For many years I have
often asked myself the question: what is my favourite album of all time? The
answer has never come easily and the number one position changes regularly. I
eventually came to the conclusion that the question was, in fact, impossible to
answer. I mean, how do you take every musical experience throughout your entire
life and narrow it down to just ten
albums? You can’t. And so I’ll be honest before the start of this list and say
that almost every album here has been number one at some stage of my life.
And that’s where the
greatest difficulty lies. If I’d compiled this list when I was 13, I’d have had
Bon Jovi, Nickelback and Blink-182 making up the top three positions. So the
real trick to this top ten was to find a way to bring all of those albums into
the equation, along with my more recent favourites. Therefore, a few rules
guided me in my decisions. Please remember to bear these in mind when looking
at my selections:
- No group to be repeated twice. There were a couple of bands I considered putting more than once, but I opted against it. Each group/artist only needs one album here because they are already represented and it was hard enough choosing ten albums without multiple entries.
- I tried to rank albums based on the extent of their impact on my life. If I stubbed my toe one time and listened to Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” as I cried myself to sleep, it was not considered. I wanted to try and choose albums that have been there for me through multiple life experiences.
- Musical impact was also a factor. Albums that drastically changed the way I perceived music were put in higher positions as they naturally changed the course of my musical development.
- I just generally tried to achieve a nice balance between my old favourites and my later ones. As I mentioned above, I didn’t want to exclude any albums based on my feelings for them now. Some albums I have grown to strongly dislike over the years but I really wanted to put my feelings aside and include them anyway. Fortunately, this is not the case for any of the albums here as I still enjoy all of them on a regular basis (some more than others, though).
- Instead of trying to ‘review’ each album, I focused on one profound experience I had and honed in on that. It was way too difficult to try and explain the broader impact every one of these albums have had on me, so I chose one memory for each one that would accurately convey my feelings for them.
- Condolences to: Blackwater Park - Opeth (no. 11), Welcoming Home the Astronauts – Flickerstick (no. 12), Bleed American - Jimmy Eat World (no. 13), El Cielo – dredg (no. 14), and Dizzy Up the Girl – Goo Goo Dolls (no. 15) for all just missing the cut.
Well without further
ado, here are my top ten albums of all time:
10. No Name Face - Lifehouse
Saying that the battle
for this number ten position on the list was titanic would be an
understatement; it was a full-blown existential crisis. I originally had
Opeth’s magnificent Blackwater Park
album here, and then very nearly changed it to Flickerstick’s Welcoming Home the Astronauts, but in
the end I just had to go with No Name
Face to round off the list.
What I’ve always loved
most about Lifehouse is their honesty. Nowhere is that more apparent than on
their brilliant debut album. Musically safe, yet consistent, and lyrically
poignant, No Name Face was the
ultimate collection of songs to get me through my days at Bisley Park Primary
School. The long journeys to get there each day were accompanied by a tape of
this album in the car, and it always got me ready to walk through the school
gates and survive another day. The more introspective tracks always hit home and
they were the perfect soundtrack to that particular time in my life. Still to
this day they never fail to bring back the nostalgia, and for that reason they
deserve their place among my top albums of all time.
9. Hybrid Theory - Linkin Park
I couldn’t stand Linkin
Park the first time I heard them. What was with all the screaming and anger? A
few months later and Hybrid Theory
was my favourite album. I remember sitting down in the living room one day with
my portable stereo system and the lyric booklet, determined to learn the words
to all the songs. I can still take you through a good 90% of the album’s lyrics
off-by-heart and can quite proudly rap all of Shinoda’s verses in “A Place for
my Head” to perfection (trust me, I’ve tested myself on many occasions). Hybrid Theory wasn’t just good music to
me, it was my first experience with harsh vocals and I absolutely loved them.
Who knew screaming could cause such an adrenalin rush?
8. Californication - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Having had the title
track on a mixed tape for a few years, when I finally got to hear the full
album it was akin to a religious experience. Every song was perfect and I loved
listening to the album from start to finish. One time, at the ripe old age of
11 years old, I was helping my mom with some work in her classroom, and while I
sat with a bunch of papers in front of me I played Californication again and again, in awe at how one album could be
so brilliant. It was one of those moments that made me realise how much I love
music and I often return to it as a reference point when I’m in need of
inspiration.
7. The Changing of Times - Underoath
Here’s where we start
getting really deep, folks. If there’s one album I can honestly attribute to
keeping me sane during the darkest days in 2010, it is this one. Not because it
is musically flawless – in fact, this is pretty standard post-hardcore – but
because unlike a lot of other music I was listening to at the time, The Changing of Times really spoke to
me. The two standout tracks, “When the Sun Sleeps” and “Alone in December,” were
all I really needed but by bookending the album they allowed the rest of the
songs to feel like a worthwhile journey. This album was of greatest
significance one particularly dark day, when all I could do was run from
everything I knew. I ditched the cellphone and took nothing but a bit of money
and my iPod with me on my pilgrimage of sorts. I listened to this album many
times over, just allowing the lyrics to speak for me and tell me that I wasn’t
alone. In that moment it was the closest thing to a friend or a god that I
knew, and for that reason I will forever cherish The Changing of Times.
6. The Colour and the Shape - Foo Fighters
Having been a favourite
of mine since as long as I can remember, it’s difficult to think of only one
moment when this album really hit home. However, I vividly remember a long
drive to Cape Town when I had a whole case of CDs and my old-school walkman
with me. I listened to many albums during that trip, but the most memorable was
when I put on The Colour and the Shape
as we were getting close to our destination. I remember driving through a long,
dark tunnel just as the build-up in “New Way Home” started, and Dave Grohl’s screams
began as soon as we exited. It was a simple, yet undeniably epic moment that I
have never forgotten.
