twenty albums that changed my life.
This list concept is absolutely and shamelessly ripped off of the brilliant and beautiful Patton Quinn, who loves lists as much as I do.
She disclaims her list this way, which I will repeat here: "This list is not exactly complete. This list is not meant to be read as my 'favorite albums of all time.' These albums are landmarks in my life that I associate with a change in the way I think about music and a change in the way I perceive reality. It may have not been these albums that changed the way I 'perceive reality'; it just so happens that the change occured around the same time these albums were on my rotation."
In chronological order:
1. They Might Be Giants - Flood
they might be giants were my first everything the same way that isaac was. my first favorite album, the first music i tried to share with friends, and my first show - at age twelve, with my friends from the bbs i posted on all the time in the DC area. when i watched the documentary about them, gigantic, for the first time, i cried. this album is totally underrated and they might be giants is not a novelty band, i swear, and i will love them forever and ever.
2. Madonna - The Immaculate Collection
this was the first album i remember really really wanting to dance to. i also used to bike around my neighborhood singing 'like a virgin' at the top of my lungs. good times.
3. Bob Dylan - Blood On The Tracks
i've written about this album many times before. i had it on tape when i was thirteen or fourteen and walked all over town letting dylan write definitions for romance, love, and loss all over my young brain. i've probably spent more time with this album than any other and it continues to blow me away every time i hear it.
4. Joni Mitchell - Blue
joni mitchell helped me become a woman.
5. Nirvana - Nevermind
like most things that were in any way 'cool' that i liked before i was eighteen, nirvana was courtesy my older brother. i never really liked 'hard rock' until much later, but the plainative emotion of cobain's voice appealed to me in a way that rock didn't. eventually, i grew to adore the distortion and banging as well, but it was 'something in the way' that got me started.
6. Counting Crows - August & Everything After
didn't we all? don't deny it.
7. Ani DiFranco - Dilate
this was the first time that my taste in music verged away from the strictly mainstream except for the happy accident of the aformentioned they might be giants (which we discovered via NPR, so really they don't count). i went to not back to school camp and a plethora of relatively under the radar musicians unfolded. ani was the most signifigant. it's easy to be bashful about her and let her be lumped in with the boring femmey pop of the 90s (all of which i loved as well, if you're good with google you can probably find my jewel fan mailing list posts. yikes.) but, honestly, i still maintain that she's better than all that. this album is a love letter and the dissection of heartbreak. it's pitiful and strong and sad and beautiful, which is why it's the perfect album for a teenage girl to listen to while wallowing in unrequited 'love'.
8. Elliott Smith - XO
jeremy loomis norris told me about elliott smith when we were sixteen or seventeen and, for that, i want to kiss his cheeks a thousand times every time i run into him.
9. Van Morrison - Astral Weeks
set me up to have unreal expectations of love and romance for the rest of my life.
10. Daniel Johnston - Fun
sometime in my late teen years, i managed to purchase this album apropos of no outside influence that i can recall. i'm not sure how it happened, but i am pleased to report that i bought it at the now long gone record store sound exchange, where daniel first started selling his cassettes in austin in the late 1980s. anyway, what i hate about the johnston revivial is that i am exceedingly uncomfortable with people listening to these songs because they are 'funny' or 'cute.' sad sac and tarzan is funny and all, but i listened to this album because it articulated my heart in the simplest way i never thought possible. this is how i learned to love lo-fi.
11. Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
the first time i heard 'two headed boy part two' i was at work and i started crying.
12. Cat Power - Moon Pix
the first time i heard 'american flag' i was on the bus and i started crying.
13. Nick Drake - Pink Moon
nick drake was my best friend after my first breakup.
14. Bright Eyes - Letting Off The Happiness
i struggled with which bright eyes album to put on this list. honestly, it could just as easily be 'fevers & mirrors' here, or 'lifted' a little bit later. but i remember the months of this being in my stereo literally constantly, of backtracking and playing 'the difference in the shades' and 'june on the west coast' over and over and over and over and over, and i feel overwhelmed. i know people love to diss on the bright eyes, but i refuse to back down from the earlier albums. there was this simple profound beauty in conor's openness, in his voice cracks, in his parent's basement... it is the beauty of any creative person who hasn't yet felt the pressure of success and who just wants to let everything piling up inside of them out, to be set free. it was lovely. even though i've been less and less impacted by each successive album since 'lifted', no one -- dylan, will sheff, neil young... -- has a voice that makes me feel quite as much empathy, nostalgia, and love as coco burst's does every time. did you just finish puking? let's continue...
15. The Silver Jews - Starlight Walker
the boys i knew via toy joy placed the silver jews into my hands and i think it might be the only reason i'm cool now.
16. Okkervil River - Don't Fall In Love With Everyone You See
"we have come from ugliness to find some refuge here."
17. The Walkmen - Everyone Who Pretended To Like Me Is Gone
hamilton leithauser is the darkest part of my heart, paul maroon is the rest.
17. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
this is that one album that i really hope my kids listen to and associate it was the good part of 'mom music'
19. Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy
"You're out singing songs, and I'm down shouting names at the flickerless screen, going fucking insane."
20. The Arcade Fire - Funeral
when i first heard this album, i thought it was overrated. then i saw the arcade fire play at emo's and this album didn't leave my ears for months after, because i desperately wanted the every day to feel even a fraction as superconnected and magic as that show. sometimes it works.
