Perfectly respectable, unimpeachable, arguably classic albums that you've inexplicably "gone off" of and basically cannot bear anymore.

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About six years or so ago, the woman that became my wife and I were drinking irresponsibly (as we were then wont to do) in a bar down in the veritable crotch of Chinatown when an obviously vintage album came piping out of the speakers, immediately captivating both of us for its groovy, funky, jazzy, soulful entirety. Peggy (the wife) frugged up to the deejay booth and inquired what particular platter was spinning. Turns out it was Pieces of a Man by Gil Scott-Heron. Prior to that, I'd only really heard "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" (the lead track on this record), but was completely unaware of the rest of his work (I'd wrongly assumed that it was all along the same lines as that track, all righteous Last Poets type stuff). The next day, I snapped up a copy and it swiftly became one of our mutual favorites.

Five years, one marriage and one baby later, tracks off this record seem only to grate the pair of us now. I'm not sure if it's the rather cloying piety of many of the songs (especially considering Gil's own troubled trajectory....judge not lest ye be judged and all that) or the Channel 13, Sesame-Street, free to be you & me patina of tracks like "Save the Children", but we've both completely lost our taste for this record. Where once it seemed deep and complex, we both now find it whingey, preachy and incessantly unshakeable (the man has a way with hooks that STICK).

Now, of course, we're sort've overreacting and probably only need to take a break from it for a long while, but has this ever happened to you? You completely fall out of love with an album for no immediately apparent reason?

Also, before anyone gets their oh-so-righteous quills up, I know the notion of two bourgeouis whitey folks like myself and my wife diggin' a classic album of introspective redemption from the ghetto whilst knockin' back beers in a hipper-than-thou (or so we probably mistakenly thought) watering hole seems slightly reprehensible. I'm well aware that the is album means a lot to a great many people. I too find it stirring. I'm just sick of it, though.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 15:25 (twenty-one years ago)

I really liked Odelay by Beck for awhile until one morning two weeks ago I looked at it, thought "god, what shit! I've been a fool!" and traded it in. I'm not sure if that's unimpeachable, though...

― Gear! (Gear!), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 15:30 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't even own any Velvets' albums anymore after I played the eff outta them all during my adolescence.

― The Huckle-Buck (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 15:31 (twenty-one years ago)

after a two week holiday in greece with nothing but a copy of Selected Ambient Works II (ooh.. topical!) i can't bring myself to listen to it ever again.

― don, Tuesday, 6 April 2004 15:34 (twenty-one years ago)

It is, Gear. It fucking IS. Though I will go to my grave swearing that Mellow Gold is just a bit better.

Anyways, I can't really get that much into Nation of Millions much anymore. I don't know if it's because it's "dated" (though I still like Criminal Minded and Critical Beatdown and some of its peers of that era), or just because the initial visceral impact of its best songs has dulled into a "yeah that one's good" reflex and the stuff that I wasn't really into (like "Cold Lampin' With Flavor", made much much worse by its usage in Ghost Dog) sounds really grating now.

― Nate in ST.P (natedetritus), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 15:41 (twenty-one years ago)

But "Bring the Noise" was made so much better by its use in the Chow Yun-Fat flick Full Contact!

― Gear! (Gear!), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 15:48 (twenty-one years ago)

I've not listened to any Pink Floyd stuff for a while, it's staring at me from the record stack but every time I get the urge to play some, some other, more powerful urge makes me say, "nah, something else".

Not sure if this counts entirely as going off it, but it's been going on for about 10 months now.

― the impossible shortest special path! (the impossible shortest specia), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 17:07 (twenty-one years ago)

jesus and mary chain, specifically 'psychocandy'. jim reids sulky voice makes me want to kill. with guns.

― zappi (joni), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 17:10 (twenty-one years ago)

a loooooott of classic rock, beatles/stones/zep, although occasionally an old stones song will still get me. I don't know if I will ever seek out the beatles again though. :(

― teeny (teeny), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 17:15 (twenty-one years ago)

oh the Beatles = (

I own The White Album, Sgt Pepper's, Abbey Road and I think the only thing preventing me from selling them is that two of them were gifts from my parents and I can't remember which. Damn guilt!!

