6 albums that blew me away before 1990. No particular order.

[creekster]

All right, not that any of you care, but just to show my age, here are the albums that really moved me as a youngster.

1. Ray Montavoni and 101 Strings plays Songs from Broadway

2. Ferrante and Teischer; Timeless Romantic Ballads

3. Fritz Palang and the Accordion Circus: The Polka Polka





Just kidding.



Pink FLoyd's Dark Side of the Moon was sort of like a revelation to me.


I was also quite taken by Chicago's self-titled first Album, Chicago Transit Authority.

The Beatles; Sgt. Peppers and the White album

Ther were many others, but these were definitely very important in forming my musical interests and own palying styles.

[Archaea]

Originally Posted by creekster

All right, not that any of you care, but just to show my age, here are the albums that really moved me as a youngster.

1. Ray Montavoni and 101 Strings plays Songs from Broadway

2. Ferrante and Teischer; Timeless Romantic Ballads

3. Fritz Palang and the Accordion Circus: The Polka Polka





Just kidding.



Pink FLoyd's Dark Side of the Moon was sort of like a revelation to me.


I was also quite taken by Chicago's self-titled first Album, Chicago Transit Authority.

The Beatles; Sgt. Peppers and the White album

Ther were many others, but these were definitely very important in forming my musical interests and own palying styles.

I'm not in touch with this stuff,

but Rush, Led Zepplin, Blue Oyster Cult, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd were my genres. Now I kinda like blues or jazz but don't know the names.

[ute4ever]

There has never been anything as diverse as The Beatles White Album.

[il Padrino Ute]

My senior year in high school was when that Def Leppard album was released. A friend of mine had the original Sony Walkman - about the size of a VHS tape - and was listening to it. He said to me: You gotta hear this. It's awesome."

I listened for about 15 seconds and had heard enough. IMO, that is the worse band in the history of the world. But I won't hold it against you.

My list would be (in no particular order):

U2 - The Unforgettable Fire: I really liked Joshua Tree, but I think this was when U2 sold out by making the decision to make mone. Nothing wrong with it, but it seems that each album is progressively worse because they're catering to the Top 40 crowd. Every song on Unforgettable Fire is terrific.

Hoo Doo Gurus - Mars Needs Guitars: The songs are all great fun. I've seen this band twice - once when they opened for the Bangles in '86 and again in about '91 or so. They sound just as tight live as they do in a studio.

Oingo Boingo - Dead Man's Party: Elfman and the boys at their best. Of course, I have to say that I'm a bit biased, as Boingo is my all time favorite band. I've seen 'em 22 times.

Stan Ridgeway - The Big Heat: Nobody tells a story like Stan does. Each song is a different story and the music is very good.

Tears for Fears - Songs from the Big Chair: The Hurting is probably their best album, but this was my introduction to TFF. It was my first concert when I came home from my mission in '85. I remember them telling the crowd at Park West that they had never played in front of an audience that big.

As you can see, I'm admittedly stuck in the 80s New Wave scene and I don't feel apologetic at all. If I really thought about it, I'm sure I could come up with a few others.

[mpfunk]

Alright well I need to jump into the hip-hop discussion here and disagree with all the claims as to the best hip-hop album. Now the Chronic and Doggystyle are fine albums and all, but they are nowhere near the best albums.

For me the best hip-hop album of all time is Digable Planets - Blowout Comb. Just an awesome album from start to finish. Great use of samples and live instrumentation on the album. It is also the best group rapping that I've heard on an album. The vocals just go so great with the music and the way they rap is like jazz soloists. Just the best hip-hop album of all time and I will listen to no arguments for any other hip-hop album being better.

A few other notables that I would put ahead of albums mentioned.
A Tribe Called Quest - Midnight Mauraders
De La Soul - De La Soul is Dead
Nas - Illmatic
Count Bass D - Pre Life Crisis
Talib Kweli/Reflection Eternal - Train of Thought

[SteelBlue]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

As far as Def Leppard, for me it was Hysteria.

U2, for me it was Achtung Baby.

Paul Simon, for me it was Simon and Garfunkel's Greatest Hits (i've never liked his solo stuff).

Appetite for Destruction, ditto.

