As a music lover, I’m constantly looking for new music all the time. It’s not uncommon for me to find an album that I enjoy listening to, but rarely do I find an album that changes my perspective on the world. The feeling of discovering a life-changing album is unmatched – it’s not just music, but art that conveys feelings, thoughts, and ideas that I’ve never encountered, all through melodies, lyrics, and artistic production. The following 5 albums made me who I am today.
1. This is How Tomorrow Moves (2024) – Beabadoobee:
Though this album didn’t take off as rapidly as her previous singles, This is How Tomorrow Moves is a beautiful album about growth, emotional maturity, and accountability. This indie and pop rock album addresses (the very human) themes of abandonment, vulnerability, emotional instability, and insecurity. Beabadoobee starts off the album with “Take a Bite” – a perfect encapsulation of the album – where she addresses her tendencies of self-sabotage and doing things she knows are wrong for her in relationships. She continues the album with songs like “One Time” and “Girl Song,” where she expands on her struggles in relationships and with self-confidence. As the album progresses, the songs begin to shift to her acknowledging and taking accountability for her mistakes, like in “Coming Home,” where she acknowledges her frequent absence from her relationship, and “A Cruel Affair,” where she views insecurities as something everyone has. As a die-hard fan of Beabadoobee, seeing the progression of her music from when she was a sad, angsty teenager to her current music, I felt like I was growing with her as I listened to her music mature.
2. Good Kid, m.A.A.d City (2014) – Kendrick Lamar:
This album was my introduction to the hip-hop music genre. It truly blew my mind because, up until then, I hadn’t really been exposed to the world of story-telling through music, as pop and rock were limited in that sense. Listening to songs on this album felt like I was listening to a story, and it was one of the first pieces of music that made me understand that music wasn’t just meant to be catchy, but also art with a message. Songs like “Sherane a.k.a Master Splinter’s Daughter,” “The Art of Peer Pressure,” and “Sing About Me, I’m Dying” showcase Kendrick Lamar’s phenomenal story-telling and digestible, yet raw lyricism. Other songs like “Backseat Freestyle,” “Money Trees,”and “m.A.A.d city,” immerse you in his world. Both of these qualities flawlessly work together to highlight the chaos, pressure, and unpredictable conditions of where he grew up.
What changed my perspective the most was realizing how narrow my previous worldview was. Only listening to pop growing up, I noticed that a lot of pop music focuses on conforming to white mainstream culture, and because of this, my world of music and politics or systemic inequalities never collided. Hip-hop music often documents the lived experiences of African American communities, addressing systemic inequality, violence, and police corruption, which made me more aware of these issues that existed in the real world that I was too privileged to face. There’s a common narrative that all hip-hop and rap discuss are drugs and sex (which is pushed as the grand narrative from white society), which couldn’t be further from the truth. The album is a prime example of how it is deep, introspective, and socially aware. If you’ve never listened to hip-hop at all, I highly recommend you start with this album.
3. Imaginal Disk (2024) – Magdalena Bay:
Imaginal Disk by pop duo Magdalena Bay, consisting of Mica Tenenbaum and Matthew Lewin, was regarded by online music spaces as one of the best albums of 2024, and after listening to it, I understood why. This synth-pop album introduced me to the power of instrumentals in songs, as this album has some of the most unique and strong instrumental progressions that drive emotion in its songs.
In terms of its meaning, Imaginal Disk is a concept album of a girl exploring what it means to be human. It covers themes like love – with “Killing Time” discussing the lack of meaning to life without love – self idealization, with “Image” discussing a transformation of someone to their best and most ideal self, and embracing uniqueness, with “That’s my Floor.” One impressive feature of this album is that all the songs are connected and follow a cohesive story. The turning point of the album is in the song “Tunnel Vision,” where the protagonist reaches a point of realization that chasing idealized love and perfection has led to her losing herself in the process. The songs near the end focus on the protagonist’s personal growth, with the song “Love is Everywhere,” where she learns to find meaning in life on good and bad days, “That’s my Floor,” embracing her individuality, and the closing song “Angel on a Satellite” that recaps how the protagonist will be unapologetically her.
