Have you found *your* album?

Mine would be Nirvana's "In Utero". There are others I really love, but what puts it over the top is that I've had it going on eight years now and it always sounds fresh.

I must say that it is nice to be pinned on the absolute at some point ;-)

let it be noted that all of these are from relatively early periods of my music- listening history and are mostly ones that i loved so much that i 1) tried to get everyone else on earth to hear them 2) considered to be the greatest music ever made and 3) made me go and seek out similar things, opening all sorts of new and wonderful doors. and yes, i know this list is very much like some shit rock critic 'classics' thing. my defense: pitchfork said loveless was the best record of the 90s. i don't know what that means, but it's my defense.

I guess so... in your book, as you list very uniform albums... but that is not all that we all seek in finding something interesting. Not sure that randomness is bad... I just do not see the sloopyness, besides the Excelsior track... I guess I cannot see with your ears...

What this album has done is that it's helped me to figure out what I want from music- so I keep buying records that have those qualities I'm looking for- and I've found it several times since.

I think the thing with finding "your album" is that it can't just be your favorite or one that you think is very good. I think that the question has to revolve around an album actually *speaking* to you, ie "I am this song" mentality.

in a way i suppose that these would be "my" albums, rather than recent albums which i love for more logical, and therefore transient, reasons.

thus "my" album would be something like "vienna" by ultravox. the opening instrumental track always gives me goosebumps. if a record gives me goosebumps then surely it must be "my" album.

So I could answer this in terms of measure of impact, but not in terms of identification. I don’t identify with music as much as I did once, for whatever reason, and I doubt that will change. Anyway, “my album” in terms of greatest impact is probably Springsteen’s Born to Run, which I loved when I was 15, about 17 years ago (I’d already had it on LP, but Born to Run was the first CD I bought, very soon after they hit the market. I still have it and it plays fine, so don’t believe that stuff about CD rot.) It’s so easy to have an album be your whole life during those lonely & awkward teenage years. Sex was scary, high school sucked, you couldn’t talk to anybody about anything. That’s when music feels like it can SAVE YOUR LIFE. I don’t think of music like that anymore, though I’m into it more than ever. For me that sort of thing faded as I got older. I probably haven’t listened to “my album” start to finish in 4 or 5 years.

the first time i listened it i thought it was the most incredible thing i had ever heard in my life. seven years on i still think the same every time i play it. which continues to be more often than i play any other record i have. i love the wu-tang.

and "With the Beatles". Probably the first 'proper' album i ever loved, after perma-borrowing a tape of it from my older brother when i was about eight. twenty years later i still can't imagine anything more thrilling than the start of this record: a bit of crackle and hiss and then BAM! you're right in the middle of beatlemania - paul and john in full-on raving shreiking yeah-yeahing mode, ringo going absolutely mental on the cymbals and george presumably doing something pretty ace too. and then the next song is even better.

12: Guns And Roses - Appetite For Distruction
13: Cure - Disintegration
15: Joy Division - Still (especially the live half)
17: David Bowie - Low
18: Kraftwerk - Computer World
19: Brian Eno - Another Green World
19: Unrest - Mixed Tape
19: V/A - Tresor Three
20: Neil Landstrumm - Brown By August

Ever since then, it has just been a bit of whatever. I know a lot more about music now and have a larger collection, but nothing has stuck like those albums. I cannot listen to one thing over and over and savor it. I will listen to an album or a few tracks for a week or two and then move onto something different. I cannot define myself by my personal soundtrack anymore. I still love music, but it is not the central focus of my life.

It is a mixed blessing; I am past the teen angst, but I wish I could still be moved by music in the way I once was. Only Teenagers can really _LOVE_ music.

Pater? Maybe it references the pater patriae or, the sympathetic affections Mr. Gabriel must've had for this, his ultimate project. You heard any of the Long Walk Home OMPS yet?

