# What album are you? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 14, 2000, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-album-are-you/22302 "2000-06-14T03:06:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sweetcan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@sweetcan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweetcan)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2000, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-album-are-you/22302/1 "2000-06-14T03:06:10Z")
C’mon, everyone has one album, maybe not their favorite musically, but one that REALLY spoke to them on a very personal and visceral level. For me, its Tori Amos’ Boys for Pele. She’s fucking awesome, and BfP was this beautiful, poetic, and often wrenchingly honest journey into the female psyche, particularly its pain, and its bittersweet self-depreciation. Still, it ends with a song of profound hope. If I want someone to get to know me, I play them Boys for Pele, and those who do know me, say, “Oh yeah, Soraya. That’s YOU.” So what album are you, and why? ---
**Author:** ![ChiefScott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58f4c7/32.png) [@ChiefScott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChiefScott)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2000, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-album-are-you/22302/2 "2000-06-14T03:11:26Z")
Live Dead – Grateful Dead For the first time I finally and completely _got_ the Dead. ---
**Author:** ![TheNerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/858c86/32.png) [@TheNerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheNerd)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2000, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-album-are-you/22302/3 "2000-06-14T03:24:54Z")
Promise not to laugh, okay? Sarah MacLachlan’s “Fumbling Towards Ecstasy” Really. ---
**Author:** ![argyle87](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/90ced4/32.png) [@argyle87](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/argyle87)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2000, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-album-are-you/22302/4 "2000-06-14T04:14:48Z")
It has to be “Very Proud of Ya” by AFI. I bought that album and listed to it at least three times through as soon as I got it home. I remember thinking “Shit, this is my whole life on a record!” Nothing else has ever grabbed me like that and never let go. ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2000, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-album-are-you/22302/5 "2000-06-14T08:25:47Z")
When we are talking pure lyrics, the album that is 100% me would **Rush - _Roll the Bones_**. The entire album is basically about fate, and lack thereof. Bottom line: your life is the product of your decisions. > [@](#): > > We come into the world and take our chances > Fate is just the weight of circumstances > That’s the way that Lady Luck dances > **Roll the Bones** Too bad it’s about the worst produced Rush album ever. Some songs are true gems (“Bravado” will be played on my funeral) and deserved better finishing. ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2000, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-album-are-you/22302/6 "2000-06-14T09:26:13Z")
_The Wall_, by Pink Floyd. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2000, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-album-are-you/22302/7 "2000-06-14T13:17:46Z")
You took my choice but I’m still taking it too! Roll the Bones is the most coherent Rush album there is. Fate, chance, and the random events that shape our lives. Rush quote! I don’t believe in destiny Or the guiding hand of fate I don’t believe in forever Or love as a mystical state I don’t believe in the stars or the planets Or angels watching from above But I believe there’s a ghost of a chance We can find someone to love and make it last So there! ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2000, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-album-are-you/22302/8 "2000-06-14T13:23:10Z")
My album is also by Rush, but is “Moving Pictures”. Besides the rock jam session of “YYZ” (Toronto’s airport code, isn’t it?), the lyrics to “Limelight” spoke to me: > [@](#): > > All the world’s indeed a stage > And we are merely players: > Performers and portrayers, > Each another’s audience > Outside the gilded cage. ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2000, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-album-are-you/22302/9 "2000-06-14T13:24:53Z")
Another Rush song that has recently spoke to me is the 2nd track of “Caress of Steel”: > [@](#): > > I looked in the mirror today > My eyes just didn’t seem so bright > I’ve lost a few more hairs > I think I’m going bald ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2000, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-album-are-you/22302/10 "2000-06-14T13:28:03Z")
Mr. Chance, AWB, you guys rock. Chance: that quote was my second choice for that album! AWB: MP is musically the best Rush album, IMHO. But when it’s pure lyrics, RTB takes the #1 spot. ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2000, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-album-are-you/22302/11 "2000-06-14T13:46:20Z")
Okay, I’m old. **Carole King’s** _Tapestry_. ---
