15 albums

What inspired to come back to this blog was a note I writing on Facebook. I saw one of those chain letter things that is starting to go around, and it's asking to name 15 albums "you've heard that will always stick with you." You gotta tag people blahblahblah.

I wrote my list:

Rust in Peace - Megadeth
Boston - Boston
...And Justice for All - Metallica
Be Here Now - Oasis
Number of the Beast - Iron Maiden
Back In Black - AC/DC
Powerage - AC/DC
Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven - Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Texas Flood - Stevie Ray Vaughn
The New Order - Testament
Evil Empire - Rage Against the Machine
Blizzard of Ozz - Ozzy Osbourne
Led Zeppelin II - Led Zep
CCR Greatest Hits - duh
The Guess Who (Best of) - durr

I initially wrote a long list of album via stream of conscious and needed to narrow it down, so I came up with criteria for an album remain on the list.

1) Song "liking" consistency - as in, how many songs do I actually like within the album. I decided that an album would need to have at least four songs that I "really like"to stay on the list. In doing this, I realized that "really liking" every single track on an album is somewhat rare for me. I can only say that for three. For the rest though, I can say I really like most of the tracks.

2) Sentimentality - Music can draw emotions or memories from periods in your life. Two albums I selected contained songs I heard alot as a child (you can probably guess which), while another is the first CD I ever bought.

3) Musical inspiration - Being a guitarist, there are certain albums that inspired or helped me to push my musical and technical skills further. Not surprisingly, most of the albums listed are guitar-driven. One album listed inspired me to learn guitar, while another helped me tremendously to overcome a rut and advance my playing.

Save for a couple, the albums are in the classic-rock/metal realm. This obviously stems from my upbringing and penchant for guitar-playing.

An interesting point is that I didn't think about lyrical content. When listening to song, I tend to listen to the actual music than the words. As such, I rarely like a song for what the singer is saying. This is odd given that I'm a writer (of sorts). That is not to say I should only listen to instrumentals. The singing within a song can enhance my music enjoyment through its melody and attitude; but poor lyrics will not ruin a song for me.