The reason for Reckoning is because it was my first exposure to not only R.E.M., but to alternative music in general -- and it took persistent re-listens over the course of 6 or 8 months to even start getting into it; and the Nick Drake? Worst? I love them all, but Bryter Layter has a jazz/gospel edge that reflected the music i had been researching when i happened upon Fruit Tree. Anyways -- both these artists have better albums, but that doesn't merit-enough that they be "mine".

I think of Black Man's Burden as being more interesting musically -- i mean, damn, the conga-work alone puts early Santana out to pasture. Or, maybe it reflects upon my own inebrious iniquities.

As for your picks, i'll say this: the nearly 7 hours of free-improvisation on Sun Bear either makes you extremely complex and literate, or, exceedingly egotistical. Naw. Just kidding -- how can you one judge someone’s "me" picks anyway -- but thanks for taking me to task regardless.

I actually can understand your emotional nostalgic relation to the REM album quite well as my relation to Five Leaves Left and the Sun Bear Concerts is quite similar. Those albums were the first albums I fell in love with when I was around 17. They were like the entrance to the big realm of non-classic music. They made me realise that music is something very important for me much more so than visual arts like movies for example. I listened to them many many times a long time ago and whenever I relisten to them today all the past seems to come back.

Concerning the Peter Gabriel OMPS, I don't even know what you are talking about. The new album? I haven't heard anything of it yet.

I'd still be interested what your *one* album was of the ones you mentioned, Christoff.

Trash Can Sinatras - I've Seen Everything

not only *my*, but *the* album...

Alex - Have you yet found Passion Souces? Long Walk Home is like Passion, but instead of Mesopotamia, think aboriginal Australia. I'll happen across it soon. ---and that *one* isn't even any of those i listed, actually the single most important recording i've yet experienced is the Splendid Master Gnawa Musicians of Morocco. Either that or Rock-n-Roll with The Modern Lovers.

Oh, shut up. I know what an irrelevant music geek I am.

I'm 19 and I feel the same way. I fear that nothing will ever approach how OK Computer felt for me in 1997 and Odelay in 1998. (though Endtroducing & everything by Richard D. James came close) I really don't want to listen to them again now. It actually makes me feel bad when anyone says anything bad about them, and I really don't want to find out if I agree with them now. I'll let them stay in their hallowed place. Sometimes I get this depressing feeling that I don't like music nearly as much as I did then, even though I listen to much much more. Boo hoo.

I've been listening to Michael Mayer's Immer all the time lately and it's bloody awesome and you're all fools if you don't listen to it, but, you know, not bloody awesome in that way.

Actually maybe I will pull out Odelay again one of these days. It's a much more emotional record than some might think, but not in an excruciating teenager way.

and plenty of others...

* - OK, I admit it, there are no discernible reggae influences!

Bollocks.

I was 34 when I discovered Captain Beefheart.

Jane’s Addiction: Ritual De Lo Habitual. This was the album which, probably somewhat bemusingly most people, opened it all up for me. Prior to this, I was stuck in an angst riddled heavy metal hell, listening exclusively to bands beginning with M. Then someone lent me Ritual and it was like a slug to the jaw. My eyes were metaphorically opened by what I heard and I still get turned on, tuned in listening to this stuff.

Spirit: The Twelve Dreams of Dr Sardonicus. Uhm, the pinnacle of rock. To talk about this album is to come across as gushing idiot. Still, since unearthing this forgotten classic, it never ceases to amaze me when it receives as spin: for its musicianship, for its communique, for its attitude and for its utter rockness.

The Verve: A Northern Soul. Feel a bit sheepish about sticking this one down but truth be told, this is another album which opened doors for me. It took an ex girlfriend way back to insist that I persevere with it and although Ashcroft grates as much now as he did back then, the orchestration and instrumentation is faultless, particularly McCabe’s stunning guitar work and Salisbury’s pulsing, tribal drum patterns. Listening to this album reminds me how it feels to be truly alone – a sometimes epiphanic trip. Actually, Ashcroft isn’t as bad as he is on Hymns; his whisky tongued chant of "Another drink and I won’t miss her, another drink and I won’t miss her" gets me in the guts every time.

