Todd, i'm definately with you on the pinback

1. pinback - pinback. the first album that made me truly realize how great some music can be that doesn't even get any airplay on the radio.

2. jeff buckley - grace. this is the first album that popped into my mind, and i'm kind of surprised no one else has brought it up yet. i just got this album two days ago and i don't hesitate in saying that it has already changed my life and the way i look at music. the fact that jeff died so tragically only makes it that much more powerful.

3. tool - aenima. introduced me to the world of tool, 'nuff said.

4. nine inch nails - pretty hate machine. i dont really listen to this album all that much anymore, but this was one of the first albums i got when i first really started getting into music. freshman year in high school kids always used to walk around with headphones listening to music, and one day during lunch this guy i barely even knew came up to me and said you gotta listen to this. "something i can never have" was playing, and even today when i hear the melody of that piano playing it sends chills down my spine.

5. godspeed you! black emperor - f#a# (infinite symbol). listening to anything by this group is an amazing experience. there aren't many groups that can say they have nearly 10 members who play anything from drums and guitars to an assortment of stringed instruments and horns. getting this cd eventually led to me discovering other bands like mogwai, boards of canada, and a silver mt. zion

Soul Asylum -Grave Dancers Union
Live -Throwing Copper
Pink Floyd -The Wall
Every Led Zeppelin Album...

Pearl Jame - 10
Stone Temple Pilots - Core
Nirvana - Nevermind
Notorious B.I.G. albums
Puff Daddy - No Way Out

Some huge, some small, each "successful" in THEIR OWN TERMS WITH THEIR OWN UNIQUE VOICE. After avidly listening to music for 20 + years these are the ones I go to as examples of how it should be done. (If limited to a choice of 5 of course ;) )


White Album - The Beatles

Physical Graffiti - Led Zeppelin

London Calling - The Clash

Louder Than Bombs - The Smiths

Heaven or Las Vegas - Cocteau Twins

1. Black Flag - Damaged
2. Minor Threat - Complete Discography (ok, not an album)
3. The Cult - Electric
4. Fugazi - In On the Kill Taker
5. Iceburn - Hephaestus

and Op Ivy - Energy

1. Clash - London Calling
2. Johnny Cash - Box Set
3. Van Halen - Van Halen
4. Tom Waits - Night Hawks at the Diner
5. Pearl Jam - Ten

Prince - 1999
Queen - A Night At The Opera
KISS - Destroyer
Men At Work - Business As Usual
Rush - Exit...Stage Left

Honorable Mention:
Harry Connick, Jr. - We Are In Love
Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes
Del Amitri - Waking Hours

There's only one album tht I can think of that actually had any significant impact on my life:

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band


I picked it up on a whim about 11 years ago when I was around 14 years old. Best purchase ever...

I'm sure there are other albums that may have "changed my life" in some way or another, but none actually changed me as a person as much as Sgt. Pepper did.

Revolver
Tommy
Let it Bleed
Dark Side of the Moon
Zen Arcade

Guns N Roses - You Could Be Mine
I was only 6 or 7 years old and I played this song on Vinyl to death. My parents bought me their albums one by one afterwards.


Metallica - The Black Album
8 Years old, and our neighbours were huge Metallica fans, I heard Enter Sandman and from that moment got into them strait away. My mother bought me this on cassette, and I couldn't stop listening to it.


Pantera - A Vulgar Display Of Power
9 Years old (or so), and I had heard *****ing hostile once. I was sold. I didn't care much for the rest of the album (yet), except for Mouth For War. Years later I got into them again.


Slayer - Reign In Blood
I was 16 I beleive, I'd heard so much about them I decided to just buy one of their cd's. I put it on, and I thought they were horrible. Multiple listens got me into them.


Oasis - What's the story (morning glory)?
My dad listened to this cd all the time, I couldn't stand it. Then I went with my dad to a festival, because I wanted to see Muse and Nine Inch Nails, and he wanted to see Oasis. During Oasis' set, I found myself singing along to almost every song. Then the listening began.


My first music phase was dedicated to metal, Metallica, ACDC, Iron Maiden, Pantera etc. etc.
After that I got hooked on electronic music till I was 14.
Then I got back into rock and metal music.



Honorable mentions:
The Offspring - Smash (self esteem was one of my all time favorites at the time).
KoRn - That third one with the Todd McFarlane cover, got me into a short phase of nu-metal, I was one of the first to get bored with the genre and the endless amount of new bands.
Radiohead - OK Computer, sheer beauty.
Vital Remains - Dechristianize (got me into death metal)
Mayhem - A Grand Declaration Of War (got me into black metal)

How could I forget!?!?!?

MESHUGGAH

Changed my view on rythem, and polyrythems. And most influential on a lot of new bands.


And an honerable mention
The Mars Volta - Deloused In The Comatorium, brought improv into my life again.

1. Nirvana - Nevermind
2. Mazzy Star - She Hangs Brightly
3. Bikini Kill - ***** Whipped
4. Portishead - Dummy
5. Pearl Jam - Ten

Pearl Jam - Vs. - this album started my obsession with Pearl Jam. I had gotten Ten when it came out I was a big fan, but hearing this album for the first time was akin to "moment of clarity". This album made me realize the genius of the band. The album had great personal and political songs that I related to. It had a much rougher, less polished sound than Ten.

Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska - Just like Vs. started my Pearl Jam obsession, this album started my obsession with the Boss. Like so many others I had been sucked into the Born In The USA album '84. I started buying older stuff from Springsteen and than I hit upon Nebraska. Wow. To this day it's still my favorite Bruce album (Ghost of Tom Joad is my second, go figure heh). Haunting ballads, stark music, an emotional rollercoaster. I wore out two tapes of this album before I got my first CD player.

