So I started making a list on my laptop in "Stickies." Some years were easy, but for some I had so many albums I wanted to include I felt ridiculous. My limit of one per year became two, and then some years got three. Now I just feel like a big goof, which is what usually happens when I try to come up with lists of albums.
I'm going to post it anyway, mostly because it'll probably be funny to look back at it in a year and judge myself. I remember being in high school and making lists of my favorite albums in my dIaRy. Or favorite bands, or whatever. When I like a band I tend to get super obsessed within a couple days and get really overwhelmed if I don't have some nerdy outlet for it.
For some reason, it was harder picking multiple albums per year than just one. So I whittled it down again to just one per year. Except for the first one, oops. Sorry to "Fun House," "Horses," "The Marked Men," "Four Strong Winds," "The La's," "Piper at the Gates of Dawn," "Got What We Want," "North Country Maid," "Stay Happy," "Los Angeles," "Back in the USA," "Help!,"We Did Not Know The Forest Spirit Made The Flowers Grow," "The Slider," "Electric Warrior," "Young, Loud, and Snotty," "Darkness on the Edge of Town," "Blackout" (yes I mean the Britney Spears album) and everything else, because I might actually legitimately like some of you more. See? I am bad at picking favorites.
Maria's (possibly inaccurate) Shortlist of Albums that influenced her life, arranged by year: GP South Edition
Freshman
"Is This It," The Strokes
This is the album that made me realize that guitars make noises that I want to hear. After 13 years of pretty much only consciously hearing top 40 and young country radio, I always wondered why people played guitar. Then I heard it clearly for the first time. Game changer. Plus I saw Julian's face. His weird, kinda greasy, kinda zitty face, but still great face. Game changer.
"The Velvet Underground & Nico," The Velvet Underground
Blah blah blah, what an influential album for the world, blah blah blah. No, really. When I listen to this album now, 8 years later, I feel like that same geeky teen stealing timpani mallets from the band room and buying cuban-heeled boots from Zappos.com to look like a picture of the Velvet Underground. This album is why I had my first real crush, why I started playing drums, why I spent roughly a year locked in my bedroom in between school days learning their entire catalog and writing nerdy fan letters to Maureen Tucker.
Sophomore
"Marquee Moon" Television
I didn't get it at first. But when I finally did, I listened to "Prove It" on my discman in between every class for a month and made Tom Verlaine (and Richard Hell, since a Voidoids obsession soon followed) shirts with sharpie. NERD ALERT. This carried on through the following summer, as shown by my junior school pic: weird quasi boy hair, braces, black t-shirt with Television pin that went through the wash.
Junior
"Let it Be," The Replacements
I was a moody teen. The Replacements made me feel exciting. Plus they were from the 80s, which was new to me.
How do you say I miss you to
An answering machine?
How do you say good night to
An answering machine?
How do you say I'm lonely to
An answering machine?
The message is very plain
Oh, I hate your answering machine
I hate your answering machine
I hate your answering machine...
Senior
"Dinosaur," Dinosaur Jr
This was the first Dinosaur Jr album I bought, from Neptune Records in Royal Oak back when Royal Oak still had (at least one) record store. Sure, it's kinda erratic, but I don't care because "The Leper" made me wanna marry J. Mascis. The winter of senior year I'm pretty sure wore my purple Dinosaur tour shirt at least twice a week. Once I started being obsessed with Neil Young, I cared about them even more because they also are geeks for Ol' Shakey.
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