Lamb: Lamb. In the post Portishead trip-hop explosion, I read about these guys and bought the album on spec. It blew me away. Barlow is perhaps a rather fastidious producer but only because he is also a master of his art. With Rhodes’ distinctive vocals, the sound that arises is haunting and at the same time intensively arresting. It struck a chord with me then and still has the same effect – every drum click and bass twang remains fresh as a daisy and the overall vibe of Lamb in full flow is much of what I get excited about in music: Love, Celebration and Climax. Though Lamb’s second album is more a technical feat accompli, and a more brooding, sprawling affair, I have to go for the debut on account of its contextual importance and impact 9on me more than anything else).

Bob Dylan: Blonde On Blonde. Of all of Rob’s albums, this opus is the work that resonates and occasionally seems to reflect certain facets of my consciousness most startlingly. Two records’ worth of the most dazzling and poetic imagery, symbolism and aesthetic in the rock canon, set to a sort of roots based blues rock which has been fried and twisted as Dylan searches for that "Thin, Wild, Mercury" sound. I don’t know what he means but I also think he finds what he’s looking for here. Listening to this stuff is an occasion for reflection, affirmation and frankly, amazement.

Dakota Suite: Songs For A Barbed Wire Fence. Bought on the strength of some gushing review I read somewhere in 1998. A funny one this, since it is an album I save for myself and rarely play. Yet it is painfully beautiful and poignant in places; stripped and naked, the songs flicker from the speakers like existential requiems to yesterday. Ultimately though, there is redemption and hope in Hooson’s minimal soundscapes and visions, the calypso trumpet bringing down a cold sunset. Jaw-dopping.

Fuck it, there are more, but that’s enough rose-tinted warbling from moi, I feel. Besides, I wanna hear how other people relate to those special albums that they treasure.

same here

Boy meets REM's Life's Rich Pageant. Boy goes bonkers over it. Boy meets XTC's Skylarking, though, and goes more bonkers still. Then boy meets Nirvana's Nevermind, and that's even better, because boy wears a trenchcoat and a beard these days, and was having trouble cutting an imposing figure while blaring "Dear God."

Boy goes to college, boy meanders without The One Album for a bit, boy meets Bowie's Outside, and oho, this one's a keeper. Boy has occasional dalliances with John Coltrane's Lush Life, Poe's Hello, and Radiohead's Kid A, but is largely loyal.

John Coltrane, BLUE TRAIN
Bob Mould, WORKBOOK
Pixies, DOOLITTLE
The Minutemen, DOUBLE NICKELS ON THE DIME
Trenchmouth, INSIDE THE FUTURE
JSBX, ORANGE
The Mountain Goats, ZOPILOTE MACHINE
Dirty Three, HORSE STORIES
Superchunk, INCIDENTAL MUSIC
Neutral Milk Hotel, IN THE AEROPLANE OVER THE SEA
The Mountain Goats, FULL FORCE GALESBURG
The Dismemberment Plan, EMERGENCY & I
Aesop Rock, LABOR DAYS

Some of these hold up better than others. I would not currently describe any of them as *my* album, nor any other album.

hip hop--handsome boy modeling school "so...how's your girl?"
shoegaze--slowdive "souvlaki", one of the best albums ever...
rock--afghan whigs "up in it"
indie--the sea and cake "oui"
new stuff--the natural history "the natural history" (barely nudging out enon's "high society")

these are always so subject to change, though, you never know what's going to come out next week, or next year....

trip-hop--kruder & dorfmeister "sessions"

I wrote a review of this a few years ago, and it's pretty corny, but here's the good part:

Daydream Nation, aside from Quadrophenia, was the first all-out punk-rock-opera-cum-conceptual masterpiece (as far as I know). It basically was Quadrophenia, but done by thirtysomething art-snobs posing as disaffected teens in some dismal outer-borough nightmare (pre-Giuliani).

