Albums that, upon first listen, you thought, "Is it supposed to sound like this?"

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Jesus and Mary Chain - Psychocandy

Talk Talk - Laughing Stock --> the way "Ascension Day" ends with so abruptly, I thought my cd was defective (of course, now I think it's brilliant...)

― PB, Saturday, 4 June 2005 19:18 (twenty years ago)

walkmen- everyone who pretended to like me is gone

― t0dd swiss (immobilisme), Saturday, 4 June 2005 19:23 (twenty years ago)

Autechre...

― Citypark, Saturday, 4 June 2005 19:25 (twenty years ago)

Coldplay's X&Y

― super subtle seal, Saturday, 4 June 2005 19:33 (twenty years ago)

jesus and mary chain!!!

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Saturday, 4 June 2005 19:34 (twenty years ago)

oh whoops, first post mentioned them. well, their first record is sort of the archetypal "ok, is there something wrong with my turntable" lp.

also, o.u.t.h.u.d., somehow. i thought the eq was off.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Saturday, 4 June 2005 19:35 (twenty years ago)

haha, first time I ever heard Laughing Stock was a downloaded version and the end of "Ascension Day" WAS defective, so it skipped for a few seconds before cutting off. I bought the CD to hear it proper and remember being very pleased that the mp3 version was less messed up than I had thought.

― Sonny, Ah!!1 (Sonny A.), Saturday, 4 June 2005 20:13 (twenty years ago)

1991: The first time I heard Loveless, or MBV in general, it was a cassette being played in a friend's crumbling Ford Escort. I assumed the tape was fucked up, or the stereo was broken, or both. When I was told otherwise, I immediately went out and bought it.

― Steve Gertz (sgertz), Saturday, 4 June 2005 20:18 (twenty years ago)

yeah 'loveless' messed with my brain. First time, i hadn't even heard MBV before, just picked up on reccomendations. So I lie down in bed because i'm feeling ill and put headphones on and crank it up. It just washes over me like a tidal wave and at some point i remember feeling fucked and just going to sleep. I didn't listen to it for a while after because it made me feel so weird.

― Hari A$hur$t (Toaster), Saturday, 4 June 2005 20:23 (twenty years ago)

spacemen 3 'perfect prescription'
i think i STILL feel that way when i hear it

― noizem duke (noize duke), Saturday, 4 June 2005 20:27 (twenty years ago)

A Guy Called Gerald "Black Secret Technology"... Actually, I still think this. Have I got a duff pressing?

Sly and the Family Stone "There's a Riot Going On".

― KeefW (kmw), Saturday, 4 June 2005 20:27 (twenty years ago)

Keef, I'm not sure if the version I had is the same as yours, but 'Black Sectret Technology' does sound quite unusual - it's a little underproduced and distant. The drums are quite small and tebly, like little sticks! I used to like it that way - it was an aesthetic that worked after enjoying a recreational cigarette.

― moley, Saturday, 4 June 2005 20:45 (twenty years ago)

Moley, yes that's what it's like, all trebly. Something I thought was quite funny given the Drum 'n' Bass tag. Drum 'n' no bass more like. I've actually got it on now and it sounds OK. I've got a better stereo than I had 10 years ago, so that probably helps!

I do like odd production on records. Both the records I mention are great because of it.

― KeefW (kmw), Saturday, 4 June 2005 20:48 (twenty years ago)

the new danger a la mos def. failure of the year.

― 088b, Saturday, 4 June 2005 20:58 (twenty years ago)

Dino Jr covering Just Like Heaven cuts with J Mascis mid sentence.

― dmun drive-in (dmun), Saturday, 4 June 2005 21:01 (twenty years ago)

Odd production rules! It really is the cherry on the cake of a good album.

Unit Moebius were a Dutch acid techno outfit who made some notably odd sounding records, even for the genre.

My favourite oddly produced record would have to be Darkthrone's Transilvanian Hunger. 'Erm, where are the drums?? I hear a distant lawn sprinkler, is that meant to be the drums??'

― moley, Saturday, 4 June 2005 21:02 (twenty years ago)

Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures (of course, now I think it's brilliant...)

― StanM, Saturday, 4 June 2005 21:35 (twenty years ago)

The first Flying Saucer Attack full-length messed my head up.

― Brooker Buckingham (Brooker B), Saturday, 4 June 2005 21:37 (twenty years ago)

Loveless thirded or whatever.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 4 June 2005 21:39 (twenty years ago)

Like 15 minutes into my first listen of Tortoise's "Millions Now Living Will Never Die," I thought the CD was skipping. Nope.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Saturday, 4 June 2005 22:05 (twenty years ago)

My favorite was someone's mother thinking the vinyl was melting on the spot when Loveless played.

― Cunga (Cunga), Saturday, 4 June 2005 22:16 (twenty years ago)

Killing Joke. After all the talk on here, I downloaded one album and it seemed really synthy. Which is fine, but all the pictures I saw made them look like a punk or metal band. I never got past the first few tracks.

― WillS, Saturday, 4 June 2005 22:47 (twenty years ago)

You invariably downloaded either Brighter Than a Thousand Suns or....worse....Outside the Gate. The former has its moments, but they are few and far between. The latter is an abortion.

As fate would have it, you made the wrong choice. Neither album is especially indicative of Killing Joke.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 5 June 2005 00:12 (twenty years ago)

'Warehouse'- Husker Du. That just sounded shitty. Still does.

― snotty moore, Sunday, 5 June 2005 00:24 (twenty years ago)

When someone sent me the first Kid A mp3s, I was pretty sure they were fakes or jokes.

