How about this?
Most important six records I ever bought...
1.) sometime in the mid 1980s - O.M.D. "Architecture and Morality." First non-ultra-mainstream record I ever bought. Still one of my favorite "synthpop" records.
2.) 1987 - The Beatles "Abbey Road." I had never previously realized that an entire friggin' album could be this good.
3.) 1988 - R.E.M. "Eponymous." I bought this tape on a friend's recommendation and listened to it 4 times in a row that night. Changed my life.
4.) 1992 - R.E.M. "Automatic For The People." I bought this at a particularly dark time in my life and listened to it for damn near the entire fall of 1992. Saved my life.
5.) 1993 - The Replacements "Tim." Bought it my first day of college. It quickly became my favorite album of all time. Westerberg became my biggest songwriting influence, save maybe Syd Barrett, Billy Bragg and/or Scott Miller.
6.) 1997 - Beat Happening "Jamboree." My first band had split acromoniously. My musicianship was rudimentary at best and my voice can best be described as a "miserable whine." I was about to hang it up. Then I discovered what joy these three folks can create with thoroughly untrained voices, a barely-in-tune guitar and a ricketty drum kit. It's my inspiration during those freezing winter nights in my basement, flailing away at that drum kit I still can't play, recording it all on my 4-track. It's all rock and roll to me...
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I has a flavor!