Albums That Saved Your Life

[eversonpoe]

i'm certain i'm not the only one here who feels like music can really and truly save your life, and there have been many occasions where i have benefited from that fact.

in no order, here's a list of the albums that have had the most profound effects on me at the most opportune moments:

cat power - you are free
nine inch nails - the fragile
telefon tel aviv - immolate yourself
austra - feel it break
dead can dance - within the realm of a dying sun
brand new - the devil and god are raging inside me
the cure - pornography
pj harvey - is this desire
pan•american - quiet city
rosetta - wake/lift
tom waits - swordfish trombones
low - the curtain hits the cast

*i would add stories to each one but some of them i don't remember, and others are far too long. but feel free to elaborate on your own lists.

[allegro]

Alice Cooper - "Love It to Death"
The Beatles - "Revolver"
The Who - "Quadrophenia"
Gang of Four - "Songs of the Free"
Joni Mitchell - "Court and Spark"
Pearl Jam - "Ten"
Tori Amos - "Little Earthquakes"
Liz Phair - "Exile in Guyville"
Nine Inch Nails - "Broken"
Arcade Fire - "Funeral"
PJ Harvey - "White Chalk"

[eversonpoe]

allegro thank you for reminding me, i completely forgot:

tori amos - to venus and back (live, still orbiting)

[_T_B_W_]

Nine Inch Nails-Hesitation Marks
Depeche Mode-Ultra
Talking Heads-Speaking In Tongues
Joy Division-Closer
Pink Floyd-Piper At The Gates Of Dawn
The Beatles-Revolver
Cabaret Voltaire-Micro Phonies
The Cure-A Mix Up
Queens Of The Stone Age-Era Vulgaris

[henryeatscereal]

Interesting thread
Some of the albums in here aren't even among my "favorites ever" but they are linked to many personal situations and obviously saved my life in a moment or another:

Rollins Band - Weight
Nine Inch Nails - With_Teeth
KISS - Dynasty/The Elder/Unmasked (weird, i know)
Deftones - White Pony
PJ Harvey - Stories From the City, Stories from the sea
Iron Maiden - The X Factor / Virtual XI
Interpol - Turn on your Bright Lights
Incubus . Make Yourself
Paco de Lucía - Concierto de Aranjuez

[Ryan]

VAST - Nude

[Space Suicide]

Wish I could really participate in this thread but alas I cannot but I suppose that's a good thing?

good stuff in here. I'd be interested in reading people's experiences.

[ZeroSum]

Mark Kozelek discography (Sun Kil Moon / Red House Painters): Absolutely devastating breakup recently. I had to make a tough decision to leave someone who I love very deeply, but was wreaking havoc on all other aspects of my life. I listened to nothing but Mark for two months. The music mirrored the depth of my sadness, and its just utterly raw. But at the same time you get a feeling that he loves and appreciates being alive, even if it's subtle behind all the gloom.

Smashing Pumpkins Siamese Dream, Adore: Siamese Dream got me through high school. Drove around on lunch break listening to it almost every day. I'm always happy to be alive when I'm listening to Mayonaise. I also happened to get Adore, coincidentally, the same day someone very close to me died, so the subject matter was totally applicable and really guided me through some tumultuous months to follow.

NIN Discography: My favorite NIN songs always motivate me... NIN made me so confident and proud to be who I am. I don't think I'd be even a third of the person I am today without Trent's music allowing me to realize that the feelings I had growing up were okay. NIN gave me a voice and a confidence unmatched by any other artist. I don't think I would have left my parents house or even gone to college without NIN, which is such a scary thought. I don't know what sort of path my life would have gone down if I did not find NIN when I did.

Interpol, Turn on the Bright Lights: At the end of my first relationship, I learned I'd been cheated on an awful lot. Was actually far less stressful than a lot of other breakups I've endured, because there was none of that in-between trauma of wondering what to do- it was simply OK, you're not half the person I thought you were, I'm done. For some reason, Turn on the Bright Lights was the only thing that sounded good for a solid couple of weeks.

[Kunstmord]

Not listing things that helped me during bad moods in high school (since who doesn't have bad moods in high school). And while I can't say that any record really "saved" my life, a lot of them sure did get out of some very bad emotional places.