― Gear! (Gear!), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 17:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Strange, I had the exact same experience as Mr. Gear! about a week ago. Put on "Odelay" for the first time in years and was shocked at how gimmicky and unsatisfying it sounds. After a few songs you're so tired of the signature "Beck mid-song breakdown with patented goofy voice-over and wacky effects" you start dreading every song as it rolls past the 2 minute mark.

"Where it's At" in particular, good lord.

― yossarian, Tuesday, 6 April 2004 17:36 (twenty-one years ago)

I burnt out on "Beggars Banquet" years ago. Way too many drunken off-key shout-alongs to "Dear Doctor" during the roomate years soured me to this masterpiece. I now regard Jagger as a fraud.

― sexyDancer, Tuesday, 6 April 2004 18:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Can't remember why I loved certain collegiate-rockers (Replacements, Dead Kennedys, most Tom Waits, Dream Syndicate). Thankfully, I was always indifferent to U2/REM/New Order, otherwise I'd surely loathe 'em today.

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 18:24 (twenty-one years ago)

You loved the Replacements because you were once cool.

― dean! (deangulberry), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 18:27 (twenty-one years ago)

*ponders this statement*

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 18:29 (twenty-one years ago)

More here.

― dean raggett! (deangulberry), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 18:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Sometimes a bad experience will put me off an otherwise good record. I haven't listened to Pink Floyd since seeing them live on their first post-Roger Waters tour in 1987 (gimme a break, I was 15). Different but the same: I interviewed Tom Waits for a cover story in The Wire last year. The interviewing process itself was great, but his publicist was such a nut-cutting nightmare that the whole experience gives me chills and nausea. Haven't listened to his music since.

― Phil Freeman (Phil Freeman), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 18:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Sometimes I wonder what it was that killed off the part of me that worshipped at the altar that was REM's Out of Time at 14 years old, because I'd like to take it out for a drink and perform sloppy gratitudinous oral sex upon it.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 18:36 (twenty-one years ago)

I used to think that Velvet Underground were good, just cos they're always held up to be so influential. now i can't stand listening to 'em, and really think they're the pits.
Also, can't listen to any Pixies anymore, who I loved as a teenager, just cos it all sounds so obvious, bubblegummy, and the lyrics suck.

― paulhw (paulhw), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 19:26 (twenty-one years ago)

The first Doors album.

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 19:58 (twenty-one years ago)

This one probably isn't arguably a classic, but I haven't listened to world party ever since I met this guy at a party that had a world party t-shirt on and stupidly made a comment that revealed that I was familiar with the band. He proceeded to follow me around for the rest of the night wanting to talk about world party, to the extent that at one point I believe he had found an acoustic guitar somewhere and was actually playing and singing 'put the message in the box' (I could have hallucinated this but I'm pretty sure it really happened). I couldn't even look at this freak after a while, and I don't know why I haven't gotten rid of my copy of "goodbye jumbo" yet.

― webcrack (music=crack), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 20:04 (twenty-one years ago)

I know -- hardly the style guru, I -- but honestly,... who on earth would wear a World Party t-shirt????

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 20:06 (twenty-one years ago)

I haven't pulled out my nick drake box-set in a looooooong time. and not because of Volkswagen or anything, just overkill over a period of years. Same with my Can records. Every blue moon i will be drunk and need to hear Mother Sky but that's about it. Again, just sheer overkill. This isn't always the case though. I've been listening to Joy Division since i was 13 and yesterday i played the whole box set one cd after the other. I'm sure those Can records will hit the spot again someday. Sorry, these aren't specific albums.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 20:06 (twenty-one years ago)

who on earth would wear a World Party t-shirt????

This question answers itself, to your detriment, once you actually experience the phenomenon. Beware.