Pink Floyd - The Final Cut - Are there better Floyd albums? Sure. The Wall, Animals, Wish You Were Here are all great albums, but this is the one that always got to me the most. I went through a period in high school where there was always a Floyd album in my CD player. I used to always put this album in and just relax to it. This album connected with me emotionally more than any other Floyd album.

Bob Dylan - Oh Mercy - Being exposed to Dylan early on made me realize that truly great music is more than just a good hook. It has to say something, and in my opinion nobody says it better than Dylan. this album came out when I was at an age where I was really beginning to appreciate his lyrics. 'Nuff said.

Eels - Electro-Shock Blues - Just when I had given up on ever finding another musician that blew me away I heard the Eels. My faith in music was reborn. This album put my jaw to the floor when I heard it. Mark Everett had just lost his sister to suicide and his mother had been diagnosed with cancer so he took all that emotion and put it all into this album. It shows. While the album's overall feel is mellow it has a great mix of lo-fi, hi-fi, indie, pop, and everything in between. This is one of those albums that just gets better and better with every listen.

Um, you're going to have to go into a little more detail on this one, I'm afraid.

For me, probably

Hysteria
Raising Hell
Doolittle
Dummy
Hard Again

Sunny Day Real Estate - Diary : Great album from a very underrated band.

Dinosaur Jr. - Where You Been : First Dino Jr album I ever bought. Now I own every album they have released. One of the earliest "alternative" bands.

Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine : When I got ths album in 1993 it took a while to really get into it. It grew on me and when I saw them live in 1996 it all became clear.

Nirvana - Nevermind : This came out when I was 15. Needless to say why it's on the list.

Tool - Undertow : This album introduced me to what I feel is the greatest band around right now. Undertow might not be their best effort, but it's miles ahead of most of todays music. Their live show is second to none.

Rush - Signals
Steely Dan - Can't Buy A Thrill
Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon
Return To Forever - Romantic Warrior
Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard Of Oz

Metallica: The Black Album - Not my favorite Metallica album, but the first one that I really listened to.

Nirvana: Nevermind - Obvious.

Green Day: Dookie - Helped hone my musical tastes when I was younger.

Rage Against the Machine: Rage Against the Machine - Knocked me on my ass. Effective blending of styles and social commentary on the same album. This, more than anything else, changed what kind of music I listened to.

System of a Down: System of a Down - See above. Gave me faith in modern rock music. And even now, with the crappy nu-metal band explosion, SOAD is able to provide a unique sound and vision.

Motley Crue - Shout At The Devil
Once I heard that album back in 83 it was all over for me. There was no turning back. I had stuff like Quiet Riot and Prist before that but never had the same impact as SHOUT did. 20+ years later and still a fan.

I'm someone who is very skeptical of new (or nu) bands but i gotta agree. System really bring something unusual stylistically and lyrically. I lumped them in with the others at first but once I actually heard them I was very impressed.

AC/DC: "Powerage" Simply a great album that's a great pick me up when feeling down.

Goo Goo Dolls: "Hold Me Up". This album put to music exactly what I was feeling at the time.

AC/DC: "Back In Black". First album I've ever heard where every song was amazing. Didn't even know that was possible. Opened my ears/mind up to a whole new world.

KISS: "Alive". Started me on a whole frenzy of record buying.

Metallica: "Ride The Lightning". Although I was listening to a ton of metal when this came out (Venom, Mercyful Fate, Maiden, "Kill 'em All", etc...) this was an album that was so amazing to me, I even lost a job at Wendy's in order for the chance to see them play when they came to town to play a 300 seat club.

My 5 - In the order that I discovered them:

Michael Jackson - Thriller

Guns N' Roses - Appetite For Destruction

Depeche Mode - Violator

Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine

The Beatles - Rubber Soul

In order That I discovered them.

U2- Joshua Tree
Rolling Stones -Beggars Banquet
U2-Achtung Baby
Nirvana- Nevermind
Johhny Cash-American IV

1) Kiss - Destroyer - The first album I ever owned when I was 5 or 6, It shaped my taste in music forever.

2) AC/DC - Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap. Back in Black hit it huge, but I wanted something everyone else didn't have. Got in trouble for playing "Big Balls" at grade school recess.

3) Judas Priest - Turbo. Far from their best album, but was into more mainstream rock at the time. I liked Priest, but really started to get into them at this time.

5) Skid Row - Subhuman Race. Metal was on the decline. I felt that if Skid Row (who was huge at the time) could release a multi platinum album that Metal would be saved. The album failed terribley and metal pretty much died.

6) Metallica - Load. Metal's kings put out one of the worst pieces of crap I ever heard... and kept getting worse and worse from there. I still keep buying there albums out of some misguided loyalty.

New Edition - New Edition: My buddies and I would listen to this album over and over again as we made grand plans for life after high school. Oh man, the things we were going to do! Too bad, life got in the way. I still listen to this album with nostalgia and more than a tinge of sadness.

Look Sharp! - Joe Jackson

Songs in the Attic, An Innocent Man, and other early Billy Joel albums helped me through some times that were rough for a 16 year old guy. I'm still amazed and amused at what kept me up nights back then.

Metallica - Ride the Lightning

Radiohead - OK Computer

The Beatles - Revolver

Dimmu Borgir - Puritanical Misanthropic Euphoria

The Misfits - Legacy of Brutality

(Honorable mention: The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds)