**Moving Pictures - Rush
Stukas Over Disneyland - The Dickies
Strange Beautiful Music - Joe Satriani**
I found them at different times, and they let me know that something new and different was possible.
Roky Erickson True Love Cast Out All Evil. Fella had played a bunch of 13th Floor Elevators, and I went out to buy this CD when it came out. Burst into tears at the first listening.
While I’d love to say the Beatles, I have to abstain. I’m 42 and grew up with their music, so I can’t really claim that I came to them with the kind of blind “a-ha” revelation that others have described. My appreciation has clearly grown, but it’s a bit like finally seeing a movie that’s been culturally referenced for so long that you’ve missed that joy of discovery. Too bad for me.
**John Zorn - Naked City **
I first came upon this at a little record shop in Iowa, I was friends with the owner. Bought a lot of music from him and came in one day to look around and saw this on the shelf. The cover artwork is a bit… striking. “Don’t let that scare you, it’s amazing” he called across the counter. I think I listened to this with my mouth hanging open, then ran out to get my roommate, and we sat and listened to it again. It has lost a bit of its lustre just because it has been SO copied and emulated over the years, that it’s hard to imagine what this was like the first time I heard it.
Radiohead - OK Computer
I dismissed them after Creep and paid no attention when Bends came out. At the urging of a friend, I was fortunate to have a sit down listen to OK the first time I heard it.
Amon Tobin - Supermodified
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Stars of the Lid - The Quiet Sounds of Stars of the Lid**
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Tom Waits - Rain Dogs**
Orbital - Insides
I’d never liked any form of electronic music, being almost religiously into guitar based bands. But when a friend out this on in his car it changed my ears forever. Over 15 years later it still sounds incredible. Especially the opening track “The Girl With The Sun In Her Head” made using electricity sourced only through solar cells.
Leaving off any good recording of the 9th, here are mine:
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Abbey Road. No way they were going to top that. It transcended all popular music and does to this day.
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Dick’s Picks Vol 4. Available on their website dead.net Nobody had any right to have so many concert nights be so magical, but this one was really, really special. If you want to know why so many people of my generation (and older) liked these tripping hippies, this, or Live Dead, is why.
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Layla. Duane Allman pushing Clapton to his very best. Little Wing, Bell Bottom Blues, Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad and the title cut. Patty Boyd must have been blown away.
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Sticky Fingers. Not too depressing for me personally, but it really shows the lows of drug addiction, with beautiful and haunting sound.
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Achtung Baby. She Moves in Mysterious Ways. One. Every song a perfect gem.
I used to have a thing for The Wall, but now it is just too depressing for me.
Inspired me to put on FC
This is easily the album for me too. In my case, I was already familiar with the band through the related Elephant 6 bands. I owned their first album On Avery Island and enjoyed it. I was already something of a completist for the E6 collective, so I picked Aeroplane up the first time I saw it. On this particular day, I got home a few hours before my wife, so I through the album into the CD player and listened. As soon as the album finished, I walked over to the player and hit play again. Then I hit repeat. I had listened to the album 4 times by the time my wife got home and another several before going to bed. I drove her nuts by listening to the album several dozen times in the first week alone. (She did ultimately grow to like it herself).
When my daughter was born later that year, she showed familiarity with the album.
My brother from a different mother. You have just been elevated to Most Favored Poster status. That album was a jaw-dropper for this 18-year old, even for someone who had not yet discovered what jazz was about. Same for the Time Out album.
I would also mention Kinda Blue and Birth of The Cool, by Miles Davis, which I came to later and which turned me on to post bop and the West Coast Jazz sound. The spare playing and masterful use of the mute by Miles are brilliant.
Getz/Gilberto, Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto: one of those meetings of genius that makes you thankful to have been alive when it arrived. It was and is a mesmerizing collection of songs.
Brazileiro, by Sergio Mendes: an exuberant and joyous homage to the music of Brazil.
Talking Timbuctu, Ali Farka Toure with Ry Cooder: my introduction to West African music. Mesmerizing stuff that requires no knowledge of either Bambara or French languages.
I still listen to all of these albums on a regular rotation. To me, they’re timeless.
From the opening guitars to the end, it changed my view of heavy music. Best metal album ever.
Someone mentioned OK Computer, that was one for me. The first part of Melloncollie and the Infinate Sadness was probably one as well. But something I’ll always remember fondly, to this day, was Pulse, the live album from Pink Floyd. Back in the day, I got high, like really really high and watched the concert on TV. Mind, Blown. I can’t explain how amazed I was.
Then in college, I’d make my friends do it. “No, I don’t really want to sit in your dorm room and watch a concert.” After getting them so high they couldn’t walk because they didn’t know which way was up and what color blue smelled like anymore, I’d put the video tape on. About an hour in to it, I always loved looking over and seeing a bunch of my friends with their mouths gaped open. Once it was over they were usually pretty amazed.
For the record, these were all people that were quite familiar with Pink Floyd, they didn’t want to watch it mostly because they were worried about being bored by it.
Basia - Time and Tide
Excuse me…I have to spend a little time on YouTube…
Kyuss - Blues For The Red Sun
Mogwai - Young Team
Gang of Four - Entertainment!
The Beatles - Revolver
R.E.M. - Murmur
Elvis Costello & The Attractions - Get Happy!!
The Replacements - Let It Be
The Clash - The Clash
Husker Du - Zen Arcade
The Jesus & Mary Chain - Psychocandy
Minutemen - Double Nickels on the Dime
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
Joni Mitchell - Ladies of the Canyon
Jefferson Airplane - Surrealistic Pillow
The Incredible String Band - Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter
There is a small fee for that. 
Carole King 1971 Tapestry.
The Eagles 1980 Live.
Michael Jackson 1982 Thriller.
Moby 1992 Moby. I didn’t discover it until 1996 or so. Was the most bizarre thing I’d ever heard, and yet ended up meaning so much to me.
Alanis Morissette 1995 Jagged Little Pill. Helped me with confidence during my divorce.
Daft Punk 1997 Homework.
Fleetwood Mac - Rumors.
There have been other albums I’ve enjoyed, but this is the only one that I’d still listen to in its entirety over and over.
The Cure Disintegration . So beautiful, so lush and enveloping - it makes me want to cry every time I hear it. But in a good way.
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars by David Bowie. I’ve felt a connection with since I first heard it at the age of 7.
Stranded by Roxy Music. Same as above. Never heard anything like it before.
Automatic For the People by REM. Came out at a time I lost two important people in my life. Both way to young. I played this cassette over and over in my car. The maudlin tone to the album comforted me and got me through a hard time.
Abbey Road by The Beatles. Nothing compares. Perfection.
Armed Forces by Elvis Costello
That’s pretty cool, Thudlow. I await your thoughts on Blunderbuss (won’t take it personally if it doesn’t do it for you).
Listen to it several times before you weight in.
mmm