Willow Weep for Me”, Lou Rawls
“Pennies from Heaven”, Sara Vaughan
“Love is Here to Stay”, Billie Holiday
“The Three of Us”, Louis Armstrong
“You Took Advantage of Me”, Ella Fitzgerald
“What a Diff’rence a Day Made”, Dinah Washington
“I Can’t Give You Anything but Love”, Oscar Peterson
“When I Grow Too Old to Dream”, Diana Krall

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There’s Canadians on there! :wink: really good stuff.

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Oh yeah - “Strangers in the Night” was my introduction to UFO, who I saw live last October, with Saxon, in a fairly small venue in Montreal, and “Big Calm” was my introduction to Morcheeba and trip hop. I discovered Morcheeba in a great gourmet pizza place in Kingston, Ont way back in 1999.

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Most of these are many years after they were released. These albums are pretty much going to reflect points in time where a certain work provided a jumping off point for to explore a certain genre or sound, not necessarily the most life-changing albums I’ve heard (though there is a lot of intersection with that.)

  1. A slew of Chopin and Bach albums - I’m just going to count them as one, because this is where my interest in music started. That and Tom & Jerry cartoons. Grandpa had an organ at his house, and listened to tons of classical music, and I borrowed stacks of Bach and Chopin vinyls from him. My first love was classical music, though I have strayed very far from it. This would have been when I was about 8, so 1983.

  2. Elvis Presley - Elvis Presley. My mother had slews of Elvis albums, and they were part of the soundtrack of my childhood. I remember being a huge “oldies” fan back from about 6th grade through the 9th grade and my exposure to Elvis, and this record in particular, no doubt is the reason for it. I’ll say 1986 for this one. It wouldn’t have been the first time I heard it (I probably heard it while in the womb), but this is when I transitioned into loving late 50s/early 60s rock and roll.

  3. Led Zeppelin IV -I’m guessing 1990/1991. Some time during sophomore year I discovered “classic rock,” which then was defined as music from the late 60s to late 70s. Lots of blues-based rock kind.

  4. Ten - Pearl Jam. (1992 for me, so this is the first contemporaneous album) This was the transitional piece that got my head out of the 60s and 70s and into the 90s. Given the strong 70s rock influence on this album, it’s easy to see why, but this brought me to modern rock music, grunge, “alternative music,” that whole thing. I mean, I was always aware of it and listened to it casually, but these wave of bands is what got me exploring. I haven’t listened to this album straight through in probably twenty years or so, but it was a milestone in my musical tastes.

  5. The Way of The Vaselines - Vaselines (also about 1992/1993 for me). After really starting to get into the current, hyped-up music like Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Screaming Trees, etc., I remember really being mesmerized by some Nirvana covers of a couple of Vaselines songs, so I asked a friend who had way cooler tastes in music to borrow this album (on cassette). At the time, it really confused me, being so very different than the type of music I typically listened to, with such bare-bones production, really quirky instrumentation, “amateur” vocals. I simply didn’t hang around people who listened to this kind of lo-fi music, so I thought it was absolutely awful at the time. Or maybe I was more bemused. But it laid the groundwork for my tastes to come. As unaccustomed to the sound my ears were to this sound, they were oddly curious. I think that album must have swam around in my head in the background for awhile.

  6. Check Your Head - Beastie Boys. 1993. I only had a passive interest in rap/hip-hop until this album. Love it to this day.

  7. Junta - Phish 1993/94. Some guy from Santa Monica in college who lived down the hall from me introduced me to pot and Phish. The pot didn’t become a habit, but Phish did. It was the first jam band I had ever heard, and, to this day, I still enjoy them. (And they remain the only jam band I listen to with any regularity, although my discography only goes up to Hoist.) At the time I had never heard any music like it. I loved the quirky, loose, jazzy feel of it, interesting and oddball chord changes and melody lines, inane lyrics, just fun, not-taking-itself-too-seriously music with wonderful musicianship. And Page McConnell’s approach to the piano was very similar to mine, so it resonated with me. I was never a Phish head, only attended one concert (although it was one of the best concerts I’ve ever been to, and I wasn’t even high), but their influence stayed with me through all of college, culminating with me playing keys in a jam band my senior year.

  8. Kind of Blue - Miles Davis - 1996. I always had a periphery interest in jazz, even taking jazz piano lessons for a couple of years in high school, but I never really listened to much beyond the blues and New Orleans jazz. For whatever reason, that was my idiom. But while I worked at a coffeehouse in Evanston during college, the owners had a very strict instrumental jazz only policy for the house music, and Miles Davis’s “Kind Of Blue” (as well as Dave Brubeck’s “Time Out” and John Coltrane’s “Blue Train”) were in regular rotation and made me really curious about exploring the genre more closely, especially the hard bop and cool/modal jazz subgenres.

  9. 154 - Wire - 2001. The drummer in the band I played and recorded with while living in Budapest introduced me to these guys via the song “Map Ref 41°n 93°w.” This got me working backwards in my rock music timeline and got me to explore late-70s/early 80s post-punk and new wave, and fill in a lot of musical gaps. From Wire, I eventually worked my way through Gang of Four, Television, Pretenders, Pere Ubu, Joy Division, X Ray Spex, etc. And much of my musical tastes have stayed firmly planted in this era ever since.

  10. Loveless - My Bloody Valentine - 2002/2003. I grabbed this album back in the days of Napster, or maybe it was Limewire (can’t remember if Napster was defunct by then). The first few times I played it, I just thought I had a bad rip, as it sounded to me like the tape was speeding up and slowing down. Only after about the fourth or fifth download did I realize that it was supposed to sound like that, and that everything was staying in tune, but it was Kevin Shield’s slowly undulating whammy bar approach to the guitar that created that seasick effect. It took me a few listens to wrap my ears around it and truly enjoy it, but once I got used to it, damn. Along with Pet Sounds, it’s my favorite rock album of all time. That album impelled my last serious obsessive period of intensely exploring new artists and genres, but it also opened up my mind to a different way of looking at music, a more meditative one where you get lost in the sounds, the interplay of harmonics, the “wash” of noise, the purely sensual/spiritual experience, not caring at all that you can’t make out the lyrics, because they don’t really need to matter.

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1 & 2. The Beatles Sgt. Pepper & KISS Destroyer (1976) become the first albums I buy with my own money.

  1. Gary Numan The Pleasure Principle (1979) just really connected with me.

  2. Allan Holdsworth Road Games (1983) - I found this on cassette in a mall parking lot with no case, but it looked like it would still play (it did). Mind you, when I picked it up I had no idea who Mr. Holdsworth was or what kind of music it might be, but I like new things, so I was willing to give it a go. I was already a fan of Jaco Pastorius, Randy Bernsen, Frank Zappa, etc. so this was like finding a nugget of gold to me.

  3. Minutemen Double Nickels On The Dime (1984) - I simply cannot ever say enough about how amazing this album is or how great an impact it has had on my life.

  4. Bola Sete Jungle Suite (1985) I had no idea what this was or who the artist was but I liked the title of the album and the song titles, so I bought it. I have like 15 of his albums now and his music has been an important part of my life for over 30 years. This album is one of the finest examples of solo guitar composition and playing technique ever recorded, IMO.

  5. Stormtroopers of Death Speak English Or Die (1985) was the most perfect music I had ever heard at that point in my life, both despite and because of the comical nature of the lyrics.

  6. Beastie Boys Licensed to Ill (1986) becomes the first CD album I ever purchased.

  7. ZZ Top Six Pack (1987) is given to me by a friend for my birthday. I was already a fan and had seen them live once, but this was an amazing gift because it was every album I didn’t already own. I listened to those 3 CDs like mad for the next year or two; I still know every song by heart.

  8. It’s been difficult enough finding just those albums to single out from the tens of thousands that I’ve listened to in my lifetime, so for this last entry I’ll just say that there’s been plenty of awesome “landmark” artists and albums in my life that nobody’s ever heard of (Jandek, Weird Paul, Randy Bernsen, Magic Juan, Combine, etc.); they can all occupy #10 IMO.

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puly - very cool and thoughtful. Knew MBV would be there.

