1984 (Van Halen)

1984
Van Halen (1984)

Top Tracks: “Jump”, “Hot for Teacher”, “Panama”

I distinctly remember the day in January 1984 when this album was released. I’d been a VH fan for a long time, going back to my discovery of their first album in middle school, and this was obviously the commercial peak of the original lineup. MTV was huge at the time, and a band like Van Halen was made for the visual format. “Jump” was a massive hit, and I recall having that annoying music elitist sensation of having all these people jump on the bandwagon of a band to whom I’d been listening for years and years. All of those first six VH albums had some meaning to me (as did the following album 5150, first one with Sammy Hagar), though not all of them made this list (May 2020).

2112 (Rush)

2112
Rush (1976)

Top Tracks: “2112”, “A Passage to Bangkok”

A huge album for me. Like a lot of people my age, I discovered Rush when Moving Pictures became huge and songs like “Tom Sawyer” were dominating the radio. But then as is the case with many bands, my interest in them moved into their older catalog and 2112 was the one that grabbed me the hardest. At a point where intricate musicality and progressive compositions were what enthralled me as a fellow musician, I learned 2112 front to back on both guitar and bass (May 2020).

90125 (Yes)

90125
Yes (1983)

Top Tracks: “Owner of a Lonely Heart”, “Changes”, Hold On”

Much like a number of other bands, I had already been into the music of Yes and was lucky enough to live in a time where they were still releasing very relevant new music as I grew into being my own person. This was a new and yet still very innovative sound for the band, reflecting as much about the production of Trevor Horn as it did with the more straightforward rock compositions of Trevor Rabin. But I bought 90125 on vinyl and played the shit out of it when I was s sophomore in high school. It was a big hit not only for my MTV generation but older fans of the band. It all worked (May 2020).

Appetite for Destruction (Guns N' Roses)

Appetite for Destruction
Guns N' Roses (1987)

Top Tracks: “Welcome to the Jungle”, “Mr. Brownstone”, “My Michelle”

Kinda of like Nirvana would do a few years later, Appetite was an album that made a huge impact and changed the direction of popular music for awhile. There had been plenty of other bands out there epitomizing the Sunset Strip sound, look, and lifestyle… Motley Crue and others come to mind. But GNR took it even further, making it grittier and more druggy and rock and roll than the purely image-based hair metal bands that preceded them. I just thought they sounded like an edgier version of old Aerosmith at the time, and I wasn’t wrong (May 2020).

Aqualung (Jethro Tull)

Aqualung
Jethro Tull (1971)

Top Tracks: “Aqualung”, “Cross-Eyed Mary”, “Locomotive Breath”

One of the most interesting and unique bands on this list, Jethro Tull can be deeply cerebral and oddly prurient, with bizarre lyrical themes that paint uncomfortable pictures. This was a band that I definitely got into on my own as part of my youthful exploration of progressive rock. As improbably as this sounds, I remember that MTV actually aired an hour-long prog rock special that featured bands like ELP, King Crimson, Genesis, and Tull, and I taped it on VHS and rewatched it many, many times (May 2020).

Are You Experienced? (The Jimi Hendrix Experience)

Are You Experienced?
The Jimi Hendrix Experience (1967)

Top Tracks: “Purple Haze”, “Foxey Lady”, “Are You Experienced?”

The importance this album had on me as a young guitar player cannot be overstated. I owned it on vinyl in middle school, and once the purple haze got in my brain, I never looked back, and explored this man’s short but incredibly influential musical career in high detail. There’s almost no hard rock guitar playing involving a deep level of expression that doesn’t owe its roots to Jimi, and this was the album that put him on the map (May 2020).

Axis: Bold as Love (The Jimi Hendrix Experience)

Axis: Bold as Love
The Jimi Hendrix Experience (1967)

Top Tracks: “Spanish Castle Magic”, “If Six Was Nine”, “Castles Made of Sand”

So, seven months after Jimi stuns the world with Are You Experienced?, he kicks out Axis. You can already hear him progressing quickly as a composer and guitarist, with more inventive lyrical themes and even deeper and more unique musical output. It’s simply astonishing that he was doing this kind of stuff in 1967 (May 2020).

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Back in Black (AC/DC)

Back in Black
AC/DC (1980)

Top Tracks: “Hells Bells”, “Back in Black”, “Rock and Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution”

Another album that was just massive for me. My parents were not at all into hard rock, so the discovery of AC/DC while I was in middle school was some of my earliest rebellion music that grabbed me (along with early Van Halen at the time). It was music of my own. As was the case for me with many bands, I first got into AC/DC in the middle of their career, and had to go back and discover the entire Bon Scott era, which I gleefully did. I should note, for the record, that this is the second best selling album of all time, behind only Thriller (May 2020).

Badmotorfinger (Soundgarden)

Badmotorfinger
Soundgarden (1991)

Top Tracks: “Outshined”, “Rusty Cage”, “Jesus Christ Pose”

Look, I loved Nirvana as much as any decent Gen-X’er ever did, okay? But my personal favorite band that ever came from Seattle in that era was unquestionably Soundgarden. I had more of a rock and metal background in my blood, and listening to Badmotorfinger was a head banging adventure while also sounding innovative and thought-provoking. I loved them from the first sludgy moment of “Outshined” (May 2020).

The Battle of Los Angeles (Rage Against The Machine)

The Battle of Los Angeles
Rage Against The Machine (1999)

Top Tracks: “Guerilla Radio”, “Sleep Now in the Fire”, “Testify”

RATM really carved their own niche in the ‘90s, with no other band combining the political message and popular sound like they did. I don’t think that any voice other than Zach de la Roche would have better expressed the angst and vibe better than his. Hugely influential as a band, my personal note is that I met Tom Morello at a party a few years after this album dropped, and he was a super nice guy (May 2020).

The Beatles (The Beatles)

The Beatles
The Beatles (1968)

Top Tracks: “Dear Prudence”, “Helter Skelter”, “Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey”

Choosing the best songs from “The White Album” is an exercise in futility; ask me tomorrow and it might be three others. But even in its lack of focus, The Beatles is incredible in its moments of originality, and like most Beatles albums, many of its songs are rock classics of the highest order. Note: the was the first Beatles album I got into that my parents didn’t have in their collection. Too “out there” for them, I suppose (May 2020).

Boston (Boston)

Boston
Boston (1976)

Top Tracks: “More Than a Feeling”, “Foreplay/Long Time”, “Hitch a Ride”

It’s often considered the greatest debut album of all time, and it’s up there on my list (probably well behind The Cars and Pretenders, but still amazing). You have to give credit to both Tom Scholz for innovating incredible sounds and writing super catchy hard rock songs, and to Brad Help being possibly the only guy on Earth who could have sung them as such (May 2020).