Characters kinda like the teens in Donna Gaines' book Teenage Wasteland, but with more of an urban sensibility. I grew up in Brooklyn, and there were tons of teens like this, feeling fucked-up and pointless, lots of burnout potential, just sparking wildly all over the place for the hell of it: holy troublemakers, starting fights, having sex, harboring riot fantasies, plotting a great escape in their cranked-up teenage heads. Daydream Nation captures this.

(But how do you run away from New York? Where do you go?)

It makes your head spin once things really get going, around "Eric's Trip":

My head's on straight
My girlfriend's beautiful
Looks pretty good to me. . .

It's a rush, but not a bad one; it's kinda like never going over the edge, still keeping your cool and aloof pose while the "Ray of Light" video goes on around you. But instead of a dance club, your ass is brushing against the tops of trees somewhere in central Jersey, and if you reach out, you'll grab a pigeon and tear its head off with your velocity. It's night, sorta cobalt-duskish, and there are barbecues and keg parties all over the Garden State, and the shore air and all of this blows up into your nose, and it's all good: The ocean, the sand, the air, they're all right there with you.

yeah i like it that part of the review but do things really 'get going' round eric's trip. surely it starts on Teenage riot and they keep going until the end.

Just remembered this old thread. Have you found YOUR album?

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Think I'd be lying if I wasn't to say the Boo Radleys' Giant Steps.

Um, no, I don't think so. There are, obviously, several I love, adore even, and some I'm vaguely associated with and which people who know me might guess at, but I don't think I'd choose one LP to rule them all, as it were.

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The italics disappear if you view all messages, so it's obviously just a broken tag on this version of the page.

Donald Fagen - The Nightfly even if it did deliver a disappointing listen or two

other major candidates:

Public Enemy - It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold us Back (when I was 15, doubt it lost any power)

Rod Stewart - Every Picture Tells A Story (fo real)

Randy Newman - 12 Songs (found new ways to think about music with this one, same with Let It Bleed)

Pet Shop Boys - Very (no homo)

One very specific record for me, which seems in line with what this thread is about:

Drive Like Jehu -- Yank Crime

It has never become old to me, just as powerful to me today as it was when I first heard it in 94. Wasted a lot of time trying to find a guitar record that hit me so hard (though of course the search led me to plenty of other great stuff, just nothing that devastated me like this record).

i just don't understand people whose brains work like this at all.

Yeah. I don't think I could pick twenty and be totally content with it.

pretty sure the answer to this is Blue for me, tho i haven't listened to it in awhile, mostly bc the weight of my love for it makes it very difficult to listen to casually.

I took it as a record that changed my life kind of thing. I don't listen to Yank Crime that much any more, but when I do it still becomes an event. I am not sure I have a single favorite record, but I could not even consider a list that this would not make due to it's importance in my life/listening habits. It opened up whole worlds for me. Surely there can't be that many records like that for everyone?

this was mine

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51pvXHs0FpL.jpg

I bounce around between three: Uncle Meat, Tusk, and Double Nickels on the Dime

http://991.com/newGallery/Crass-Penis-Envy---Seco-518822.jpg

In a rough chronological order (of when I bought them)

Pet Shop Boys - Actually

Mr Fingers - Ammnesia

Depeche Mode - Music For The Masses

Terrace - Konnekt

Tori Amos - Music For Pele / From The Choirgirl Hotel

Gary Numan - The Pleasure Principle

Dustdevils - Struggling Electric & Chemical. Because it's off to one side of Branca/Sonic Youth, off to one side of the Fall, off to one side of Dead C, etc. Because it's the best release by not one but two of the seminal indie labels of the 90's, but will never make the history books. Because it starts with the most audacious cover of all time, and ends with a (maybe famous) guy on drugs talking to the radio in the company of his cat. Pretty much encapsulates a particular time/space that won't be coming back anytime soon, and that I miss. NYC early 90's, didn't hit the big time...