Bo - love Bola Sete. (his nickname translates to Seven Ball because it was the black ball on a Brazilian pool table, and Bola Sete was a dark skinned Black man who stood out in the band. What a brilliant player.)

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  1. “Star Wars Original Soundtrack,” by John Williams, 1977.

I was six, Star Wars was the most important thing in my life, and my parents got me this. It was the first album I remember owning, the introduction of me to the concept of purchased music that I loved.

  1. “Thriller,” Michael Jackson, 1982.

For kids my age (12, grade 6) this was THE album of its time, and Michael Jackson was THE pop star. This was our introduction into music video, too.

  1. “Synchronicity,” The Police, 1983.

After Thriller, this was the album that exposed me to music that wasn’t poppy, if you will. Fascinating and amazing to a 13-year-old, and led to a long appreciation of Sting and the Poiice’s earlier work.

  1. “Weird Al Yankovic in 3D,” “Weird Al” Yankovic, 1984

To a kid like me who was a bit awkward and won friends and influenced people through my sense of humor, the revelation that a man obviously way geekier than me could become a star through humor was absolutely thrilling. It was like finding out you’ve been invited to Hogwarts.

  1. “So,” Peter Gabriel, 1986

Utterly transformative album for me. At times I get tired of it now, and it seems a bit trite, but then, man, you play a track and think “I remember why this stuck with me so long.” 32 years old and sounds like it was recorded yesterday.

  1. “Licensed To Ill,” Beastie Boys, 1987

You would have trouble finding two really commonly popular acts more different that Peter Gabriel and the Beastie Boys. (Public Enemy and Celine Dion, I guess.)

It’s important to note that my ten albums are not the ten BEST albums I’ve ever had, or think exist. In fact, “Licensed To Ill” isn’t even the best Beastie Boys album; “Ill Communication” is. But it’s the one that started by love of rap and hip hip. I guess three shrieking Jewish white boy punk-turned-rappers are a gateway drug to rap for whitebread kids like me.

  1. “Full Moon Fever,” Tom Petty, 1989

“Full Moon Fever” is a perfect album. Honestly, it’s so good, and it led me to start listening to older music; this led to older Tom Petty, which led to Fleetwood Mac, which led to CCR, to Zeppelin, to Beatles, to the Stones, and on and on.

  1. “Fully Completely,” The Tragically Hip, 1992

The album that truly hooked me on my favourite band. Again, it’s not their BEST album; “Day for Night” is. But it’s the one that hooked me.

  1. “Vitalogy,” Pearl Jam, 1994

I was a little late to the grunge thing (well, by maybe a year) and while I already had “Vs.” and “Ten,” this is the album I still play. I was utterly mesmerized by it.

  1. “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill,” Lauryn Hill, 1999

I love hip hop and there’s lots of great albums, but in my opinion this is the best, the one I keep going back to and playing over and over. For one glorious moment Lauryn Hill was the greatest musician of my adult life. “To Zion” and “That Thing” remain on my regular playlist. This is the bookend to “Licensed To Ill,” really; that album got me into hip hop, and this album remains the highlight of that.

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Wooden Heads, on Ontario Street.

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1977 - David Bowie - Low
1979 - Pink Floyd - The Wall
1979 - Tangerine Dream - Force Majeure
1980 - The Residents - Commercial Album
1980 - Ultravox - Three Into One
1981 - Throbbing Gristle - Greatest Hits
1988 - Current 93 - Earth Covers Earth
1992 - Nurse With Wound - Thunder Perfect Mind
1999 - Coil - Music to Play in the Dark vol 1
2004 - Lunar Abyss Quartet - Cosmologamma

So many to choose from. But these above all got me excited about the music and made me want to find more.

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  1. Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
  2. Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
  3. Supertramp - Crime of the Century
  4. ELO - Discovery
  5. Talking Heads - Remain in Light
  6. X - Los Angeles
  7. New Order - Substance 1987
  8. Alice In Chains - Dirt
  9. Gorillaz - Gorillaz
  10. Joywave - How Do You Feel Now?

Man, this was hard. It was hard to come up with 10 influential albums. On the other hand it would have been easier to come up with 30.

