CDs

I got tagged on facebook to post ten CD albums that influenced me.  You're not supposed to say anything about it, just post the album artwork.

Well, I can't do that.  Do you people even know me at all???  I can't post stuff and NOT go into pointlessly long explanations!  Those are what I do best!!!  And, also, I pretty much only lurk on FB.  This isn't worth getting over my status as "lurker" for.

But it did get me thinking.  Quite a lot, actually.  So I decided I could post it all here on my blog.  With my overly long explanations, of course!  So here you go.  In absolutely no order at all.  Ten CDs that influenced me in some way:

Other than "Mysterious Ways" I really didn't know a whole lot by U2, but that all changed with a good buddy my freshman year at BYU who insisted I listen to this entire album.  And it blew me away.  I asked him what to buy next and he answered, "Achtung Baby.  And then buy the rest of them."  And he was totally right!  U2 really is that great.

I don't listen to Offspring very much any more because I already have too much noise in my life, but when I knew this album really well in high school was probably the coolest I ever managed to be in my entire life.  It was an incredibly short-lived victory.  In fact, it was SO short, that I decided to never bother trying to be cool again.  It just was way too much effort for not nearly a long enough pay-out.

I spent SO much time listening to this when I was a kid!  And it really introduced me to a lot of very fun musical theater.

And yes, I also got my snob on in a big way when I was in high school.  Thanks, Mom and Leah for making me a music snob, a position I have always relished!  This was probably a major point leading to me getting that humanities degree, now that I'm thinking about it...

I remember playing Beatles Rock Band with my in-laws in Houston and they were so surprised by how well I knew the Beatles.  I can tell you that it all started with this album.

There's a small part of this that is written for a children's choir, and which the choir I was in in middle school performed.  At the time, I think I only knew the part we'd learned.  The huge opening (and closing) number was a revelation.  Nothing can leave an impression on a middle schooler like beating an enormous gong during a concert!

This probably single-handedly revived my love of musical theater.  We've been listening to Hamilton NON-STOP for about five years now and I STILL love it!  I can never be satisfied!

This was my standard background music when I did math homework in high school.  I had to switch to classical one day when I looked down at my geometry theorems and realized that I'd been scribbling the lyrics to the song I'd had playing!  I'm no math genius, but this was a good switch and I'm sure it improved my grades!

My love of Handel's Messiah has been well-documented on this blog, so I won't repeat myself here.  I love this music with all my heart.

One of the few albums that I loved when I was 18 and STILL love today.  The last three songs on the album especially-- The Background, Motorcycle Drive By, and God of Wine-- are slow and contemplative and intense and lovely.  I don't think they were ever big hits, but I love those songs so much.  This is one of my favorites to listen to on a road trip.

Bonus #11:  I LOVED this album when it came out.  I remember listening to the entire thing in our family room and my Dad finally yelling at me, "All these songs sound exactly the same and the first one wasn't that great to begin with!"  And that totally cracks me up, because really, all their songs DO sound the same!  But "The Sign" is a great song, in my book.  The funny thing though was that Ace of Base got so popular so fast and then just as quickly, it became popular to be over it and NOT like Ace of Base anymore.  (I believe the technical term for this occurrence is "Flash in the Pan.")  And that just drove me nuts.  If you liked something last week, you should still like it this week!  That's something I still firmly believe.  It's one of the reasons Craig is so lucky to be married to me-- I never get sick of him!  So even though I don't listen to these guys hardly ever, when I hear "The Sign" I still acknowledge to myself that it's a dang good song.  Even today.

All right, enough about me!  What CDs do YOU still love???  Consider yourself "tagged"!