I Am Brady

Think of 15 albums that had such a profound effect on you they changed your life or the way you looked at it. They sucked you in and took you over for days, weeks, months, years. These are the albums that you can use to identify time, places, people, emotions. These are the albums that no matter what they were thought of musically shaped your world.

I was able to name 30.

Blondie - Parallel Lines
The first album I owned and probably the start to my love of music
ABBA - The Album
This showed up at the doorstep as the album of the month (my mom's account) and I opened and played it before she had a chance to send it back. The rest if history.
Erasure - The Innocents
Reminds me of high school and is probably one of my top albums of all times.
Madonna - Like A Prayer
My senior year of high school and the original packaging of the CD smelled like patchouli.
Tori Amos - From The Choirgirl Hotel
The fourth album by Ms. Amos, but the first album that really caught my attention. This reminds me of 1998 and being in love in New York City.
Nanci Griffith - Flyer
The first album I listened to by Nanci and too reminds me of New York City in 1998.
Madonna - Ray Of Light
This album has serious power when I listen to it. I am immediately in my loft apt in NYC in Hell's Kitchen. It's like a time machine - the smells, the emotions and the feelings are all extremely present.
Sarah McLachlan - Fumbling Towards Ecstasy
I thought this album was a bore with the first listen but over the spring of my last year in college (1994) I played it while I worked and was eventually amazed.
10,000 Maniacs - In My Tribe
Summer 1987 just before my junior year. Driving around Austin in the heat.
Liz Phair - Liz Phair
2003 in Austin. Miserable, working at Golfsmith and dealing with someone dying in the hospital. Some people call this album pop trash. I think it's brilliant.
Liz Phair - WhiteChocolateSpaceEgg
Driving around Ireland in October 1998 with Jennifer and Eric. Sun shining and driving on the opposite side of the road on tiny Irish roads.
Maria McKee - Maria McKee
1989. The transition from high school in Austin to college in Waco.
Patty Griffin - Flaming Red
New York City in 1998.
Alanis Morissette - Under Rug Swept
Driving from San Francisco to Sacramento and back every week in 2002 for a project.
Imogen Heap - Speak For Yourself
Gosh. Driving to my miserable job at SpeakWrite in Austin in 2006. I'm remembering driving through Westlake Hills in the rain with all of the other dumb Austin drivers.
The Reivers - End Of The Day
Between my junior and senior year of high school in 1988. This album reminds me of Kristin Goodman.
Sophie B. Hawkins - Whaler
Walking (for exercise) in the cold winter Dallas air going over and over in my head whether I should move to New York.
Maria McKee - Life Is Sweet
Working at Mitchell Madison Group at night in New York City. This album had been out for years but it was at this time that I gave it a chance and wished I had done so earlier.
Lily Allen - Alright Still
2007 in Austin and the beginning of 2008 in LA. "Sun is in the sky. Oh, why? Oh, why would I wanna be anywhere else?"
PJ Harvey - Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea
2000 winter to spring in New York City on a rooftop in Brooklyn.
Hush - Hush
Taking the train from Queens into Manhattan when I first moved to NYC in 1996 and living in Hell's Kitchen with Matt, Will and Joe.
RENT - Original Broadway Cast Recording
NYC in the fall of 1996. This show was the definition of my life in New York at the time. I had never heard anything better.
Erasure - Erasure
Fall 1995 in Dallas. Driving from Dallas to Chicago with Jenny Wehner for the Brach's Holiday Parade.
Chicane - Behind The Sun
San Francisco in early 2001. Working on Market Street at the One Market Center and taking the BART from my apartment in the Mission to work every day.
Mary Chapin Carpenter - Come On Come On
Being in love in New York in 1998. After Eric left NY for Ireland and it was over, I couldn't listen to this album for a few years.
Jackopierce - Woman As Salvation
Staying at Jennifer's house between NCA camps in the summer of 1993.
Indigo Girls - Indigo Girls
Transition from high school to college in 1989. Living in the freshman dorms away from home for the first time.
Hole - Celebrity Skin
New York City in 1998 feeling like life was perfect. This album also reminds me of driving around Ireland like Liz Phair - WhiteChocolateSpaceEgg
George Michael - Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1
Football season 1991 singing "Freedom" at the tops of our lungs during Saturday night parties at Jason Schulze and Brian Blackstock's apartment.
Beirut - Flying Club Cup
Fall/Winter 2008 in Austin Texas. Everything coming to an end and a new life in LA starting.