What was the first "grown-up" album you bought?

Dudess

The reason I use the term "grown-up" is I think most people would have got presents of/saved up for albums when they were little kids - for my age group it was Bad by Michael Jackson (everyone got it). For those a few years older it was often a Mini Pops record, and then for people of all ages it would have been a Now That's What I Call Music-type compilation.
But what was the album you bought/asked for when you started to develop a real love for music? When you were no longer influenced by your peers and just wanted to get it of your own accord? When the "tasters" offered by a compilation weren't enough and you needed a band's/musician's entire album to get your teeth into?

Mine was Cosmic Thing by The B52s when I was 12. It was 1990, the year they brought out Love Shack, which is a fairly lame song, but they followed that up with the utterly brilliant Roam which I just adored. Found the album to be a very mixed bag - great tracks like Roam with just the two girls' harmonies and sans that irritating guy who keeps shouting; not so great tracks along the lines of Love Shack attempting to be all "wacky" (and featuring that irritating guy shouting). But I picked up a few more albums by them (they were all going for next to nothing) and discovered some absolute gems. Eccentric American pop appealed to me (and still does) and at the time, They Might Be Giants had a really big hit with Birdhouse in Your Soul. The red-haired one out of B52s also guested on REM's Shiny Happy People at the time, as well as a track called Candy by Iggy Pop. Great voice.

After that, my interest in indie began and I kick-started that with Some Friendly by The Charlatans - utter genius album.

Xavi6

Oasis - What's The Story (Morning Glory) on casette. Followed by Definitely Maybe on CD.

Got into other Britpop acts soon after. Likes of Suede and Pulp and that. Woulda been late 95/early 96 when I was ten. Not bad taste for a young fella!

Creamy Goodness

my first proper buy was

weezer - blue album
nirvana - in utero
metallica - ride the lightning

i was 8 at the time and all three were bought at the same time.

still listen to all of them too.

Dudess

8? Impressive! When I was 8 it was crap chart rubbish all the way (and in 1986, chart rubbish was particularly bad - you're lucky you were only born around then; meanwhile I'm scarred... )
But I remember discovering the delights of good music when I was 10 too, my brothers had Pixies' Doolittle on a loop around that time and I liked what I heard (along with Kylie, Jason, Bros, Sonia... ).

Sherifu

Coldplay - Parachutes.

Creamy Goodness

Dudess wrote: »

8? Impressive! When I was 8 it was crap chart rubbish all the way (and in 1986, chart rubbish was particularly bad - you're lucky you were only born around then; meanwhile I'm scarred... )
But I remember discovering the delights of good music when I was 10 too, my brothers had Pixies' Doolittle on a loop around that time and I liked what I heard (along with Kylie, Jason, Bros, Sonia... ).

yeh my brothers shaped my music listening really,

my oldest brother got me into metallica by constantly playing it.

then my other brother got me into nirvana by constantly playing their songs in his band.

weezer was a choice i made on my own, i saw the undone video and that was that.

John

Dudess wrote: »

for my age group it was Bad by Michael Jackson (everyone got it).

I still have my copy. That, Thriller and a Jean Michel Jarre album were my first albums. In 6th class I got into Prodigy and Nick Cave. Grew out of the Prodigy (or rather they have become ****) but still love Nick Cave.

Dudess

Shortly after Bad I got Kylie - I don't care. Some stormin' tracks there!

Bren_M.Records

Kinda scary that I cant remember what my first album was.
I can remember the band though, The Jam.

gordon_gekko

Dudess wrote: »

8? Impressive! When I was 8 it was crap chart rubbish all the way (and in 1986, chart rubbish was particularly bad - you're lucky you were only born around then; meanwhile I'm scarred... )
But I remember discovering the delights of good music when I was 10 too, my brothers had Pixies' Doolittle on a loop around that time and I liked what I heard (along with Kylie, Jason, Bros, Sonia... ).

chart rubbish in 1986 was a lot better than chart rubbish nowadays
you cant beat the 80,s for catchy throwaway crap

Dudess

Oh yeah the 80s was the biz for great pop - except for that one year, 1986. It was horrible! http://www.pure80spop.co.uk/chart1986jan-june.htm

GrahamThomas

First proper album I ever bought was The Verve's "Urban Hymns", I was about 11 at the time, listened to it non-stop for months!

