Closer - Joy Division
Seventeen Seconds - The Cure
Parallel Lines - Blondie
The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses
Dig Me Out - Sleater Kinney
Dry - PJ Harvey
Die Mensch Maschine - Kraftwerk
Surfer Rosa - Pixies
The Holy Bible - Manic Street Preachers
The Unforgettable Fire - U2
Some context...
Tried to really focus on albums that really shaped my taste rather than just the albums i think are the best - so that meant thinking about what were the first albums i really took to of a certain style or what albums really caused me to then dig deeper into a genre/style.
Closer by Joy Division was the first album that really hit me in the gut and really made me think about the meanings of the songs - the fact i also adored the sonics helped, but that album really was the start of me wanting to explore albums that covered deep and dark subject matter.....i was utterly obsessed with it as a young teenager, the first album that really made me think.
Seventeen Seconds by The Cure - i discovered this off the back of Closer by Joy Division, which is testament to how much that album influenced me.....Seventeen Seconds really consolidated my fascination with dark soundscapes and atmospheric dark songs.
Parallel Lines by Blondie was the first record i heard that made me want to dance but still had a rock sound and was certainly the albun that began my well publicised fascination with the female voice and guitars!!
The Stone Roses by The Stone Roses - being a certain age in the North West of England when this came out meant it was virtually guaranteed that this record was hugely influential - it was the soundtrack to becoming an adult, to fucking, fighting, staying out all night and drinking all day!
Dig Me Out by Sleater Kinney - Girls making incredibly melodic punk, with these incredible voices intertwining and twisting around each other as they sang different parts at the same time - creating an absolutely intoxicating sound that to this day probably stands as the biggest 'wow factor' i have ever had from a record - and it led me to fall in love with a genre.
Dry by PJ Harvey - If i had never heard this I almost certainly would never have discovered the band above and a large number of other bands and artists. Polly Jean is simply the greatest artist who has ever lived in my view and this debut album of hers is one that i can thank a lot for subsequently discovering so many of my favourite albums and artists.
Die Mensch Maschine by Krafwerk - I love electronica, and i had never really heard it before this album....
Surfer Rosa by Pixies - This album pretty much has a bit of everything i love most in music, all the stuff i have already talked about above is present as well as another thing i like a lot which is the "quiet/loud" thing - this is the first album i really got into that from...it also has some really fucking out there themes and fucked up stuff which really attracts me.
The Holy Bible by Manic Street Preachers - this album is like Closer in terms of how important it was and is to me and of course in terms of how it documents the absolutely incredible mental state of the songs lyricist.
The album's lyrics deal with subjects including child prostitution, American consumerism, British imperialism, freedom of speech, the Holocaust, self-starvation, serial killers, the death penalty, political revolution, childhood, fascism and suicide - and it is an intense and deeply unsettling yet beautiful listen.
The Unforgettable Fire by U2 - I chose this because for a period of around 10 years in the 90's u2 were my favourite artists hands down and TUF was the first album of theirs i really heard in full and really connected with - without it i may not have been enough of a fan to be interested in u2 in 1991 and i may have missed out on the relationship i have with those 90's albums and i almost certainly wouldn't be typing these words on this forum now!