I would add Achtung Baby to my top 10 albums of all time. Hysteria is one that I also loved, and was my first big concert (I did see Night Ranger in a much smaller venue, but that barely counts). It is definitely a part of the soundtrack of my life. I included Pyromania instead of Hysteria only because I had never heard their sound before Pyromania.

[outlier]

Just 'cuz no one's mentioned these yet...:

Pixies - Surfer Rosa (As much as I like Doolittle, I like the songs on Surfer Rosa better.)

REM - Life's Rich Pageant (This was by far my favorite album from 1988 to 1993 or so. Everything good about REM without their creeping sense of self-importance.)

INXS - The Swing (The quintessential non-sucking 80's album from Australia. This was INXS back when they had a distinctive sound, weren't full of themselves, and made complete albums. Or *a* complete album anyway.)

o

[SeattleUte]

The pianist/conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy's "Mozart's Great Piano Concertos." Okay, I'm showing my age now, but no, I don't mean to be pretentious. There's a good reason our culture regards Mozart as near diety. And Ashkenazy's interpretation is unusually lively and even sentimental. I've heard other greats such as Leonard Bernstein do these and non are as great as Ashkenazy. This prompted me to buy the 10 CD set of Mozart's entire piano concertos by Ashkenazy, and it is facsinating to appreciate how even Amadeus had to painstakingly grow into his peak level of creativity. You hear echos of the "greatest" ones repeatedly early on, until he puts it all together with the real greatest hits in the last two cd's of the set.

[il Padrino Ute]

Originally Posted by outlier

Just 'cuz no one's mentioned these yet...:

Pixies - Surfer Rosa (As much as I like Doolittle, I like the songs on Surfer Rosa better.)

REM - Life's Rich Pageant (This was by far my favorite album from 1988 to 1993 or so. Everything good about REM without their creeping sense of self-importance.)

INXS - The Swing (The quintessential non-sucking 80's album from Australia. This was INXS back when they had a distinctive sound, weren't full of themselves, and made complete albums. Or *a* complete album anyway.)

o

Agreed about Life's Rich Pagent, though if I could get a copy of it without Superman, I'd like it a lot more.

And the Swing was a great album. I'd even put Listen Like Thieves in the same category, though like U2's Joshua Tree, this was the album INXS used to gain commercial success.

If I were to go 70s music, I'd mention Supertramp's Breakfast in America. Great album. My understanding is that it was required listening for those who've ever played baseball at Murray, high school. Just because the coach's brother was the drummer..... :P

[non sequitur]

This list may date me, but what the hell.

1. Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd
Top to bottom, one of the most solid albums of all time. Not a bad track on the album. If you have never listened to this album stoned, then you have sadly missed out on one of life's unique pleasures..
2. IV - Led Zeppelin
This may be THE classic rock and roll album of all time. The standard by which all other albums are measured. As we speak, the ringtone on my cell phone is Black Dog. Other songs of note: Misty Mountain Hop, Stairway to Heaven (who hasn't made out to Stairway to Heaven?), The Battle of Evermore, Rock and Roll, When the Levee Breaks. It doesn't get any better than this.
3. Sticky Fingers - Rolling Stones
It's almost impossible to single out just one Rolling Stones album, because there so many excellent ones to choose from. This one gets my nod just because Wild Horses and Moonlight Mile are two of my favorite Stones songs, and because the album cover is one of my favorites of all time.
4. Tea for the Tillerman - Cat Stevens
Cat Stevens is, without a doubt, my favorite radical muslim rock and roll singer of all time. It's a shame he got religious, because as a song writer he was in a class of his own. This album contains some classics: Where do the Children Play, Hard Headed Woman, Father and Son, On the Road to Find Out, Miles From Nowhere, Wild World.
5. Rock and Roll Animal - Lou Reed
This album would make the list for no other reason than that the intro for Sweet Jane contains one the best guitar solos ever. This album also holds a special place in my heart because it is the first album that my mother ever threw out (there were more to follow). I think she was willing to overlook the punk/transvestite on the cover, but she drew the line when she saw the track titled Heroin: "When I put a spike into my vein, then I tell you things aren't quite the same...". I'm not sure why she objected to that.

BTW, my avatar is the album cover of one my other favorite albums of all time. Ten points to anyone who can identify it.