Earth-Moving and Such

For a second there, I thought Uncle Belgrade was launching a thread about the ongoing saga of Carole King. Too bad. In the meantime, here are my three landscape-changing albums:

Violent Femmes by Violent Femmes – This officially changed my 12-year-old status to "2nd-biggest loser on the planet" behind Gordon Gano. Thanks, Gord. "Good Feeling," the antithesis of the rest of this record, somehow became my favorite VF song.

Peter Gabriel by Peter Gabriel (the 3rd such titled album, the one where his face is melting) – This one passed me by upon its release in 1980 – in truth, I was probably tuned in to PG's old band and their newfound pop bent. But six years later, when he was going "Big Time," I stumbled upon "Games Without Frontiers," bought the cassette, and it's still one of the 10 or 20 best albums I've ever owned.

Whatever and Ever Amen by Ben Folds Five – A strange inclusion, since it's not in heavy rotation on Radio WHIT, plus its opening track is about a short guy's revenge. Along with Morphine, BFF made "guitar-less rock trio" a viable 90's music form, and for whatever reason, this piano-based rock & roll album instantly sprung to mind when reading Uncle B's description of his 3. I recall listening to it on repeat on a train in Scotland, and it was either the rails or this music that had me bumping along.

An aside (I can't do brevity), 3 albums which served as excellent ushers into a genre:

Run-D.M.C. by Run-D.M.C. – Turned me into a white boy prep school rap fiend for two years. But it's like that, and that's the way it is.
Kill 'Em All by Metallica – Freshman roomie Doug Nelson brought a stereo, which was cool, and 30 CD's of pure metal, which was not. After a semester of albums like this, though, I changed my tune. It may have been the subliminal effect of waking up to "Jump in the Fire" on repeat that did it.
Play by Moby – Wait, electronica technopop isn’t just for breakfast (in Amsterdam hash bars) any more?