It was around 1985, a revelation when i discovered these albums 
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I was only 12 when it was released, but having been fuelled by my older brother’s rock, metal and punk purchases, this was the first album that truly blew me away that was my discovery and not something I got from my brother. It also set my musical direction at the time, fantastic album.
Not the greatest recording but a memorable album.
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It was 1968, in high school, dazed and confused…
Cheep Thrills featuring Janis Joplin, Big Brother & The Holding Company just blew me away…
…on the first listen and many, many times after that!
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1 like for the 2 first albums. Bob the builder ?
This was just so different from anything else I had previously listened to. I first heard Birthday on John Peel’s festive Fifty and was completely hooked.
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This is an album where West first started meeting East and was a huge influence on many guitarists. It’s difficult to emphasise how different it was from other contemporary albums. I don’t think Davy ever received the credit he was due as an innovator.
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Yes, this album totally blew me away on first listen. Still got the original mono first pressing.
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Time to get some classical music into this thread! This was the first album I bought just after it was released in 1968. It kick started my interest in Mahler’s music and that spread into Richard Strauss on the one hand and Benjamin Britten on the other. It sounded great on my father’s HiFi system and it was a couple of years before I could play it on my own.
Best
David
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A visceral, gripping account of pagan rituals which left me spell-bound at first hearing (although I’ve always been a huge fan of the work itself).
Edit: and many thanks to @davidhendon for reminding me again to play the superb album he mentioned.
Stephen
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Oh dear, so many!
I’d overcome my disdain for the Beatles by mid 60s, and really limed the direction their sound was heading. I got this album as I was constructing my first hifi system, and used it as the first test piece as soon as I had assembled the amp and fitted the TT to the plinth, the speakers at that point consisting of the bare drivers positioned in armchairs using cushions to create makeshift cabinets (surprisingly effective!) and the sound blew me away, though I think that was partly the music, second side in particular, and partly hearing music so much fuller than ever before.
Then, as soon as I had finished construction, this was my intro to PF - and definitely the music, notably the title track, that blew me away!
(Saucerful of Secrets)
And having the three DP albums from their first line-up, so buying this without listening first, on first play the change in musical direction left me stunned - in a pleasant way!
I think three is enough for now!
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A teenager around 1964, listening to a low-res, fade-in, fade-out French radio station and hearing this wonderful music:
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Three terrific albums there, IB
As is your Black Sabbath, MDS! It is my favourite of theirs, though I heard Paranoid first, introduced through the title track: then I found tgeir first album, loved the haunting infrared picture, and then the music was (is!) sublime.
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Abbey Road definitely gets better with age, it originally was one of my least favourite Beatle album to my favourite 
I’d followed Paul Weller from an early age and after the demise of The Style Council it looked as if he might give music up but he then released his first solo record self titled in 1992 which was excellent but then he released this record and it blew me away completely and still does.
The rest all blew me away at different times and for different reasons but I still listen to all of them all of time.
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This is another challenging thread - which one to choose? If I were to base my choice on longevity of appeal as some have, I’d go for Close to the Edge by Yes. That was alien to me for the first several plays, then suddenly POW! However, the title of the thread is about first listen and in that case I’d have to select the Mahavishnu Orchestra’s first album, The Inner Mounting Flame. Even thinking about it now I feel goosebumps. It demands to be played loud.
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