She disclaims her list this way, which I will repeat here: "This list is not exactly complete. This list is not meant to be read as my 'favorite albums of all time.' These albums are landmarks in my life that I associate with a change in the way I think about music and a change in the way I perceive reality. It may have not been these albums that changed the way I 'perceive reality'; it just so happens that the change occured around the same time these albums were on my rotation."
In chronological order:
1. They Might Be Giants - Flood
they might be giants were my first everything the same way that isaac was. my first favorite album, the first music i tried to share with friends, and my first show - at age twelve, with my friends from the bbs i posted on all the time in the DC area. when i watched the documentary about them, gigantic, for the first time, i cried. this album is totally underrated and they might be giants is not a novelty band, i swear, and i will love them forever and ever.
2. Madonna - The Immaculate Collection
this was the first album i remember really really wanting to dance to. i also used to bike around my neighborhood singing 'like a virgin' at the top of my lungs. good times.
3. Bob Dylan - Blood On The Tracks
i've written about this album many times before. i had it on tape when i was thirteen or fourteen and walked all over town letting dylan write definitions for romance, love, and loss all over my young brain. i've probably spent more time with this album than any other and it continues to blow me away every time i hear it.
4. Joni Mitchell - Blue
joni mitchell helped me become a woman.
5. Nirvana - Nevermind
like most things that were in any way 'cool' that i liked before i was eighteen, nirvana was courtesy my older brother. i never really liked 'hard rock' until much later, but the plainative emotion of cobain's voice appealed to me in a way that rock didn't. eventually, i grew to adore the distortion and banging as well, but it was 'something in the way' that got me started.
6. Counting Crows - August & Everything After
didn't we all? don't deny it.
7. Ani DiFranco - Dilate
this was the first time that my taste in music verged away from the strictly mainstream except for the happy accident of the aformentioned they might be giants (which we discovered via NPR, so really they don't count). i went to not back to school camp and a plethora of relatively under the radar musicians unfolded. ani was the most signifigant. it's easy to be bashful about her and let her be lumped in with the boring femmey pop of the 90s (all of which i loved as well, if you're good with google you can probably find my jewel fan mailing list posts. yikes.) but, honestly, i still maintain that she's better than all that. this album is a love letter and the dissection of heartbreak. it's pitiful and strong and sad and beautiful, which is why it's the perfect album for a teenage girl to listen to while wallowing in unrequited 'love'.
8. Elliott Smith - XO
jeremy loomis norris told me about elliott smith when we were sixteen or seventeen and, for that, i want to kiss his cheeks a thousand times every time i run into him.
9. Van Morrison - Astral Weeks
set me up to have unreal expectations of love and romance for the rest of my life.
10. Daniel Johnston - Fun
sometime in my late teen years, i managed to purchase this album apropos of no outside influence that i can recall. i'm not sure how it happened, but i am pleased to report that i bought it at the now long gone record store sound exchange, where daniel first started selling his cassettes in austin in the late 1980s. anyway, what i hate about the johnston revivial is that i am exceedingly uncomfortable with people listening to these songs because they are 'funny' or 'cute.' sad sac and tarzan is funny and all, but i listened to this album because it articulated my heart in the simplest way i never thought possible. this is how i learned to love lo-fi.
11. Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
the first time i heard 'two headed boy part two' i was at work and i started crying.
12. Cat Power - Moon Pix
the first time i heard 'american flag' i was on the bus and i started crying.
13. Nick Drake - Pink Moon
nick drake was my best friend after my first breakup.
14. Bright Eyes - Letting Off The Happiness
i struggled with which bright eyes album to put on this list. honestly, it could just as easily be 'fevers & mirrors' here, or 'lifted' a little bit later. but i remember the months of this being in my stereo literally constantly, of backtracking and playing 'the difference in the shades' and 'june on the west coast' over and over and over and over and over, and i feel overwhelmed. i know people love to diss on the bright eyes, but i refuse to back down from the earlier albums. there was this simple profound beauty in conor's openness, in his voice cracks, in his parent's basement... it is the beauty of any creative person who hasn't yet felt the pressure of success and who just wants to let everything piling up inside of them out, to be set free. it was lovely. even though i've been less and less impacted by each successive album since 'lifted', no one -- dylan, will sheff, neil young... -- has a voice that makes me feel quite as much empathy, nostalgia, and love as coco burst's does every time. did you just finish puking? let's continue...
15. The Silver Jews - Starlight Walker
the boys i knew via toy joy placed the silver jews into my hands and i think it might be the only reason i'm cool now.
16. Okkervil River - Don't Fall In Love With Everyone You See
"we have come from ugliness to find some refuge here."
17. The Walkmen - Everyone Who Pretended To Like Me Is Gone
hamilton leithauser is the darkest part of my heart, paul maroon is the rest.
17. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
this is that one album that i really hope my kids listen to and associate it was the good part of 'mom music'
19. Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy
"You're out singing songs, and I'm down shouting names at the flickerless screen, going fucking insane."
20. The Arcade Fire - Funeral
when i first heard this album, i thought it was overrated. then i saw the arcade fire play at emo's and this album didn't leave my ears for months after, because i desperately wanted the every day to feel even a fraction as superconnected and magic as that show. sometimes it works.
posted by summer anne burton at
5:56 PM
2 Comments:
<3 <3 <3
well, i will certainly be swiping this.
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