5. Weighing Souls With Sand - The Angelic Process
My love for this album
initially spawned from morbid curiosity more than anything else. At first it
was the haunting artwork that drew me in, then the album concept, and finally
the story of Kris Angylus’ suicide. On top of all of this was some of the most
unique music I have ever heard. My most profound experience with Weighing Souls With Sand occurred late
one night when I was feeling particularly pensive about life. My empathy for
Angylus extended into the prolonged visions I had when putting my headphones on
and listening to the album all the way through. I saw yellow, stormy skies, a
violent ocean, and a man struggling to breathe beneath the onslaught of the
waves. This is not music; this is a portal into another world, a place deep
within the soul where spirit, body and mind become one. A harrowing, but
ultimately therapeutic, experience.
4. Selling England by the Pound - Genesis
Before Genesis, I had
little appreciation for anything that stepped outside the boundaries of a
simple four-minute rock tune. In fact, my brothers and I would constantly mock
my dad for liking such ridiculously theatrical music that seemed to have no
catchy hooks or sing-along choruses whatsoever.
It wasn’t until one
lazy weekend at home, when my dad sat me down with the artwork and lyrics to Selling England by the Pound that I
began to truly understand the power of progressive music. Here was not a
collection of songs, but rather a collection of stories. Read by a raving
lunatic by the name of Peter Gabriel, each of the characters had voices and
personalities and all of the stories were wonderfully bound together by some
amazing musicianship. This went beyond music; this was transcendence of the most
exquisite kind.
3. ( ) - Sigur Rós
Sigur Rós have been
there for just about every major event I have gone through since early 2010, so
to say that their impact on my life is immeasurable would be an understatement.
With that said, Sigur Rós is also all about appreciating the little things in
life: a beautiful sunrise, a moment of silent understanding between friends, or
a few minutes of reflection before sleep.
In light of this, my
most significant experience with the band came early one morning in 2009 when I
got out of bed to watch TV. Having been unable to sleep, I tossed the blankets
aside, went through to the lounge and flipped the channel to VH1. I lay
exhausted on the couch while a host of soulless images, accompanied by equally
soulless music, flashed before my eyes. As the first light began to shine
through the curtains, a music video depicting an apocalyptic wasteland appeared
on the screen. The mournful piano notes cut deep into my very essence, drowning
out all other sound. And then Jónsi’s vocals came out of nowhere to pierce my
heart, making me realise what seemed to be the very nature of my existence. At
the end of the video, while the child closed his eyes in an ambiguous state
between death and freedom, the song information popped up at the bottom of the
screen. I could never remember what it said because what I was trying to read
was this:
Untitled
#1 a.k.a. Vaka
Sigur Rós
( )
Sigur Rós
( )
At the same time I was
absolutely transfixed by the textural quality of the music and the images I was
seeing, and I could barely divert my attention away from them. It would take me
more than a year to find Sigur Rós again, but when I did it was well worth the
wait.
2. Jane Doe - Converge
Really the only thing
separating Jane Doe from the number
one position on this list is time. Having only been a part of my music library
for little under three years, Converge’s 2001 masterpiece has been the
soundtrack to my existence ever since one particularly noteworthy event in
early May 2011.
Although I had enjoyed
the album on numerous occasions before, I always knew that it would require a
potent blend of hatred and despair (and a real-life Jane Doe) to fully grasp
the concept. That moment came late one night, after a strenuous argument put an
end to all communication between ‘us.’ I screamed, I swore, I broke things, and
when my supportive friends left me to go and sleep, I listened to Converge. Jacob
Bannon was the only one who understood me, and this record was the first step
in the healing process. For those who don’t know, the album concept revolves
around the dissolution of a long-term relationship and how the significant
other, once so vitally important, becomes nothing more than a stranger... a
Jane Doe.
Reflecting anger and
sadness, sometimes simultaneously, Jane
Doe would go on to become my favourite album of the past few years.
Musically flawless and emotionally resonant, this remains Converge’s greatest
achievement.
1. Third Eye Blind - Third Eye Blind
Some feelings are just
too complex to describe with words. An explanation of the impact Third Eye
Blind’s self-titled debut has had on my life is impossible because it is not a
piece of music – rather, it is a collection of emotions in and of itself. Every
song, every little hook, every lyrical one-liner, is nothing short of perfection
to me.
I could tell you about
my first experience with ‘love’ (otherwise known as a crush), or my
disappointment at failing a test, or the anxiety I felt on my first day at my
new school; all were times when I put this album on and let it speak for me. Instead,
all I will say is that I have listened to it more times than I care to remember
and I have experienced everything from the utmost joy to the most desperate
sadness with Third Eye Blind as the
soundtrack.
As an example, on the
last day of every school term I would go home, and instead of being with my
friends or family, the first thing I would do was isolate myself in a dark room
and play the last three tracks of this album while I read my report card. Whether
I passed or failed was irrelevant, because I knew that for the next fifteen
minutes I would have the perfect music to accompany either my disappointment or
satisfaction.
In many respects, what
I’ve written here is meaningless; it’s in what I have failed to write that is
really important. I can never explain why this album holds the significance in
my life that it does but I’d like to think that, at the very least, my words
have served as a window to the true brilliance that is Third Eye Blind.
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