**Author:** ![SwimmingRiddles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@SwimmingRiddles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SwimmingRiddles)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2000, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-album-are-you/22302/12 "2000-06-14T13:50:38Z")
While I don’t know if it’s the album that IS me, Paul Simon’s Graceland blew me away when I first heard it, along with Ladysmith Black Mombazo, the vocal group that provides a lot of the backing on the album. I began listening to it around the same time apartheid was breaking down in South Africa, and around the same time when I seriously began thinking about going to S. African for a year as an exchange student, AND around the same time I started getting seriously into African dance. The organization that was going to send me decided it was too politically dangerous to send a 16 year old white chick to a racially charged environment, but for some reason I have always had, and will continue to have, a strong emotional tie to South Africa. And that album aways brings that back to me. Someday, I’m going to spend a month or two there, volunteering. ---
**Author:** ![Crown\_Prince\_of\_Irony](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ed655f/32.png) [@Crown\_Prince\_of\_Irony](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crown_Prince_of_Irony)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2000, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-album-are-you/22302/13 "2000-06-14T13:50:52Z")
Sheik Yerbouti - Framk Zappa “Broken Hearts Are For Assholes” Classic song to get you over the breakup blues. “Flakes” Great song about life in SoCal. And every other song on that album. Makes me laugh every time I listen to it, and that’s what I’m all about. ---
**Author:** ![RTA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b4bc9f/32.png) [@RTA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTA)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2000, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-album-are-you/22302/14 "2000-06-14T14:05:24Z")
Oh come on people … _Grace Under Pressure_ is surely Rush’s finest - that or maybe _A Farewell to Kings_. I love Rush dearly but have fundamental problems with everything they did after they left Mercury Records. I would pick _Grace Under Pressure_ as THE album in question … or maybe _Blastronaut_ by the Lee Harvey Oswald Band (pure, unadulterated genius). But you know, Van Halen’s _1984_ means an awful lot to me too. Especially in the summertime when the surf’s up. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2000, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-album-are-you/22302/15 "2000-06-14T14:06:16Z")
I’m Jorma Kaukonen’s QUAH. Completely charming even though breathtakingly virtuosic, and still easy to live with. – Uke, the Light of This World ---
**Author:** ![Missy2U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@Missy2U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Missy2U)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2000, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-album-are-you/22302/16 "2000-06-14T14:36:47Z")
Well, it would either be 2112 - Rush, or Collective Soul - Collective Soul. Don’t laugh. I briefly considered Ugly Kid Joe. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Cynical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ee59a6/32.png) [@Mr.Cynical](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Cynical)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2000, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-album-are-you/22302/17 "2000-06-14T14:52:32Z")
Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime. What an album. 'Nuff Said. ---
**Author:** ![G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c67d28/32.png) [@G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G.B.H.Hornswoggler)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2000, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-album-are-you/22302/18 "2000-06-14T14:57:55Z")
**King of America** by Elvis Costello is me when I’m in a reasonably happy mood, but I turn into **Blood and Chocolate** when I’m depressed. But it’s all 1986, so that’s close enough. And I just spent about ten minutes typing in and deleting song lyrics, which I think I’ll spare you all. BTW, doesn’t this belong in IMHO? ---
**Author:** ![Nutty\_Bunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d07c76/32.png) [@Nutty\_Bunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nutty_Bunny)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2000, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-album-are-you/22302/19 "2000-06-14T15:52:05Z")
Ben Folds Five–“Whatever and Ever Amen” I first listened to this album after a particularly bad break up and I had moved 800 miles away from my ex. The album (for the most part) is a progression of the break up of a relationship and everything Ben Folds is saying was exactly how I was feeling. I felt like he was reading my mind. It really helped me heal. Ben Folds has to be one of the best (new) songwriters I’ve heard. ---
**Author:** ![DVous\_Means](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@DVous\_Means](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DVous_Means)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2000, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-album-are-you/22302/20 "2000-06-14T16:00:27Z")
Eric Johnson’s _Ah Via Musicon_. Especially the first four tracks. He’s a session guitarist of extraordinary talent and fine voice that I’d never heard of until about 5 years ago. Everytime I get this album out and play it, it just blows me away. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-album-are-you/22302.md?page=2)