Aaaah memories....

IanCurtis

This was the first grown-up album I bought, aged 14.



And bloody good it is too.

Hermy

Dire Straits Brothers In Arms and Eric Clapton Cream of Eric Clapton were the first two albums I ever owned, bought on cassette in the mid '80s when I was eleven or twelve. I only wanted Brothers In Arms for the song Money For Nothing but I soon began to enjoy the whole the album and it remains a favourite of mine to this day. I wanted Cream of Eric Clapton for Layla which about that time featured in a tv advert for Vauxhall cars and for Behind The Mask, a single released that same year. Of course this compilation album got me into Cream, Blind Faith, and Derek and the Dominos among other things. I never managed to get my hands on a cd copy of this compilation as later reissues included Bell Bottom Blues and Swing Low, Sweet Chariot and left out Forever Man and Behind The Mask.

Dudess, I thought 1986 was a great year for pop. Clicking on that link of yours I picked out the following gems:
West End Girls - Pet Shop Boys
Broken Wings - Mr.Mister
The Captain Of Her Heart - Double
Chain Reaction - Diana Ross
Pull Up To The Bumper - Grace Jones
Absolute Beginners - David Bowie
Digging Your Scene - Blow Monkeys
Rock Me Amadeus - Falco
Peter Gun - Art Of Noise & Duane Eddy
Lessons In Love - Level 42
Holding Back The Years - Simply Red
Everybody Wants To Run The World - Tears For Fears
Papa Don't Preach - Madonna
Let's Go All The Way - Sly Fox
Camouflage - Stan Ridgway
You Can Call Me Al - Paul Simon
Walk Like An Egyptian - Bangles
Breakout - Swing Out Sister
French Kissin' In The USA - Debbie Harry
Sometimes - Erasure
Open Your Heart - Madonna

Dudess

Yeah, some quality tunes there I suppose. I challenge anyone to find me a pop song of a higher calibre than Rock Me Amadeus. I'm serious! But there was a bit of an over-saturation of Huey Lewis & The News that year (never a good thing) and the mullet was far too widespread and accepted...

Brothers in Arms is one of the best songs ever written. And there are some other absolute corkers on that album. Ah, that was back when you could get tapes through Texaco by collecting those "tiger" tokens! We got several of them - the aforementioned Brothers in Arms, Born in The USA, A-Ha's Hunting High and Low, Graceland, Like A Virgin and... erm... Hits 4 .
1985 was the year of the monster album - Brothers in Arms, Born in The USA and Like A Virgin were all brought out then. I was seven and a pop fanatic - ah, halcyon days!

Hermy

I loved Rock Me Amadeus back then but West End Girls is my favourite from that era, maybe closely followed by Papa Don't Preach and Captain Of Her Heart.
I remember getting this Springsteen box set through some petrol station promotion:


I distinctly remember getting those aforementioned first two albums (one was a birthday present and the other a Christmas gift), but I don't have a clue what came after that. I also remember friends of mine at the time having a copy of Thriller on vinyl and that got played to death one year during school holidays.

Bard

First LP I bought was Now That's What I Call Music 13 (yes, twenty years ago)... found the cover (and all the other covers) here - ahhh the nostalgia!

Parsley

Methinks it was U2's All That You Can't Leave Behind, if memory serves. I listened to it over and over and over...

Dudess

Bard wrote: »

First LP I bought was Now That's What I Call Music 13 (yes, twenty years ago)... found the cover (and all the other covers) here - ahhh the nostalgia!

Oh wow! Great find. Yeah, we had 5 and 6 (1985) and 17 (1990). 5 was fairly atrocious, 6 was quite bad bar tracks from Kate Bush and Siouxsie and the Banshees, and 17 was wicked - it had Primal Scream, Happy Mondays, Inspiral Carpets, The House of Love and Orbital.

Scubadevils

The first I actually bought myself was 'Seventeen Seconds' by The Cure when I was about 11 in 1989 or so. Still love that album.

Dudess

Oh yeah I got a tape recording of Disintegration in 1989 when I was also 11 - but tape recordings don't count...

Scubadevils

I also got a tape recording of Disintegration about that time, and a few others by the Cure... then copied 'The Queen is Dead' by The Smiths from a mates older sister (who I fancied then ).

Rustar

Man, you peeps are young.