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I wanted to do the list without looking at anyone else’s choices. Pretty unoriginal, if I do say so myself.

  1. Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland (1968)
  2. Beatles - The White Album (1968)
  3. Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin (1969)
  4. Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)
  5. Queen - A Night at the Opera (1975)
  6. Rush - 2112 (1976)
  7. Eagles - Hotel California (1976)
  8. U2 - War (1983)
  9. Metallica - Master of Puppets (1986)
  10. Nirvana - Nevermind (1991)

I even got the order right, except that I had the two of each pair released in the same year switched.

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Yes indeedy. I discovered it in '99. I try to get there every couple of years. I was last there a year ago; I love the place.

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Actually, now that I think about it, Sleater-Kinney’s Call The Doctor really needs to be there somewhere (2002 for me), as I kind of became S-K obsessive after discovering them (and related Olympia, Washington/Pacific Northwest/riot grrl acts), and I’d still call them my favorite rock band of the last 20 years.

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“The White Album” The Beatles 1968
“Thick as a Brick” Jethro Tull 1972
“The Wall” Pink Floyd 1979
“Fair Warning” Van Halen 1981
“Freeze Frame” J Geils Band 1981
“Powerslave” Iron Maiden 1984
“Hounds of Love” Kate Bush 1985
“Mezzanine” Massive Attack 1998
“Dreaming Neon Black” Nevermore 1999
“Watershed” Opeth 2008

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OK, my turn. I’m learning about new music still in the “my thoughts…” thread, but here they are in the order that I experienced them. Year of release listed, though.

I put a ton of thought into this and I think this pretty much is it. Love to hear anyone’s thoughts.

  1. Billy Joel - River of Dreams - 1993. I still think that this is one of the finest albums out there. Every track is great, fun, and a perfect example of why Billy Joel is famous. Loved it then, love it now.

  2. Nirvana - Nevermind - 1991. What can I say? I didn’t listen to much music at all and one day, I heard Smells Like Teen Spirit and gradually began to hear the other tracks. Like many early 90’s kids, I was drawn to Nirvana. Kurt Cobain’s death solidified them in a way that permanently makes them early 90’s era.

  3. Alice in Chains - Dirt - 1992. The rare album where every song was a #1 hit single to me personally. They never topped it, even though I like this band a lot in general. I even wrote an essay in 9th grade about my first time hearing this album. It meant so much to me. I still could listen to Rain When I Die and get moved. It’s a great album.

  4. Sepultura - Roots - 1996. Wow, what an album. Sepultura had evolved up to this point, and it was never the same after this. I don’t remember the first time I heard Roots Bloody Roots, but I was immediately impressed and blown away. I believe it is the best metal song in history. It’s also the best metal album ever released. I’d skip every Sepultura album after this even though I always listen to them anyway.

  5. Stone Temple Pilots - Purple - 1994. I just like every single song on this album. I’m still sad Scott Weiland died. Wonderful album.

  6. Bachelor No. 2, or the Last Remains of the Dodo - Aimee Mann - 2000. Not a fan of Aimee Mann and this album has drifted away for me, but at the time, it was a big part of my life. Listened to it daily for a long time. I’m gonna rip my old cd and put it on my phone soon.

  7. Evanescence - Fallen - 2003 - Found this around 2005 or so. I guess now I think of Amy Lee playing to an Emo teenage girl crowd(is that even right?), but I was 25 and my new wife and I both loved this first album. Not all that into them since. I think they dropped a step when the rest of the band left. Still, what a full-length debut. I credit this album for leading me to Nightwish and Within Temptation, two bands that ended up being my favorites. Pivotal in some ways for me.

  8. Within Temptation - The Silent Force - 2004. I have a daughter named Jillian and while she isn’t named after the song on this album, the song was in my mind somewhat when we named her. This isn’t actually the best album from the band, but it is the one that rapidly accelerated WT to become my favorite band.

  9. Nightwish - Imaginaerum - 2011. Nightwish is what I list as my current favorite band and this album is certainly their best effort. I recommend it to everyone who is even remotely interested in symphonic metal. Great, great album. I Want My Tears Back is an all-time great track.

