Are your first impressions of a rekkid usually right?

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I got "Supreme Clientele" and "Back for the First Time" when they came out, ready to love them, and was just like "eh" and now I'm like "what was I thinking?" But I think I have a better track record with my first impressions of white-boy music.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 16:42 (twenty-two years ago)

My first impressions of a rekkid are almost always very very fucking vague.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 16:46 (twenty-two years ago)

No. But they're as right as any other impression.

(i.e. I'm as likely to change my mind after hearing something 150 times as after 2)

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 16:51 (twenty-two years ago)

i didn't like the Beyonce/Jigga single when i first heard it. How fuckin' crazy is that?!

― scott seward, Wednesday, 22 October 2003 16:53 (twenty-two years ago)

I was the same Scott! I thought "oh it's a bit forced", pretty much like I did about the Javine singles with their big disco samples. But I was right about Javine and totally wrong about J/B.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 16:56 (twenty-two years ago)

The thing about that first listen is that you're measuring everything by your expections and judging quality based on that. I can't tell you how many records I was initially "eh" about b/c they weren't what I wanted or expcted, but then later I enjoyed the hell out of them based on what they actually were. Like Boredoms Vision Creation Newsun -- I wanted it to be like Super Ae except even more intense, but they actually just went in a different direction and did a wonderful job w/ it, as I discovered much later.

― Mark (MarkR), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 17:19 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm going to jump on the "not so crazy" bandwagon here. I'm still iffy on the whole thing... it's just infectious as hell, that doesn't mean that I don't think the horns are overblown and the guest verse is over-praised (heard the chinese rapper version? funny stuff).

Anyway, my first impressions have gotten more accurate to my tastes over time. Some albums I bought then shelved, only to pick up and listen to continuously a year later. The more in-tune with a group of friends I am, the quicker we'll pick up on the same music.

― mike harper, Wednesday, 22 October 2003 18:37 (twenty-two years ago)

if i don't love it right away, i usually don't give it much of a second chance myself which generally sinks most new guitar rock before track 3, but Big Pop Singles through their unavoidability force me to re-evaluate them a bunch of times and i usually swing back and forth a few times on 'em

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 18:43 (twenty-two years ago)

I was really off with David Grubbs' The Spectrum Between. I only listen to about half of it now, but it is really really far better than I intially rated it.

― gygax! (gygax!), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 18:46 (twenty-two years ago)

i was really, really wrong about Lifter Puller. and i admitted as much on a lifter puller thread somewhere.

― scott seward, Wednesday, 22 October 2003 18:49 (twenty-two years ago)

whenever i love something on first listen, i always love it. as for moderation or dislike, they can always lead to love. (the second i realize that i like something, i'm set to like it forever, usually i can always remember the spark that made it click for me)

― Felcher (Felcher), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 18:52 (twenty-two years ago)

i find guitar music quite easy: i like the sound or i don't. maybe hip hop is more tricky for some reason: if you like it on first listen, it often turns out to be too straight (like jurassic five, or gang starr, or black eyed peas)...it's the stuff that sounds a little difficult and unlikeable (wu tang or jedi mind tricks) that's gold...

― paulhw (paulhw), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 21:27 (twenty-two years ago)

It's the second that really is the deciding factor, personally.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 21:41 (twenty-two years ago)

But I think I have a better track record with my first impressions of white-boy music.

What the hell is "white boy music", Tracer;>? Thought music was supposed to be colour blind!

If it's a band I already know (too many to list), I'll get all excited to hear it, but I'll keep my actual impressions of the CD until I listen to it at least three times. Same deal for a band I've never heard.

― Nichole Graham (Nichole Graham), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 22:42 (twenty-two years ago)

more: i thought loveless was a step down from isn't anything when it came out, even going so far as to write them off in front of a fellow fan over it.

― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 23 October 2003 00:10 (twenty-two years ago)

(which is not to say that in retrospect isn't anything is < loveless, i like them both about equally.)

― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 23 October 2003 00:11 (twenty-two years ago)

My first impression is right probably 75%, but often the things I really love are the things that take time to grow. The thrill of a challenge, etc. The difference between any two listens beyond the first four is usually pretty negligable for me, but taking a long break between listens will often offer a wildly different perspective (or is this what Tico meant here?).

― Vinnie (vprabhu), Thursday, 23 October 2003 02:14 (twenty-two years ago)

second or third listen is the clincher for me. i nearly dismissed some of what have become my favourite songs on a first listen.

― the surface noise (electricsound), Thursday, 23 October 2003 02:25 (twenty-two years ago)

I hated the latest Melt-Banana record on first listen cuz it didn't sound like what I wanted/expected, i.e. a whole lotta short short songs. Then I picked it up again a month or two later and it blew me away.

― Raymond Cummings (Raymond Cummings), Thursday, 23 October 2003 14:07 (twenty-two years ago)

It has a lot to to with who I'm with and where I am when I hear it, and if they're psyched about it, and HOW they're psyched. Like, if I'm with some people and we share something about it, wink to each other, awwww yeah, in a way that lets me be part of the way they're digging it, and vice versa. If that happens I almost never change my mind.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Saturday, 25 October 2003 14:50 (twenty-two years ago)

It used to depend on what sort of day i was having as i used to play at least some music every day.

I remember the first time I herd hendrix's 'electric ladyland' and i didn't think much of it and i only pulled it out again a few months later and I couldn't believe how good the record and how it all escaped me on that first listen.

nowdays i can go a few days without hearing any new music so i'd like to think I'm much better at evaluating a record on first listen than before.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Saturday, 25 October 2003 15:23 (twenty-two years ago)

i think it depends on expectations. if you expect something to be glorious and on first listen it isn't you might be disappointed and fight to get over the initial impression and understand the subtleties you missed in your hyper state of excitement. on the other hand if you aren't expecting much and suddenly the sun starts shining in the middle of the night then the first impression is right on and important. i don't buy the notion that the best records are those that take longest to get into, i think that only applies for me on records that represent something completely new to me and then over time i come to realize they are good. not sure i've had any records other than moonshake 'eva luna' that i completely hated at first(mainly cause of his voice) that i truly love and worship now. to me most good music(as i define it) is usually pretty obvious.

― keith (keithmcl), Saturday, 25 October 2003 16:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Generally, my first listen to a record is fraught with worry: I don't want to have put up the money for a new album and then discover I don't like it (in part, I think, because I always have the sense hanging over me that I could have downloaded a few tracks to check; which is a bit insane, since I don't use p2p software, but hey). Or it's a band I've got a lot of love riding on, and I'm desperately afraid that they'll have gone bad - Blur's 'Think Tank', for example, which I hated, or Sonic Youth's 'Murray Street', which I adored once I worked up the courage to actually listen to it. So my first impressions of a record that I've bought tend to be pretty scrappy, as I'm spending the listen looking out for the right number of things I'm going to like that will justify its existence to me.

It's at about the second or third listen that I start to work out whether I love a record or just like it. If I think I love it, it goes on heavy rotation; think I pretty much like it, and it comes out a little less frequently unless it's perfect for the mood of the moment. Stuff I can't get into on first listen I always end up playing while I'm baking, cooking, or cleaning, for some reason. I tend to assume that, in the long run, I'll like it - I'm not sure that's ever been proved right.

― cis (cis), Saturday, 25 October 2003 19:50 (twenty-two years ago)

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