― webcrack (music=crack), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 20:11 (twenty-one years ago)

I can't listen to Genesis, Allman Bros, or Pink Floyd anymore,
despite the fact that at one point I was to be a died-in-the-wool
fanatic for all three.

On the other hand, I find myself irresistably drawn back to
my Beatles records, despite the fact that I've probably listened
to them more than the first three bands combined - I listened
to abbey road every day for months. Pavement and CCR are equally
durable.

_Pet Sounds_ was massively dissapointing to begin with, but
that's another thread.

― Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 20:56 (twenty-one years ago)

any Pulp album prior to "we love life". and all my Nick Drake albums save for "time of no reply" (being the only one i haven't played to death)

― the surface noise (electricsound), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 21:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Holy cow, that World Party story is horrifying!!

― Broheems (diamond), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 21:45 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm always worried I'll succumb to the tossing-out-old-favorites-due-to-overexposure syndrome, but it hasn't happened yet. I've been a big Beatles/Stones/Zep/Who/Dylan/etc. etc. ad naseum fan pretty much without interruption since I've been a kid. Even when I was at the height of my noisenik phase. It doesn't mean I necessarily listen to any albums by any of the artists more than a couple times a year, but they're always there for me like old friends.

Like, last Friday I listened to Sticky Fingers for the first time in YEARS. I mean, I'd heard "Brown Sugar" in bars or whatever, but I hadn't sat down and listened to the album from start to finish. For some reason I instinctively grabbed it as I went out the door. On the subway, heard through my cranked up discman, it sounded GREAT. I think part of the problem with overfamiliarity is that it becomes easy to shut off the part of your brain that works toward active listening, so I just tried to fight that. I was just concentrating on little things like, those great fills with which Watts punctuates the verses on "Sway", the beautiful chiming tone color of that 12-string guitar on "Wild Horses", the wonderful way that song moves through it's chord changes - it's so languid in the verse and so active in the chorus - and the sharp, concise solo toward the end.

Yeah, just replaying Watts performance on "Sway" in my head right now is making me happy.

― Broheems (diamond), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 22:04 (twenty-one years ago)

John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and All Things Must Pass have somewhat receded in my affections

I haven't liked Hunky Dory for a long time, though sometimes I have to listen to it to remind myself why

― pete s, Tuesday, 6 April 2004 22:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Actually I do agree with Paulhw re: The Pixies, pretty much for exactly the reasons he states. Can't really listen to 'em at all anymore.

― Broheems (diamond), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 22:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Because of relentlessly brisk sales and because I was working in a record store at the time, I was exposed to endless daily doses of Steely Dan's "Aja" and (especially) the "Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack. I will never voluntarily listen to the second again and the first would have to be a special request from a special friend. I recognize, however, that these are both terrific records and why anyone would think my experience with them was anything other than a drab personal anecdote I can't imagine.

― Dock Miles (Dock Miles), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 22:27 (twenty-one years ago)

But, on second thought, there's nothing "inexplicable" about overexposure as a reason to not listen to particular pieces of music any more. Why anyone thinks it means anything about the music itself is indeed inexplicable.

― Dock Miles (Dock Miles), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 22:29 (twenty-one years ago)

The Clash and the Rolling Stones in general, I've just heard it all too many times.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 22:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, I've pretty much gone off the Clash as well, obviously not due to the poor quality of the songs. My mind just shuts off when I hear it, it's like I'm incapable of listening to the music anymore, like I have a row of vats in my head each with the name of a band on it and the one labelled "the Clash" is overflowing down the sides already.

― webcrack (music=crack), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 23:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Maybe we should start a new thread on this ("perfectly respectable albums you've heard a billion times and are surprised you aren't sick of yet"), but repossessed from the icy grip of classic rock radio perpetual rotation purgatory, Creedence Clearwater Revival albums are always good to go back to. Especially when you know the songs will be followed by more, often less-played yet just as good CCR and not, say, "Wonderful Tonight".