  10. U2 - Joshua Tree - 1987. Full disclosure, I kind of needed a 10th album here to round things out. Mainly interesting that I found this album in 2013, many years after the world had hailed its genius. You know what? It is a great album, every song is a hit. I credit it for drawing me into U2, a band I knew little of and am now a fan of. Helps that I kind of like Bono as a person, too.

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OP checking in.

In my OP I provided a list, but zero details. After reading and enjoying so many outstanding lists from you all, I feel duty-bound to offer some explanation and justification for my choices.

So, here we go:
1964 - The Beatles - Meet the Beatles
I am old enough to just barely remember the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. I know this isn’t their ‘real’ first album, but it is to me. I became a fan of Meet the Beatles before I was 10. There is, still to this day, something very magical about the sound of every song. Hearing this album instantly brings me back a half century to a happy, happy time.

1974 - Kiss – Kiss
OK, now I’m a rock and roller. I’m one of the cool kids. I’m 16 years old and this is my first concert (Cobo Hall in Detroit, Kiss Alive was recorded then). It’s no longer a favorite of mine, but I do think ‘Strutter’ still rocks.

1974 - Jethro Tull - War Child
Another concert event. My friends and I would see virtually any rocker that came to town, and Tull was next. I only knew Jethro Tull (he’s a guy, right?) from the ‘Bungle in the Jungle’ single that was played every 15 minutes on the radio. Well, the concert blew me away. Ian Anderson was such a presence, the songs rocked, and I ended up a big fan up to the point of Heavy Horses, when I drifted away. Interestingly, I listened to War Child last week for the first time in a couple of decades; some of it held up, some not.

1972 - Elton John – Honky Chateau
I thought the song ‘Honky Cat’ was the, well, cat’s pajamas back when it was current. I’ve always been drawn to mad piano skills; couple that with catchy tunes and I’m sold. ‘Honky Chateau’ set me on a commitment to Elton that lasted through ‘Rock of the Westies’ (and also sent me back to the beginning of his catalog, which is that part that I most value today).

1972 - David Bowie – The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
I don’t remember who or what introduced me to this album, but I listened to it excessively for a year or so. I ventured into other Bowie stuff, and liked it, but ‘Ziggy’ is sublime. I listened to it recently and it still does it for me.

1972 - Lou Reed – Transformer
I know the who, the when, and the where I was introduced to ‘Transformer’. A co-worker, who was into music like Betty Crocker is into cake, played it for me at his apartment one day after work. He played lots of other stuff (I remember Genesis’ ‘The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway’), but nothing came close to mesmerizing me the way ‘Transformer’ did. I remember being blown away by the first track (‘Vicious’), then totally sold by the 4th track (‘Hangin’ ‘Round’).

1975 - Bob Dylan – Blood on the Tracks
Dylan is one of my holy trinity that ranks, collectively, just below the Beatles. ‘Blood on the Tracks’ was my introduction to, most of all, the poetry of his words. I was a Dylan madman – I scrambled to buy every single LP he had ever released; some were less than stellar, but all were Dylan, and that was enough for me. “Early one morning the sun was shining, I was layin’ in bed…”

1977 - Steely Dan - Aja
This one’s a little bit of a cheat. I simply needed a 10th. I do think ‘Aja’ is an amazing album, and I’ll happily listen to it any day of the week. But this #10 entry could have just as easily gone to Gang of Four’s ‘Entertainment!’, Joe Jackson’s ‘Look Sharp’, Neil Young’s ‘Harvest’, or Beck’s ‘Odelay’ (among others).

1982 - Elvis Costello - Imperial Bedroom
Elvis! My Man! I’ve loved his stuff ever since I saw his performance on SNL way back in the day (was it ’77?). But Imperial Bedroom is his masterpiece. So complex, so original, so clever, so catchy. And such depth. It’s not for everyone, but man is it ever for me.

1986 - Paul Simon – Graceland
Similarly, I was always a PS fan, but ‘Graceland’ sent me into uncharted waters. The unorthodox rhythms, the foreign (heh) vocals, and Simon’s voice and song construction complementing it all. When it was released I think the CD lived in my vehicle’s CD player for a year or so. Another of my choices that holds up well.
mmm