So, ordered by time that the albums had a positive influence on my life outlook:
Deftones – Diamond Eyes (spring 2010, I think) – I was in a relationship with a pretty unstable person at that time, and this album helped me tremendously not to panic/lose all hope. One of the reasons I don't like the album and don't listen to it – too many bad memories from that time.
Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds – Abattoir Blues / Lyre of Orpheus
ISIS – Threshold of Transformation
Tom Waits – Small Change
Melvins – Houdini, Tomahawk – Oddfellows, Faith No More – Sol Invictus – I listened to these 3 records constantly this May when I got dumped out of the blue (and I loved that person deeply).

[[parasite]]

wow this is an awesome idea!!
I grew up listening to:

the beatles
queen
van morrison

then discovered these from early-teens and onwards.....

nine inch nails - pretty hate machine
nine inch nails - broken
nine inch nails - the downward spiral
nine inch nails - the fragile
depeche mode - violator
depeche mode - songs of faith
the cure - disintegration
cocteau twins - heaven or las vegas
the doors - the doors
nearly god - nearly god
tricky - maxinequaye
the prodigy - music for the jilted generation
manic street preachers - generation terrorists
manic street preachers - the holy bible
the chemical brothers - exit planet dust
smashing pumpkins - gish
pearl jam - ten
U2 - achtung baby (my first live show @ Wembley Stadium, London, UK)
r.e.m. - automatic for the people
r.e.m. - monster
jeff buckley - grace
led zeppelin - physical graffiti
mother love bone - apple
jimi hendrix - electric ladyland
the white stripes - white blood cells
the stone roses - the stone roses
temple of the dog - temple of the dog
mazzy star - she hangs brightly
u.n.k.l.e. - psyence fiction
tool - ænima
curve - come clean
gary numan - hybrid
hell is for heroes - the neon handshake

hmmm, that list maybe a little long....
but all hold a place in my heart

[Madmya]

None yet, but all of my CDs are on a shelf just waiting to jump to my aid should the time arise.

[allegro]

I don't know that the OP meant the title absolutely literally, like "I had the gun in my hand" ...

He also says, in the OP, "had the most profound effects on me at the most opportune moments."

I interpreted this to mean, "helped a lot or had a profound and life-changing affect during pivotal points of your life" meaning SAVED your life from going in a very different direction (in my own personal case, these albums connected me with music again when maybe I had strayed away from music, or connected with me in ways that opened my eyes to things when I really needed it, etc.)

[Sutekh]

manics holy bible, just such an epic soundtrack for typical plath reading angsty teenage life, very firmly said yes all those mad writers are as good as you think and everything else is as shit as you suspect, was tremendously affirming

[frankie teardrop]

tori amos- boys for pele
manic street preachers- holy bible
david bowie- diamond dogs
the cure- faith
dead can dance- within the realm of a dying sun
smashing pumpkins- siamese dream/adore
red house painters- down colourful hill
asylum party- mere
cocteau twins- garlands
slowdive- just for a day
mazzy star- she hangs brightly
pj harvey- stories from the city, stories from the sea
nick cave & the badseeds- no more shall we part
massive attack- mezzanine
the chameleons- script of the bridge
simple minds- new gold dream
his name is alive- mouth by mouth
nico- desertshore
t.rex- the slider
scott walker- scott 3

[october_midnight]

SP - Adore

[implanted_microchip]

Not just "life saving" but including records that have had major impacts on me in some way, shape or form (some seem embarrassing I guess but fuck it, it's a personal subject anyways so it's more reflective of someone else for mocking me than for me listing them right?):

Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral, Still., With Teeth, The Fragile (I don't really feel like this needs any elaboration really)

Kanye West - Yeezus (there was a period of time where this album related so many themes and moods and emotions in a way that nothing else could for me, and it still has a lot of personal value to me; pent up anger, rage, self-doubt, romantic turmoil, longing for things you'll never get back, settling, frustration and heartbreak, your own problems/demons catching up with you, it casts an incredibly wide net over negative behavior and emotion and goes from an incredibly outwardly aggressive album to an incredibly inwardly wounded album and deals so much with masking your inner sadness with outward anger and that's a problem I really deal with a lot honestly)

