10 Most Trippy Albums Of All Time

Strung out minds making classic hits.

Station To Station
RCA

Inspiration comes in many different forms for musicians. When crafting a song, people really have to dig deep into their soul to pull out something that will resonate with the rest of the world. Musicians can pull from real life experiences or literature...but most often drugs seem to do the trick.

Over rock's storied history, many artists have been able to come up with some of their best material when "chemically assisted" during their songwriting sessions. Whether it's tripping out on mushrooms or just drinking your troubles away, these albums were the classics that came together in a bit more hazy atmosphere than your typical record.

This is not to say that drugs alone are what made these records great. The true power behind any band comes from natural talent, but drugs seem to be a gateway for some artists to tap into the more creative side of their brain. The drugs may not be writing the ideas, but they are a bit of an expressway to creative expression once you have a guitar in your hands. It could come from the off-kilter ambiance of the record or the band's strung out performances, but these records did have more than a few hits of a certain substance.

10. Lateralus - Tool

Tool have always been somewhat of a difficult band to categorize, but most of their music falls under the broad term of metal. From their mid-90's beginnings to their later era masterpieces, the band have always had a knack for pummeling you over the head with their off-kilter grooves.

Although most of the band's records took the band down different sonic avenues, Lateralus saw the band using more mind expanding practices to get into the creative headspace. By the early 2000's, everyone in the band were starting to consume hard psychedelic drugs, which led to the more freeflowing nature of the music. Ironically enough, the more laid back portion of the record never makes the songs feel plodding, with each riff and drum hit synced to almost perfection.

Instead of most musicians getting sloppy when under the influence, the new experience caused the band to expand their musical horizons, with songs that embraced more unconventional time signatures like the almost symmetrical meter of "Schism" or the absolute prog-metal epic title track. Across just over an hour, the band took their metallic foundation and gave it a pure psychedelic makeover, which went on to not only influence newcomers, but also push the genre forward as a whole.

 
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