Songs that truly made you feel something the first time you heard 'em

Iron Maiden's Children of the Grave almost had me in tears when I first heard it. I hadn't even figured out it was about a kid being atomized at the end of World War II yet.

You mean Black Sabbath?

for me it was sunn 0)))'s bass aliens

• Damned, not grave, my bad.

Space Oddity knocked me for a loop the first time I heard it.

That song is pretty heartbreaking by the end. Makes me tear up.

In Your Image by 54-40. I bought the album, Since When, at Blockbuster one night, on a whim. (I already had Trusted By Millions, so I figured I'd give the album a try.) I popped it in my discman when I was in bed. And I was blown away by the whole thing, but by that song in particular. I was listening to a lot of heavy metal at the time - Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, Black Sabbath - and the album was really different from what I usually liked. A lot more mellow, and a lot prettier. In retrospect, it's a middling album - good, but not great. But at 13 or 14, something about it really appealed to me. I think it started an evolution of my musical tastes.

Here's one that really hit me hard. The real impact comes at the end:

Listening to Led Zeppelin I & Black Sabbath's Paranoid at age six. Turned me into a headbanger, it did!

Too many to remember (and I couldn't say which one came first), but Neko Case's song "The Virginian", Simon and Garfunkel's "I am a rock", Helen Sjöholm's "Gabriellas sång" (from the movie As it is in Heaven) and Nordman's "Det sista du ser" have all been very important to me in the love/hurt/getting back on your feet-kind of way. Music is an extremely important part of my life, and I could make a list of important songs for each emotion I've ever known. Too much work and too dull for anyone else to read for typing it out now though ^_^;;

Nearly drove me to tears when I first heard it. ;_;

You Won't Know- Brand New. Also Jesus by Brand New, and I Can Feel A Hot One by Manchester Orchestra.

'Frenzied Handsome, Hello!' by Deerhoof really hit me when I first heard it. That song is just pure joy rolled up into a one and a half minute ball of love.

"Tears" by X Japan. I never appreciate ballads in general until I go thru really bad stuff in life. But that song resonated with how I felt...

Big Star - Holocaust. To me this song sounds like what depression feels like:

edited 9th Apr '13 2:51:37 PM by MikeK

Quite a long time ago Bjork - All Is Full Of Love (Homogenic Version) sent shivers down my spine.

Just recently Aphex Twin - 4

Just tonight, something I bumped into by chance whilst I was researching and debating Margaret Thatcher's legacy in OTC. Billy Bragg's Northern Industrial Town. The interesting things that it isn't even about a northern industrial town. It's about Belfast. But the imagery and description are some of the most powerful I've heard. It's basically a ballad to a lost Britain...right up until the last line, which turns it into a listener punch about The Troubles. Maybe you have to be from the North of Britain, but it made me weep Manly Tears of sorrow for the communities we've lost over here.

edited 13th Apr '13 8:03:59 AM by Achaemenid

From the upcoming The Great Gatsby soundtrack album, "Over the Love" by Florence + the Machine and "Kill and Run" by Sia. Wow. Both Florence and Sia sure know how to hit the right buttons.

And while I just have cursory experience with Sia, I'm starting to admire her talent and skill. She manages to be relevant in today's pop scene (her collaborations with David Guetta and Flo Rida, writing Rihanna's "Diamonds" and many other songs), rocking a great voice—all while being a Reclusive Artist, or at least keeping her face out of the spotlight.

edited 27th Apr '13 1:24:36 PM by chihuahua0

the first time I heard fun.'s Some Nights was on an iTunes preview and I was like "ehh. It's no We Are Young." A couple months later in June, I listened to it in full... and was completely blown away. It was a complete upending of everything Pop Music was supposed to be- The Anti-Pop Pop Song. The drums, the minimal but wonderful guitar, the Auto Tune Solo, the Intro, OH GOD THE INTRO. The lyrics being a perfect mix of sorrow, desperation, regret, and utter triumphantness... It was perfect. I hoped and prayed that it would gain recognition, and I was so happy when I heard it after every other song the rest of the year.

100% agreed, aside from the fact that I first heard it on the actual album itself and loved it from the moment I heard it

I prefer the Walk Off the Earth version.

I hadn't heard Some Nights until Todd in the Shadows put it in his Best Songs of 2012 list. Like him, I didn't care for "We Are Young". But I'm a sucker for a huge wall of harmony.

Can I join the "Some Nights" appreciation club? That song just got to me, and I thought "this right here is what should come next."

As for what "next" could mean, who knows.

(it would be better if you just listened to Erotomania before this as this is just the second part of "A Mind Beside Itself", a suite made up of three different songs, but this is what really has an impact)

It just creates such an atmosphere with the quiet sections contrasted with the loud, chaotic parts, not to mention the vocals and lyrics. And that's not to mention the guitar solo at 7:20...

Wuthering Heights, by Kate Bush.