Death Cab for Cutie - Transatlanticism (We Looked Like Giants is about as meaningful as any song could get for me)

Marilyn Manson - Mechanical Animals, Eat Me, Drink Me (yeah I know trust me)

Smashing Pumpkins - Adore

Lavola - Leaving Paris

David Bowie - Low

Depeche Mode - Violator, Playing the Angel, Songs of Faith & Devotion

Radiohead - In Rainbows, Kid A, Amnesiac

Prince - Purple Rain

SONOIO - Red

Iggy Pop - Lust for Life

The Cure - Disintegration

I guess that's a decent list. All of those in some way or another have helped be get through certain things or deal with certain things or influenced my way of seeing certain things.

[kel]

janet jackson -- the velvet rope
me'shell ndegeocello -- peace beyond passion

[eversonpoe]

adding some that i forgot to include originally:

a sliver mt. zion - horses in the sky (currently listening on vinyl)
cocteau twins - head over heels

[ZeroSum]

Also, I gotta give some love to Helmet. I don't know what it is about Page Hamilton's guitar playing, as well as John Stainers drumming, but... when I feel like I am in a rut, that shit pulls me right out of it. It's impossible not to feel like you can kick someone's ass while listening to Helmet, particularly Meantime, Betty, and Aftertaste. What a trio of records.

ALSO! Loveless by My Bloody Valentine. That was always the record everyone raved about that I "never got." I listened to it so many times. And then one time I randomly put it on while going through some stress and it was like some sort of auditory healing. Everything about it just clicked. The music washed over me and the more I listened the more renewed I felt. It honestly had the same sort of soothing, caressing effect of hugging or cuddling with someone you love. Which probably makes me sound like a whiny, depressed, lonely guy, but this IS a board for Nine Inch Nails ;)

[Exocet]

Ive missed a lot of my favourite albums.. these ones were played constantly at times of important changes and events.

The Smiths..The Smiths
Cocteau Twins..The Pink Opaque
Jesus and Mary Chain... Psychocandy
Therapy..Troublegum
Sugar..Copper Blue
Ride..Nowhere
Wire..Pink Flag
Codeine..Fragile Stars
Joy Division..Permanent
Seefeel..Quiuqe
R.E.M..Murmur
The Aloof..Sinking
Underworld..Dubnobasswithmyheadman
The The..Soul Mining
Pixies..Surfer Rosa
Coil..Loves Secret Domain
Nightmares on Wax..Smokers Delight
Echo and the Bunnymen..Crocodiles
Oneohtrix Point Never...Returnal
NIN..Fragile and The Downward Spiral.

[allegro]

Also, I gotta give some love to Helmet. I don't know what it is about Page Hamilton's guitar playing, as well as John Stainers drumming, but... when I feel like I am in a rut, that shit pulls me right out of it. It's impossible not to feel like you can kick someone's ass while listening to Helmet
The same thing happens to me when listen to Fugazi, particularly "13 Songs"

[BRoswell]

I wish I could name just one album. Music in general has saved me so many times, both in terms of listening and creating. That's such a cheesy, cliche thing to say, but it's absolutely true.

[frankie teardrop]

couple i forgot:

grouper- dragging a dead deer up a hill
wire- 154

[kel]

records that *literally* saved my life, i have to include madonna's immaculate collection. growing up gay in rural southern idaho sucked. madge helped. big time.

[Swykk]

Faith No More--The Real Thing

Nine Inch Nails--The Downward Spiral

The Birthday Massacre--Nothing And Nowhere

Arcade Fire--The Suburbs

[piggy]

Pearl Jam, Ten
Nine Inch Nails, The Downward Spiral
The Smiths, The Queen Is Dead
Cowboy Junkies, Lay It Down
The Cure, Disintegration
Mazzy Star, So Tonight That I Might See
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, The Boatman's Call
David Byrne & Brian Eno, Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
Richard Hawley, Coles Corner
The The, Dusk
Tom Waits, Mule Variations
Leonard Cohen, Songs Of Love And Hate

Overall, there have been many times when music in general has stopped me from wanting to spin off this mortal coil simply because of the thought of never hearing song x or album y ever again or not being able to continue discovering new and interesting things to add to the collection.

