Life-Changing Music

Okay, as promised, here are the five albums that changed my life.  In chronological order:

1. Hootie and the Blowfish, Cracked Rear View.  I’m sort of ashamed of this one, but here it is.  Say what you want about Hootie, but this was the first album that my parents didn’t like (probably for good reason, but cut me some slack.  I was fourteen, for Pete’s sake.)  The year was 1994 and I wore out my cassette tape right where “Let her Cry,” “Hold my Hand,” and “Only Wanna be with You” played back-to-back-to-back.  The point is, it was the first time that I asserted my own musical tastes, however misguided they may be.  But you know what?  Whenever I hear “Hold my Hand” on the radio, I still get a little pang of nostalgia.


2. Alison Krauss and Union Station, Now that I Found You: A Collection.  This was my first ever actual CD- up until then I had only had cassette tapes.   It was also my first taste of bluegrass music.  I had bought the CD because “When you Say Nothing at All” was the last song on there, and ended up realizing that it wasn’t the best song on the CD.  There are so many stand outs- story songs like “Broadway” and “I Don’t Believe You’ve Met my Baby;” the achingly bittersweet “Sleep On” and “Every Time You Say Goodbye;” the terrific cover of the Beatles’ “I Will” (with Jerry Douglas;) and the two gospel songs- the upbeat “When God Dips His Pen of Love in Your Heart” and the quiet, understated “In the Palm of Your Hand.”  Kind of redeems my Hootie madness, doesn’t it?


3. Howard Shore, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Soundtrack.  I had paid attention to movie music before, but I had never heard anything like this.  Hearing the soundtrack a month before the movie came out, I wept through the last part of the score, ending with the exquisite “Into the West,” performed by Annie Lennox.  Never has a movie soundtrack so thoroughly ingrained itself into my psyche.  And even now, two years later, my heart starts to beat a little bit faster when I hear the “Minas Tirith” theme.


4. David Gray, White Ladder.  Before I heard this album, James Taylor was what I always listened to when I had a bad day.  There was something about his smooth tones that made me feel better.  Then I stumbled across White Ladder.  I had never thought that anything could take Sweet Baby James’s place, but Mr. David Gray did.  The songwriting is haunting and deep, and the music is sparse and exactly what the lyrics need.  My personal favorite?  “Say Hello, Wave Goodbye.”  It’s an eight-minute-long anthem to an ending love, and even the title of the song is apt- the two were close when they said hello, but they were far away when they waved goodbye.  It’s the most heartbreaking, bittersweet song I have ever had the privilege to listen to.


5. Damien Rice, O.  Finally, the penultimate, the most amazing album I have ever heard.  This album truly did change my life.  I had never heard music that so fully expressed what my heart wanted to hear- acoustic music with full and rich arrangements, tender, open, sometimes painful songwriting, and top-notch musicianship.  It expresses every hurt, every joy.  If I could talk to Damien Rice right now, I would thank him profusely for the music that he makes.  

There you have it- my diatribe on music.  I’m not going to presume that I have to corner on quality music (remember, Hootie is in there.)  These are just albums that have meant a lot to me over the years.  I fully expect to run across something else that changes my life- Iron and Wine’s Our Endless Numbered Days and a whole lot of stuff by Ben Harper come awfully close.  And of course, Rent, but I think that might fall under the category of musicals that changed my life, and that is an entirely different category altogether, with vastly different stories.  Anyway.  Enough of my obsessing.  Tomorrow is another day at the bookstore, and I should go to sleep soon.  Adios,

Brianne <><