The first album I ever bought was The Fifth Dimension's Greatest Hits.

A couple of years later I really started getting into music other than classical and jazz and went out and bought two recent albums, In The Court of the Crimson King and Yes's Close to the Edge.

Dudess

I was beginning to feel like one of the oldest people here (born 1978) so thank you!

humberklog

Plastic Bertrand- An1. Bought in '82 2nd hand in freebirds then on Grafton st. £3.I was 12.(rest easy dudess).I wanted something else (Culture Club -kissing to be clever)but as my much older musiciany brothers were with me, they made me buy plastic bertrand instead. It was an important intervention as i was strarting secondary school the same year and Plastic Bertrand had a lot more kudos than Culture Club.(Well on the northside anyway)
Plastic Bertrand was the 1st of a few Belgian bands to make my collection. Check out Laid Back-Bakerman for a crackin tune and brilliant vid.

Dudess

Is that the one featuring them as parachuters?

Yeah, I know Ca Plane Pour Moi - great tune.

humberklog

That's the one. Always get a few butterflys when the plane moves off in distance. The female vocals are gorgeous.
Another band (although dutch)that were good around then was The Nits. Saw them and laid back in same summer. Good in a 'europeans going mad' type way.
Plastic Bertrand rimind me a lot of Noir Desir. And as the singer is outta prison now i think they'll be releasing soon.

stovelid

I think it was Purple Rain, by Prince. I got it from a friend a year or two after it was out. Probably around 85. I think he was the first musician I was really into (as a fan, as opposed to just liking the music).

All the other stuff I loved during that period, like breakdance/electro, Northern Soul, 2-tone, and the pop songs of the time never really encouraged abject fandom like him.

Dudess

humberklog wrote: »

That's the one. Always get a few butterflys when the plane moves off in distance. The female vocals are gorgeous.
Another band (although dutch)that were good around then was The Nits. Saw them and laid back in same summer. Good in a 'europeans going mad' type way.

Gotta love that eccentric 80s funk from Europe. I presume you're a fan of Yello?

JeanH

I got into 'grown up' music fairly early. I purchased Separations by Pulp in 1996, a while before my 10th birthday. I did have to save for a ridiculous length of time to buy it because I seem to remember it costing approx £14. CDs were dearer then. I got into Pulp in September 1995 when I saw them performing Mis-Shapes on TOTP.
Separations was released in 1992. It's a more dance/pop album, a bit different to their other stuff. I highly recommend the track 'Death II' for anyone who hasn't heard Separations.
I was lucky to have an older brother and cousin that I hung around with regularly and they bought all the Lightning Seeds and Oasis stuff.
Ah I loved the mid-Nineties. Still do.
I used to ask for Pulp albums for Christmas and saved up for others so that's how I built up my Pulp collection! After Pulp I suppose New Order, Queen, Bowie and Moz were next in line and I have gradually built up my collection of these artists in particular.

Dudess

I feel the same way about the late 80s/early 90s as you do about the mid 90s (which I just associate with the leaving cert and teenage angst...)
I suppose your pre-teens is a nice age to be. And I find myself so drawn to the rock from the time when I was aged 10-12. Maybe that's the particular point when music makes an impression on you. I'll never grow tired of stuff from that time - Pixies, The Cure, Stone Roses, meh, wish it was '89 again...

JC 2K3

I'd heard Nirvana songs in my friend's house and liked them and I bought the Best of Nirvana at 14 when it just had come out.

Got a 128Mb MP3 player(very fancy for the time) shortly after and started ripping friends' albums to my PC. I remember having the Nirvana album, RHCP - Californication, the Best of Blur and Nickelback - Silver Side Up(lol) along with several songs I'd downloaded off KaZaA(oh KaZaA, dial-up, the memories...) on my PC at one stage for a while.

Then I found a burned copy of Nirvana:Unplugged in my cousin's room and she let me have it(She got given it by a friend and never listened to it). I fell in love with the song Lake of Fire and when I discovered that it was a Meat Puppets song, I bought two Meat Puppets albums in HMV and my music taste plunged into delightful obscurity.

Dudess wrote: »

I suppose your pre-teens is a nice age to be. And I find myself so drawn to the rock from the time when I was aged 10-12. Maybe that's the particular point when music makes an impression on you.