[Jon]

My list is all over the place. While this is by no means a list of my favorite albums, these are all important to me (frankie teardrop and Exocet have excellent lists):

• 2-Pac – All Eyez On Me
• Aphex Twin – Selected Ambient Works Volume II
• Johnny Cash – Orange Blossom Special (honestly, I had to keep this to 1 LP)
• Coil – Musick To Play In The Dark, Vol. I & II
• John Coltrane – A Love Supreme (specifically, the live version recorded in France) // Giant Steps
• The Cure – "Trilogy"
• Miles Davis – Kind Of Blue // In A Silent Way // Live Evil
• Depeche Mode – Black Celebration
• Envy – Insomniac Doze
• Glassjaw – Worship And Tribute
• Nine Inch Nails – The Downward Spiral
• Opeth – Morningrise
• Philip Glass – Glassworks
• Phish – Junta
• Sonic Youth – Goo // Daydream Nation // Dirty
• Underworld – Second Toughest In The Infants

...And many more. I tried to keep Progressive Rock out of it for the most part.

[thefragile_jake]

Radiohead - Kid A
Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile
Converge - Jane Doe
Weezer - Pinkerton
Pedro the Lion - Winners Never Quit
Yo La Tengo - Painful
Iron & Wine - Our Endless Numbered Days
The Rentals - Return of the Rentals
The Hotelier - Home Like Noplace is There
Sun Kil Moon - Benji
Jonsi - Go
The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin
Boards of Canada - Music Has the Right to Children

....I'm sure there's more.

[allegro]

Philip Glass – Glassworks
Oh wow I have to add this one, too (and the soundtrack to "The Hours")

[blackholesun]

Rosetta - A Determinism of Morality
Pygmy Lush - Old Friends
Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile
Red House Painters - Songs for a Blue Guitar
The National - Boxer
Isis - Oceanic
Joanna Newsom - Ys
Grouper - Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill
Converge - Jane Doe

All for various reasons.

[Soma]

Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Mogwai - Mr. Beast, Young Team
Converge - Axe To Fall
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
Smashing Pumpkins - Adore
Touche Amore - Is Survived By...
Pearl Jam - Vs.
Brand New - The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me
Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile
Deafheaven - Sunbather
Slowdive - Souvlaki
David Bowie - Low

[_T_B_W_]

How can I forget about these...
Massive Attack-Mezzanine
Dave Gahan-Hourglass
Scorpions-Animal Magnetism

[ghostaustin]

I came across Transference by Spoon the same week I found out a girlfriend was cheating on me, so I listened to that album a lot and it helped me deal with the situation.

[thevoid99]

Let me see....

Pink Floyd-The Wall
My Bloody Valentine-Loveless
NIN-Broken, The Downward Spiral, and The Fragile
Radiohead-OK Computer & Kid A
All three albums by This Mortal Coil
The Stooges-Fun House
The Sex Pistols-Never Mind the Bollocks, Here Comes the Sex Pistols
Nirvana-In Utero
The Stone Roses-S/T

[kel]

janet's 'all for you' has "better days" on it, which had pulled me through time and again. george michael's "praying for time" has, too.

pop music rules and heals.

[elevenism]

The ones that have really, seriously helped me through hard times and possibly actually kept me from snuffing it are

Seal-the first one and the second one
Fugees-The Score
Rasputina-How We Quit The Forest

The timing of it has to do with a couple of terrible breakups, accompanied by deaths of close friends. (i'm not very good at break-ups, and half my close friends do/did smack, so one of them has usually died recently. ;))

With the seal records, lyrically, i feel like that's usually his ultimate intention: helping people through hard times. That's just how seal was on the first few albums anyway. Don't Cry, Killer, Bring It On, Dreaming in Metaphors, Future Love Paradise. It's wonderful stuff, if a little direct and heavy handed.

The Score, with tracks like Ready or Not and No Woman No Cry, just has this all pervading sense of desperation and urgency, along with the vibe that "we're gonna make it."

And the Rasputina album a friend showed me when i was losing my mind over my high school sweetheart. Signs of The Zodiac says
"we want to give you the courage to go a different way-
look at the love and attention we all have shown-
what did we do when we heard well we all came right away-
I know what you need-this really works-in ancient times if you were sick they'd make you bleed-oh honey i know it hurts."

