10 Albums That Changed My Life
Ten albums that, after listening to them, had a significant impact on me as a person, musician, and songwriter. These are the things that revolutionized how I listened to music. |
| 1 |  | Radiohead
OK Computer
[Year Found: 2003] This is the album that opened my eyes to the fact that I'd been listening to so much crap before, and that I'd gone too long without realising an incredible amount of truly great music. The ability to experiment with texture and incorporate a variety of influences into a unified sound was one of the biggest things I took away from this album and into my own songwriting, as well as the way that the deeply emotional delivery was constructed to be effortless. |
| 2 | | Yes
The Ultimate Yes
[Year Found: 2003] I received this collection for Christmas, and it introduced me to the wonders of Progressive music, and got me into much deeper, coordinated songwriting. I wrote my first twenty-minute epic after listening to more Yes, and it's the best thing that I've written to date. |
| 3 | | Godspeed You! Black Emperor
F# A# (infinity)
[Year Found: 2004] As my first taste of GY!BE, I couldn't have picked a better starting point. I was enraptured right from the start, with the droning strings and monologue, all the way through the rises and falls to the climactic end. This prompted me to play around with long, simple forms and use of dynamics builds. |
| 4 |  | Sonic Youth
Daydream Nation
[Year Found: 2005] Strangely-tuned Arty Punk that makes a lasting statement and is a testament to its age in history. Needless to say, I was blown away. This was my first introduction to playing in extremely non-standard tuning, and through emulation I achieved new sounds with my own music. |
| 5 |  | Miles Davis
Kind of Blue
[Year Found: 2003] This is the album that got me back into the world of Jazz, especially the old greats such as Davis' colleagues. It's fluid, wonderful music from start to finish. |
| 6 |  | Love
Forever Changes
[Year Found: 2005] A superb classic filled with shimmering brilliance, and lyricism that tends to kicks Paul and John's collective ass. Utterly inspiring, and Arthur Lee's delicate voice really works on this record, and the songwriting is clever and catchy. |
| 7 | | Sigur Ros
( )
[Year Found: 2004] This was the first Post Rock album I owned, and it's striking beauty and arrangements really moved me and got me interested in crafting songs based on mood and texture. |
| 8 |  | Dave Matthews Band
Before These Crowded Streets
[Year Found: 1998] Here was an album that allowed me to wonder on topics such as timbre and balance between interesting instrument combinations, and one of the first introductions I had to playing with odd time signatures and changes. |
| 9 |  | Coldplay
Parachutes
[Year Found: 2002] A great introduction to the general field of Alternative, which got me interested in so many other artists and eventually opened the doors to my discovery of other British Alternative acts like Radiohead. |
| 10 |  | Boards of Canada
Music Has The Right To Children
[Year Found: 2006] This gem was a lot of what motivated me to look into and experiment with Electronica and artificially-created atmosphere in my music, as well as playing with noise and sampling. |
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