Well, as you can see from what I've written above, I didn't get into music until 14. Until I was about 13, I used to think MTV was an awfully boring channel and never listened to music at all besides some novelty songs. So I think it varies greatly from person to person.

JeanH

Fair enough it probably does vary alright.
Still I think what you wrote was very well put, Dudess. I have in recent years, my college years started listening to The Cure and The Stone Roses and I think both are excellent groups. However, it is the mid-Nineties that I always go back to in my mind when I try to think of a really happy time. It was a very brief period. It ended very definitely in 1997 with the release of Be Here Now and This Is Hardcore. They were two darker, more difficult albums for a pre-teen. I bought and persevered with This Is Hardcore but it just wasn't the Pulp of Intro, His N Hers and Different Class days... I remember many of the bands from the mid-Nineties very fondly. Groups like Cast, Suede, Lightning Seeds, Lush, Sleeper, Space - and of course Trainspotting as the film of the time also brings me right back. Seems like a happy time but then I was only 9 going on 10.
I don't care to remember the teenage years much. School was hell.
I started listening to Bowie just as I was doing the Leaving Cert and really got into him that summer before I started college and I can tell you that period is on a par with the mid-Nineties because that was a bloody happy time for me leaving school! I guess it's about experiencing music autobiographically innit?

JC 2K3

I've always likened music to a personal journey of sorts....

Dudess

JeanH wrote: »

I bought and persevered with This Is Hardcore but it just wasn't the Pulp of Intro, His N Hers and Different Class days

Well I was 19 when This Is Hardcore came out and I couldn't get into it, so yeah, I'd imagine it being tough-going for a 10/11-year-old! I've grown to love it since though. The title track is utterly remarkable.

Lush

Oh well now I really like you! Although have you checked out their shoegazing stuff (early 90s)? I much prefer it to their Britpop era stuff. Lush are one of my favourite bands ever - I'm convinced if it wasn't for their drummer's tragically early death they would have been huge.

I guess it's about experiencing music autobiographically innit?

Very well put.

Kudos to you for not being into Boyzone/Backstreet Boys/5ive etc. Ok I got into good music early on too but I still liked Bros and Jason Donovan. Never New Kids on the Block though - NEVER!!!

PonyP

First album that I ever bought was The Prodigy's Music for the Jilted Generation. Bought it as a cassette and played it to death, the ribbon broke after two months!!

JeanH

Lush came to my attention with Ladykillers. I loved that song! Then Shake Baby Shake was the next one to hit me but they weren't the biggest band of the time were they and I preferred Sleeper as regards female singers, silly girl that I was. I went looking up Lush on youtube recently and have realised what an ultra cool woman Miki was. She also did that little ditty with Jarvis Cocker called Ciao. I never managed to get my hands on that. Would love to hear it.
My respect for This Is Hardcore has grown since I got older, and I like to think, more mature! The title track is great but TV Movie is possibly my favourite. The lyrics are top Jarvis stuff : "Without you my life has become/A hangover without end/ A movie made for tv etc..... you know it I'm sure. I love it!
Cheers Dudess, I will indeed check out the earlier Lush stuff. I'm always on the prowl for decent music and Lush happen to be in the respected category for me
Nah I never liked the boybands but my earliest memories are of listening to my mothers Gallagher and Lyle tapes (I urge you to listen to Gallagher and Lyle's song 'Breakaway' on youtube), Billy Joel's The River of Dreams, ELO and The Eagles! Then I got into Pulp and everything changed! Oh but you know what, the first single I ever bought was 'Boom, Boom, Boom' by The Outhere Brothers! See, I'm not so perfect now!
Edit: Ciao is on youtube! Cool. I;ve just heard it for the first time ever. I wanted this song for a long time. Brilliant. Great collaboration

Howard the Duck

I think the first album i bought was Use "Your Illusion I" by Guns n Roses but i'm not too sure.. Was around 91 so i'd have been 9 which is surpising i always thought i was about 13 or 14 when that came out. I bought it on cassette tape first CD album i bought was The Shamen "Boss Drum".

Hermy

Regarding blank tapes, I remember getting a copy of Metallica's Ride The Lightening age 12 or 13. That woke me up.

Rustar, I think I was twenty (circa 1996) before I knew of the existence of King Crimson. Someone lent me a copy of The Concise King Crimson and I loved it. I wasted little time in getting my hands on the first seven albums which are fantastic. Then I got my hands on The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles, Fripp - very amusing - how the hell did they jump from there to The Court of the Crimson King the following year!

