12 Personally Pivotal Albums

I’m not entirely sure what makes an album “pivotal” to one’s life. Good music should leave an impression. Maybe a song changed the way you pictured yourself or your view of future’s dreams. Listening to full albums often takes you down alleyways you don’t expect, or sometimes want, to go. So you’re listening to an album and a song doesn’t always kick the way the others do, so your face turns into a frown for a second, and you wait for it to pass, maybe the third time through, you’ll move the needle. Then, one day, you have what is the beginning of a stress headache, and when that song comes on, defeated; you listen to the song, entranced, transfixed, lost to the world. The next day, you realize this album you’ve been listening to for years… it’s like you have been listening to it all wrong. The whole album takes on a deeper meaning, and that feeling radiates into your life. The next day, you break up your routine, then maybe you have that full headache that overtakes your life, you tolerate silence in the name of body health. After a few days, after starting to recuperate, you realize your whole trajectory has spun off course. Smiling, you dream about all the many more tomorrows, and the chance to get it right.