My Top 20 Disks

I was talking with my girlfriend about this last night, I think it bears re-posting,

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Not necessarily the best albums in the world, but 20 albums that changed how I view music:

Growing up, grade school and junior high

1) To it and At it - Stompin' Tom Connors (1973): I grew up on old classic country like George Jones, Conway Twitty, Charlie Pride, Porter Wagoner and Loretta Lynn. But this was my favourite as a kid. It's just a fun album and sing song enough to appeal to a kid. The title track is absolutely infectious. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVjWCwZ8MI8

2) Highway to Hell - AC/DC (1979): I got this in Grade 7 as a secret Santa Xmas present from a friend I figured traded in the classroom to get my name for the gift (Thanks Andrew!) This was one of the first albums I ever owned and started me down the road to liking metal, if you call this and Def Leppard metal... I'll admit, my cousin who was living with us at the time also influenced me into metal. The funniest thing I remember about this album is how I didn't understand anything anyone said. I listened to the album on headphones many many times trying to figure out the lyrics, then suddenly, something clicked and I understood them.

3) The Cars - Heartbeat City (1984): In junior high, I started reviewing music for the school newspaper. The Cars were one of the first albums I reviewed and one of the first albums I owned on tape. I count this album as my introduction to new wave and the start of my life long love of the genre.

4) Rush - Grace Under Pressure (1984): This was the soundtrack to my junior high days. I never really enjoyed Rush's progressive stuff, but their synth-drenched stuff from the 80s appealed to me. I loved the video for "Distant Early Warning".

Senior High and Early College

5) Devo - Freedom of Choice (1980): I heard this for the first time in 1986 and it changed my life. I learned a lot about music during my grad years in 1986-87. New wave at it's finest. This album taught me that music didn't have to be generic to be good and that I didn't have to like everything else my peers liked. Devo's anti-establishment, geek-culture style appealed to me deeply at the time, and still does to a certain extent. Some of what they say becomes truer as each day goes by.

6) Sex Pistols - Never Mind the Bullocks (1979): More music I heard for the first time in my grad year. I had never heard music so angry before. This, along with #7, got me into a brief punk phase which I grew out of really quickly.

7) The Ramones - Rocket to Russia (1978): More punk, this appealed to me because it was angry, melodic and kind of goofy. I'm less of a Ramones fan now, but this album affected me quite a bit.

8) Depeche Mode - Black Celebration (1986): Late 80s music was hair metal and the start of the shoegazer movement. Black Celebration spoke to this confused and depressed teenager a bit more than Jesus and Mary Chain's "Psychocandy" which was also in high rotation at this time.

9) Men Without Hats - Folk of the 80s Part III (1984): My intro to synth-pop. Driving, insistent and insanely catchy. I still love this band dearly, despite them being seen as a joke by most people.

10/11) Big Black - Atomizer (1986)/Scraping Foetus Off the Wheel - Hole (1984): A friend of mine gave me an unlabelled tape with both of these albums on it. I had no idea who or what I was listening to, but it changed me. The music was offensive and talked about things that no normal human being would talk about. This was my first introduction to industrial music, though I didn't know what it was at the time.

University, College Radio and Beyond

12) REM - Green (1988): One of my go to albums during my first years of university, melodic, moody and a bit frothy. Not a great album, but it was a fave at the time.

13) Skinny Puppy - VIVIsect VI (1988): My other go to album from university. It was my solace against the constant crap music my roommate played, who liked Lee Aaron, Honeymoon Suite and Alice Cooper. Depressing and violent, fit my disturbed mood at the time perfectly and it was another step along the road to my love of industrial.

14) Ministry - Land of Rape and Honey (1988): If I could pick one album that changed my life, I'd pick this one. A friend introduced me to Ministry in my first year in university and I fell in love with industrial (thanks Craig!). This album had the perfect balance between primal rage and musical precision. It remains one of my favourite albums of all time.

15) Elvis Costello - Blood and Chocolate (1986): This is the other album that I'd pick that changed my life. A friend at the college radio station lent it to me and the earnestness of the songwriting and rawness and ramshackle nature of Elvis's music spoke to me like nothing had before. It really took me a while to twig onto his work, I didn't buy my first Elvis Costello album until 1993, and it was one of his lesser albums, "Spike", but now he's my favourite musician of all time. I own every album he's put out.

16) Talking Heads - Fear of Music (1979): After I got into college radio, my tastes in music really expanded. I had discounted the Heads as a one hit wonder, but when I began to listen to their catalogue, I quickly changed my mind. The texture and feel of this album falls together so easily and flawlessly, it's hard not to love it.

17) The Pixies - Doolittle (1989): Not much needs to be said about this album. Perfect mix of quiet and loud. Shaped music for years to come.

18) The Beatles - Rubber Soul (1964): Hard to believe I didn't get into the Beatles until the 90s, but that's the truth. This was the first Beatles album I owned (given as a gift, thanks K!). I own every Beatles album after it now, but nothing before it. It's beautiful in it's own oddly structured way. Abbey Road is my fave Beatles album, but this was my first.

19) Pan Sonic - Aaltopirii (2001): My first real excursion into electronic minimalism. This album is stark, composed mainly of static, sparks and drones with no lyrics. Altered again the way I look at music and how it's constructed

20) Polysics - Hey! Bob! My Friend! (2001): Polysics are my current obsession. They take the oddball new wave sound of Devo and add in the energy of hardcore punk. Both Dadaist and rump-shaking at the same time.

Honourable mentions: Excitable Boy - Warren Zevon, Straight Outta Compton - N.W.A., Beck - Sea Change, Cub - Betti-Cola, They Might Be Giants - Flood.