Though my favorite part of this album is how it cohesively tells a story, individual songs on it did transform me. “Death and Romance” showed me how easy it was to lose yourself in someone else, especially when you begin prioritizing them over your own needs. Lyrics like “I wait hours for your car” and “I give and you give ‘til it’s all that we have” made me realize the dangers of losing yourself in love when you give so much to another. The song “Cry for Me” made me realize the importance of learning to ask for forgiveness and being able to forgive yourself after making mistakes. Ultimately, this album changed how I see the world by reminding me that becoming yourself is an ongoing process – one that requires self-awareness, boundaries, and embracing your identity.
4. Who’s the Clown (2025) – Audrey Hobert:
Though this album isn’t as sonically unique as the other ones, I can guarantee every teenage girl can relate to at least one song. Audrey Hobert’s debut album Who’s the Clown has perfectly captured the universal feeling of not quite fitting in, while simultaneously making the lyrics deeply personal. Its textbook pop music style makes the album feel oddly nostalgic, sometimes feeling like reading old diary entries from when you were in middle school. This album really shines in its ability to be relatable; almost every teenage girl has felt like the “weird” or “off-putting” person at least once in their life. This album encapsulates that feeling of being the one who can’t get it right when it feels like everyone else does. Songs like “Bowling alley” and “Chateau” touch on not fitting in with others in the music industry. Other songs like “Shooting Star,” which talks about seeing red flags as romantic signs and “fate,” and “Drive”, which articulates the experience of regretting taking a chance with a guy, both reflect the feeling that you can’t get relationships quite right. The song that hit me the hardest was “Phoebe,” which is about learning to love your personality and who you are, even on the days you don’t feel beautiful or confident, which is a feeling I’m sure many (including me) have struggled with. The lyrics “Wonder if he…likes ‘em avant-garde. Huh, that’s just what they told me” really stuck with me, as I always believed my unconventional interests and personality traits were what would win people over, like I had to prove my uniqueness to be worthy of praise. However, I’ve realized that constantly labeling yourself as “different” can also come from a place of insecurity. I think this album captures what it’s like to not fit in and be around people you perceive to be perfect, and come to terms with the fact that you don’t have to be perfect to be valuable.
5. Fever to Tell (2003) – The Yeah Yeah Yeahs:
Fever to Tell by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs is a timeless classic that radiates confidence and female sexuality. This indie and punk rock album is raunchy, sexy, and messy. Most of all, the band’s frontwoman Karen O refuses to be polished like a lot of female musicians feel pressured to be.
The first 8 songs of the album dive into her sexual relations like “Date with the Night,” “Man,” and “Pin.” The songs are dark and sensual, but they’re loud and gritty at the same time. Nearing the end of the song “Tick,” the lyrics “You look so good, You take your time, tick tick tick time,” are practically screamed by Karen O. The last 4 songs are the most beautifully vulnerable tracks, with “Maps” being about her crippling fear of abandonment and “Modern Romance” being about her no longer believing in love. My favorite song on the album, “Y-control,” explores her need to control relationships out of fear that she’ll be betrayed in the belief that controlling the situation will protect her from getting hurt. The lyrics “I wish I could buy back the woman you stole,” is one of the most powerful lines in the whole album, and I deeply resonate with it because it captures the innocence lost from being betrayed in a past relationship, leading one to constantly be guarded in future relationships.
This album definitely shaped my personality and helped me embrace who I am as a woman. It showed me that I didn’t have to always feel like I needed to be perfect for everyone. It made me feel okay to be messy and embrace my imperfections; they are what makes me human. It also made me acknowledge my natural defensiveness and fear of love. The final track on the album, “The Poor Song,” was a song about Karen O rejecting her own fear of love. She instead claims that she will love the other person no matter what, regardless of their emotional baggage. This album really changed the way I view love. I feel like as a woman, I’ve felt very defensive against love and fear that I’ll be done wrong by men, but it helped me see that vulnerability and trust are crucial to loving someone.
It was so difficult to choose only 5 albums because there are so many others that shaped the person I am today. Nevertheless, these 5 were most pivotal to my growth and development, and I highly recommend these albums to any fellow music-lover.