Vox Hunt: Life-Changing Albums

Audio: Show us five CDs or albums that changed your life.
Submitted by redhotmomma.

I’ve been thinking about this, and I’m having a hard time coming up with a definitive list. “Change your life” seems so over the top. I can think of lots of favourite albums that I love and can listen to over and over again, but “changed my life” seems a little much. Thinking about this has forced me to look at the pile of CDs next to my desk, which made me realize that my physical music collection is very dated. There are some new things in there, but I’d say less than 20% of my collection has been purchased in the last 7 years. Sean buys more CDs than I do now, and most of our newer stuff is all digital. This led me to my hard drive, and I’m still having a tough time.

I can’t say for sure that these particular albums changed my life, but they definitely are signposts of my life.

Classic Queen – Queen: Like many people my age, I loved Wayne’s World. When I heard Bohemian Rhapsody during the car scene, and subsequently on every single radio station I listened to thereafter, I knew I had to learn more about this band. Queen to me were a band that my parents listened to in their younger days (they had a copy of “The Game” on vinyl that probably got most of its play after they put the kids to bed). Due to the popularity of the Wayne’s World movie and much more sadly, Freddie Mercury’s death, Queen’s stuff was getting re-released and played like crazy. I picked this album up. I liked it and over time, picked up their first three albums on cassette (all of which were released before I was born), along with their greatest hits. Finally, I bought the Crown Jewels box set of Queen’s first eight albums. Those are eight of my all-time favourite albums, and I have this tape, and Wayne’s World to thank for introducing me to them.

Metallica
Metallica

Metallica – Metallica: I bought this album about a year after it came out (I was just turning 14). I used to have a policy that I had to have heard at least three songs off an album that I liked before I would commit to purchasing an album. (When you don’t make much money, you get very picky about what musicians get your hard-earned cash!) I was in Zellers and I had been circling the music section for awhile deciding what to buy. When I finally brought this to the cash, the guy was surprised that this was what I picked. I asked him what he thought I was going to get and he figured I would like the Tragically Hip or something like that. I guess my flowered T-shirt and demin floppy hat with the flower on it (think Six from Blossom) just didn’t define me as “metal” to the guy at the counter. I probably still don’t look too “metal” but I still like the loud music. Fun fact: I bought the Black Album before Sean (a huge Metallica fan) did. This makes me giggle for some reason.

That’s not five is it. I told you this was hard.
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada
This work by Melissa Price-Mitchell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada.
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