Rustar

Hermy wrote:

Regarding blank tapes, I remember getting a copy of Metallica's Ride The Lightening age 12 or 13. That woke me up.

Rustar, I think I was twenty (circa 1996) before I knew of the existence of King Crimson. Someone lent me a copy of The Concise King Crimson and I loved it. I wasted little time in getting my hands on the first seven albums which are fantastic. Then I got my hands on The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles, Fripp - very amusing - how the hell did they jump from there to The Court of the Crimson King the following year!

Don't know, but although occasionally driven to excess due to their experimental nature, there is a veritable encyclopedia of good Crimson music.
I loved the way the selection of singing bassists changed the whole 'look and feel' of the band, my favorite period being the Wetton period musically (although Lake is one of my favorite vocalists).
There was nothing like Crimson before, during, or since....although many modern bands like Tool and Primus consider them a strong influence.

Interesting trivia...."21st Century Schizoid Man" is the first instance that I know of where distortion effects were used on the vocals.

Dudess

JeanH wrote: »

what an ultra cool woman Miki was.

I think most heterosexual females have at least one girl crush - she is most definitely mine! I had her hair for a while too, but it required too much maintenance.

Cheers Dudess, I will indeed check out the earlier Lush stuff. I'm always on the prowl for decent music and Lush happen to be in the respected category for me

Look up their songs Hypocrite (from 1994) and Deluxe (1990, widely considered their best song of all).

I urge you to listen to Gallagher and Lyle's song 'Breakaway'

I know it. Yeah, in the mid 70s, those wilderness years between glam rock and punk, there was an awful sludge of blandness being churned out from various quarters, but the odd gem floated to the surface, and that's definitely one of them. It was used in a travel ad and I think maybe a coffee ad. Great song.

the first single I ever bought was 'Boom, Boom, Boom' by The Outhere Brothers! See, I'm not so perfect now!

I suppose I'll have to forgive you...

Hermy

Rustar wrote: »

Don't know, but although occasionally driven to excess due to their experimental nature, there is a veritable encyclopedia of good Crimson music.

Don't get me wrong Rustar, while I continue to be amused by Cheerful Insanity, I absolutely love listening to it. It was just such a surprise at the time, being familiar with everything from Schizoid Man to One Time, to hear so many curious songs and ideas with very few hints of what was to come.

blastman

I think my first grown-up purchase was Telekon by Gary Numan, during a brief electronic phase I went through before developing a taste for heavier music. My first purchase in that genre was Powerage by AC/DC (probably a weird album to start into AC/DC with, but it worked for me!)

Latchy

My first LP purchase was ' Mind Games ' by john Lennon about 1974 although other family members were previously always buying other fav albums ,but i think that was my first buy .

Quality

Guns 'N' Roses Appetite for Destruction...

I wanted to marry slash..

Notorious

I remember buying Eminem's first album "The Slim Shady LP" when I would've been around 13. Although I did buy the "Don't Look Back in Anger" single on cassette before that.
I'm pretty sure my next purchases were all acquired together; "Renegades" by Rage Against the Machine, NoFx's "Pump Up the Valuum", and Sepultura's "Nation". Altogether an odd basket, and I'd listen to all of them now, except rarely Eminem.

Dudess

JeanH, also check out Superblast! by Lush (1991) and Nothing Natural (also 1991). They've better songs than Nothing Natural, but what an ending!

I see you like New Order too - you have chosen wisely...

humberklog

Dudess wrote: »

Gotta love that eccentric 80s funk from Europe. I presume you're a fan of Yello?

Not really. I or 2 good ones. I'd put Art of Noise ahead of yello and it'd be mental to have to many of that type of music too often.
Woulda been much more New York new wave fan type back then. Especiallly in early secondary school where you kinda gotta identify with a genre. Plastic Bertrand would slip under the bar of new wave influence.

Dudess

Oh I love Closer to the Edit and Moments in Love. Anything else I've heard didn't appeal to me. Still though, very pioneering group.

Mossy Monk

Def Leppard - Hysteria

A fine purchase.

Scubadevils

Beat Box from Art of Noise is a great track, sewing the seeds to the birth of techno a couple of years later...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4q5UdiTOi4s