― Nate in ST.P (natedetritus), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 00:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Mmm... some CCR does sound good.

I don't think my local classic-rock station even plays Creedence anymore. They're concentrating on '70s/'80s butt-rock.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 01:03 (twenty-one years ago)

dead kennedys = collegiate-rockers? wtf?

― that's MR. sanchez to you (mokey), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 13:20 (twenty-one years ago)

I still can't listen to Tom Waits due to overkill when he played Seattle FOUR YEARS AGO

― Donna Brown (Donna Brown), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 13:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Most Cure/Smiths/New order/Joy Division stuff i was into as a teen. Velvet underground accept Afterhours because that´s a amazing song - best Velvet song.

― Jens (brighter), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 14:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Every time I think I've gone off of a group, some random song will pull me back into them.

― VengaDan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 14:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Early Elvis Costello, specifically "This Year's Model"... I don't know why. I'm hoping it's just a phase 'cause I remember it fondly.

I gotta agree with Dead Kennedys. I couldn't make it all the way through Frankenchrist last time I tried.

― jaymatter, Wednesday, 7 April 2004 14:22 (twenty-one years ago)

These days I feel I'm learning to love again stuff I used to be into as a morose teen and that I'd turned my back to while becoming an adult.

― Baaderoni (Fabfunk), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 14:28 (twenty-one years ago)

"Low" and "Heroes". I was listening to them the other day and got absolutely no pleasure from the experience.

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 16:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Yossarian is *so* OTM about Odelay. The Beck album I find myself going back to most often these days is Mutations.

― syntaxfree, Wednesday, 7 April 2004 17:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Clash albums. All of them. And I really used to love 'em.

― Sasha (sgh), Thursday, 8 April 2004 00:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Marvin Gaye - 'What's Going On?'
Can't stand it after having listened to it nearly everyday in high school.

― Debito (Debito), Thursday, 8 April 2004 01:16 (twenty-one years ago)

I used to have stacks of shit that had worn out their welcome.

The iPod and the computer changed it for me. I think I've figured out that on those classic albums, there was always a song or three that absolutely grated on me from overexposure and now I simply program it out of my life. Once those annoyances were gone ("Housequake", for example on SOTT), I learned to relove the albums again. Then, when I hear a song like "Brown Sugar" or whatever, it tends to remind me of all the other things on Sticky Fingers that I love as opposed to that track driving me away.

― don carville weiner, Thursday, 8 April 2004 02:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Murmur

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Thursday, 8 April 2004 04:32 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm certain I'll get back into at least some of these at some point. They just don't seem like anything I need/want to listen to now:

Psychocandy is the one I think is the least likely I'll ever play again.
The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead
any Velvets album after the first
Steve Reich - Tehillim
any Pink Floyd
Michael Jackson - Thriller
Magnetic Fields - Get Lost (maybe not a classic)
Pulp - Different Class (the only Pulp I ever liked)
Soundgarden - Superunknown
Was Hole's Live Through This good? I haven't listened to it in a good 5 years at least.
Wire - 154 (Dunno if I've 'gone off' but I just never feel motivated to listen to this)
Banshees - Once Upon a Time
Bauhaus - In the Flat Field
Gorguts - Obscura
Aerosmith's Greatest Hits (I'll probably get back into this at some point)
any pre-Permanent Waves Rush album
any Pixies (How can anyone think they were better than Nirvana?) although I've never heard Surfer Rosa and never really liked Bossanova
any Fugazi I've heard
I guess I must have actually seen something in New Order or PiL at some point to own three recordings of each.
any Stooges (though only Fun House is even really, like, a good album)
and I guess The Idiot too.
at least half of Loveless
I actually still really like the first Doors as well as Strange Days but haven't played L. A. Woman in years. I don't know if I ever will again despite thinking it was their best when I was in middle school.
anything featuring Lydia Lunch and/or the Birthday Party

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Thursday, 8 April 2004 04:33 (twenty-one years ago)

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