[wizfan]

I know it sounds crazy, but the 2010 remaster of Pretty Hate Machine saved my life once. Its announcement on nin.com happened at a time when I was super-fucked-up, and to say it saved me would be an understatement.

I remember reading a Devin Townsend favorite albums feature on The Quietus ( seasonsinthesky and ziltoid , take note!) and he mentioned Cowboy Junkies' The Trinity Session, which he had discovered on his wife's iPhone after their son was born and everything was so fucking loud that he couldn't stand listening to stuff he used to love, like The Cure. And The Trinity Session soothed his mind. Just a few months after I read that article, I suffered a huge breakdown after the end of a pretty toxic relationship (I ate almost nothing for four days). So, I thought I should give The Trinity Session a spin. I think I listened to it four times straight. It was like a sponge in my head that absorbed my negative feelings. It was amazing. After the bad feelings went away, so did my memory of the album. I don't remember a single note from it. But I will get back to it. And maybe I'll give its modern re-recording a shot, just for kicks. Thank you, Cowboy Junkies.

[Your Name Here]

.................

[xmd 5a]

Albums that have got me through really stressful phases in life, in order of discovery:

NIN - The Fragile
Aphex Twin - I Care Because You Do
Depeche Mode - Songs of Faith and Devotion
New Order - Republic
Bjork - Homogenic
Slowdive - Just for a Day
Bark Psychosis - Hex
Insides - Euphoria
Songs: Ohia - Ghost Tropic
Smog - The Doctor Came at Dawn

[reznovka]

NIN - aatchb
Bullet for my Valentine - the poison
Being As An Ocean - Dear G-d
Fjørt - Demontage
Counterparts - the current will carry us
HIM - razorblade romance

Depression and suicidal thoughts.

[eversonpoe]

completely forgot i had made this thread!

adding to my list (first post)

the black queen - fever daydream
mamiffer - statu nascendi
them are us too - remain

[hologram parade]

NIN - The Fragile & Still
Beck - Modern Guilt
Fever Ray
Grizzly Bear - Yellow House & Veckatimest
QOTSA - Lullabies To Paralyze
Blindoldfreak - 1
Health - Get Color

[henryeatscereal]

Most recently:

"Hand. Cannot. Erase." by Steven Wilson

[neorev]

I went through a terrible break up back in 2003. I was with this girl for close to five years. We had a deep history as friends throughout our childhood. We went separate ways around middle school when we went to different schools. We found each other again through a mutual friend around the start of high school. Still going to different schools. As I said, we were together for almost 5 years. We even discussed marriage. She always said it was destiny with the way we met again. That's when I discovered she had been cheating on me. Seemed like for a little while from the stuff I found out. It was a bad time for me after it ended.

But these albums got me through it...
Poison The Well - Tear From The Red
Hansel - Beats Of Antiquity
The Postal Service - Give Up
Woven - 8 Bit Monk
Woven - EPrime

About a year later, I was working at Hollywood Video, a movie/game rental store. My boss kept trying to hook me up with girls. She would throw house parties. One night she invited a former employee for me to meet. I met this girl and we started to talk. My boss made sure me and this girl had to go pick up more party supplies so we would be alone and able to talk. We hit it off and BSed about various things. She asked me to pick a CD from her case. I started flipping through and came across Woven's EPrime. A band that I love. I don't really know anyone at all that knows this band... and this girl had their rarer EP. I knew right there and then, this is the girl. That was fall 2004. Here I am now in 2016, still together. We did get to see Woven live in NYC together. We even got to meet and hang out with the band.

[GulDukat]

I wouldn't say "saved my life," but got me through some sad, painful times.

Beatles and Lennon solo
All NIN
Classic Van Halen- I was an unhappy, awkward teen, and their music really lifted my spirits.
Guns N' Roses- see above. As a kid I felt I could really identify with the loner, misunderstood Axl Rose.
Alice In Chains- Jar of Flies. Love all their albums, but this one was kind of like a wake for my dead childhood.
Tori Amos- First three albums. She's probably the one artist whose music can bring me to tears.
Frank Sinatra- Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely. The soundtrack to my 30's.