4 albums that shaped me...

[Harry_HH]

Jean Sibelius 5th Symphony: Karajan, Berliner Filharmoniker
The Beatles: The Beatles (White Album)
Magnus Lindberg: Kraft
The Ultimate Movie Music Collection

[do_androids_dream]

Ashton, Gardner & Dyke - What A bloody Long Day It's Been
Jean Michel Jarre - Magnetic Fields
Peter Gabriel - So
John Foxx - Metamatic

[whyterabbyt]

Not so sure about 'shaped me'. Shaping my work, as it were, though, were these. Two are not albums, but very significant:

Tangerine Dream : "Stratosfear"
The Loved One : "Locate and Cement"
Ron Grainer/Delia Derbyshire : "Dr Who Theme"
Bruce Gilbert "U-Mu-U" (from the album "This Way" which I didnt hear in its entirety until many years later)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Qzbw1npSl8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lvr3Du0ZAJg

[mcnoone]

1. Patrick O'Hearn - Indigo
2. Steve Morse - High Tension Wires
3. Chick Corea - The Elektric Band
4. Suzanne Ciani - Hotel Luna

[SpaceTraffic]

I can't do it.

I like this idea, but I can't narrow it down to 4. Going through all the music over the years and it makes me feel like I have multiple personality disorder.

Part of it has to do with those holy grail albums you know are just amazing from beginning to end (and for different reasons), versus music that just changed you and possibly your view of the world when you heard it. Then there's music that is simply integral to a specific time or moment that was life defining, but was it the music, the moment or both?

Wow. Fun question.

I'll come back if I can actually make a choice.

yes, that's why I kinda left the 4th out... but I like the idea someone said that these are the albums that stands out from the first to the last song... and yes, its relative, Life shapening is a life long process - maybe even afterlife long process...

[SpaceTraffic]

for a minute I thought that there would be more NIN, Sonic Youth and Boards of Canada in this thread...

or Broadcast or Depeche Mode

[Mushy Mushy]

4! Impossible.

Metallica - Black
Nirvana - Nevermind
Hallucinogen - Twisted
Devin Townsend - Ocean Machine

[Laguna Rising]

Deep Purple - Made in Japan
Grateful Dead - Terrapin Station
Steve Vai - Passion & Warfare
Marty Friedman - Scenes

[fmr]

I need four at least four for each type of music that I listen to:

Classical (actually, only one is classical, strictu sensu):
Mahler (I started with the 5th Symphony, then the 8th - a blast - then the 1st and now it's the 2nd)
J S Bach (too many to mention but the pipe organ recital recorded by Karl Richter at the Victoria Hall in Geneve marked me up to today. Then I started to devour anything from Bach)
Wagner (I first heard a record with Overtures and Preludes - Lohengrin, Tannhauser, Tristan und Isolde, Parsifal and Die Meistersinger, conducted by Leonard Bernstein. Then I heard it conducted by Bruno Walter - again a blast)
Beethoven piano sonatas by Wilhelm Backaus (Moonlight, Pathetique, Appasionata).

Rock:
Pink Floyd (this is difficult, but maybe The Wall is the one that marked me more)
Triumvirat: Spartacus
The Beatles: The Beatles 1967-1970 (Blue Album)
Simon and Garfunkel: Bridge Over TRoubled Water
Genesis: Selling England By The Pound

Electronic:
Vangelis (this has to be a trilogy): Heaven & Hell, Albedo 0.39 and Spiral
Tangerine Dream: Phaedra (but couls also be Rubycon, Stratosfear and Force Majeure)
Klaus Schulze: Mirage (or one of the Body Loves, or Time Wind or Moodawn)
Jean Michel Jarre: Equinoxe

Of course, this is a very constrained list

[gaf_thit]

There's so many albums I could list, but some stand out a bit, but not sure how much they shaped me though... In no particular order or almost in reverse chronographically:

My Dying Bride - Turn loose the swans
Moonspell - Wolfheart
Lightshine - Feeling (The mixing is divine in my opinion. German craftmanship from 1976 - 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5c06U13G10' - YT can't can't compete with listening to the LP after dark, by candlelight and mystical fumes, ah... those times... hmm...
Camel - Mirage
Ozzy Osbourne - Tribute to Randy Rhodes (Got it by trading a Michael Jackson cassette for it at the age of 6. Tipping point. About the same time I watched Alien on TV for the first time. Still remember the stomach ache and how glad I was when I discovered it only was a hunger that was gnawing;-)
Quiet Riot - Condition Critical - 1984 (The first LP I bought with my own money, I feel this was quite an important moment. Taking me off a bad path, as Bon Jovi - Blaze of Glory was, luckily, sold out - 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szchiWWqK2s')

Another album that shaped me:

That's me on the cover.........................................................................(only joking )

PS: I can't count to 4 anymore it seems....

[Googly Smythe]

My earlier post lists my formative influences. But right now:
Drum and Voice - Billy Cobham (the instrumentals);
All Brian Auger's output... But to pick one at random - Live Oblivion vol 1;
Vaughan Williams 7th Symphony;
Vaughan Williams Hodie.

[WolfKay]

Beatles - Revolver
David Bowie - Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)
Tangerine Dream - Stratosfear
The Smiths - Hatful of Hollow

[Sparky77]

Difficult question.

I would have to answer it with groups not single LPs.

1. Beatles
2. Pink Floyd
3. King Crimson
4. David Bowie

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

There would be too many albums to list if thinking about shaping/influencing, or just loving. However, these four are top among a group of albums that at the time of first hearing kinda blew apart my previous musical experience, and made me want to be a musician. They also have had profound influence on how I think about music


So many albums would have made the grade if this were a 'top10' list


1) Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells
2) Pat Metheny - Still Life (Talking)...Orrrr, 'First Circle', As falls Wichita)
3) Art of noise - In Visible Silence
4) Joni Mitchell - Shadows and Light (Double vinyl version for 'black crow, Free man in Paris and Don Alias' solo, Dvd for Jaco Pastorius solo)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCRR5L_sFuA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jHcH1U3SWU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1R6M2_lkKE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7MCf7Ga3wc

[ontol]