― Richard K (Richard K), Sunday, 5 June 2005 00:45 (twenty years ago)

Daydream Nation

― Rock Hardy (Rock Hardy), Sunday, 5 June 2005 01:16 (twenty years ago)

Suede, Coming Up -- still think the tinny production was a disastrous choice

― Aaron A., Sunday, 5 June 2005 01:34 (twenty years ago)

Hearing Prince's "Kiss" for the first time, I thought it was too impossibly stripped down to really be his new single.

― Curt (cgould), Sunday, 5 June 2005 01:50 (twenty years ago)

I downloaded an mp3 of "House of Jealous Lovers" way back in the day and it was just the cowbell'n'drum passage repeated for 3 minutes, but I still dug it, until I heard the real version which is obviously greater.

― Nic de Teardrop (Nicholas), Sunday, 5 June 2005 02:00 (twenty years ago)

This is kind of the other way around but my stereo experienced aphase where it was very sensitive and would skip rather often. I listened to my copy of Ovalprocess for the first 10 tracks before I realized the cd was actually skipping.

― Tokyo Ghost Stories (Tokyo Ghost Stories), Sunday, 5 June 2005 03:32 (twenty years ago)

I don't know if I'd go as far as to suggest that Outside the Gate is "garbage," but it's far and away their worst album. However,.....even with its myriad flaws, Outside the Gate still shits a massive avanlanche of brown from a great splattery height all over the entire Courtney Love oeuvre.
-- Alex in NYC (vassife...), February 1st, 2004.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Sunday, 5 June 2005 04:17 (twenty years ago)

When I first burned Loveless from a friend, I deleted the mp3s from my computer and burned someone else's copy. Then I thought there was some sort of digital protection or whatever on the CD. Finally, my friend was like, "Oh. Dude. No. It's supposed to be that way."

― poortheatre (poortheatre), Sunday, 5 June 2005 04:57 (twenty years ago)

"Can't Stop Won't Stop" by the Young Gunz. There are two versions. One, which was played in Philadelphia, has the vocals way way down low, so they sound like whisper. But I've heard it other places, DC for example, with the vocals raised to a normal level. Was it low on purpose? Did they have to change it when people complained? It's an old song, but when it is played occasionally here in Philly, it's still the low vocals version.

― Chris H. (chrisherbert), Sunday, 5 June 2005 05:23 (twenty years ago)

Oops, that's a single, not an album. Sorry.

― Chris H. (chrisherbert), Sunday, 5 June 2005 05:24 (twenty years ago)

That CD breakdown in "DJ'ed" totally got me too.

― Jetlag Willy (noodle vague), Sunday, 5 June 2005 14:02 (twenty years ago)

That lock groove on PiL's "Swan Lake" fucked me up the first time I heard it. The first time I heard MBV's "When You Sleep" I thought they based it off of the theme for Beverly Hills 90210 and mutated it wildly.

― Ian Riese-Moraine forever! (Eastern Mantra), Sunday, 5 June 2005 14:55 (twenty years ago)

White Light / White Heat, surely a studio album wouldn't sound like this, it must be a bootleg. Oh.

― super-cres at best, Sunday, 5 June 2005 15:00 (twenty years ago)

"Loveless" n'thed ... I had a cassette copy, and even after getting acquainted with the entire album, I was *still* convinced that the tape was warped during "Only Shallow", and was surprised to later buy the CD and discover that it really did sound like that.

Unit Moebius were a Dutch acid techno outfit who made some notably odd sounding records, even for the genre.

Their first few albums were recording on 4-track cassette, or something similarly lo-tech.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Sunday, 5 June 2005 15:09 (twenty years ago)

dntel - (this is) the dream of evan and chan

― mister zane (mister_zane), Sunday, 5 June 2005 16:10 (twenty years ago)

On buying 23 Skidoo's The Culling Is Coming back in 89 or something: "er, wasn't this lot supposed to be some postpunk stuff?"

― OleM (OleM), Sunday, 5 June 2005 22:07 (twenty years ago)

Flying Saucer Attack.
I kept asking my boyfriend in the next room, where the music was comiing from. "Is something wrong on the freeway?" (We lived on a hill above a fwy)

― Orbit (Orbit), Sunday, 5 June 2005 22:12 (twenty years ago)

my copy of loveless actually is broken. it starts skipping then stops halfway through i think the sixth song, i take it thats not meant to happen.

― elwisty (elwisty), Monday, 6 June 2005 00:28 (twenty years ago)

Belle & Sebastian - Electronic Renaissance

I'm surprised no-one's mentioned Ariel Pink yet, but I guess it's pretty obvious that the production is half the point.

― dog latin (dog latin), Monday, 6 June 2005 00:34 (twenty years ago)

daft punk - human after all

when i downloaded this i thought surely it cant be this average, and assumed it was a phony

― glenny g2003 (glenny g2003), Monday, 6 June 2005 00:49 (twenty years ago)

this is predicatable but michael jacksons"rock my world" on cd still sunds like a demo.it is brilliant $100 million album should sound better.
i couldn't beleive "threatened" was not called thriller part 2

― carole seger bayer, Monday, 6 June 2005 02:24 (twenty years ago)

Dino Jr covering Just Like Heaven cuts with J Mascis mid sentence.

Phew. Thought it was just mine.

That reminds me of getting frustrated because my No Alternative CD would skip during the Bob Mould song, and then finding out that everybody's Bob Mould song skipped.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Monday, 6 June 2005 03:12 (twenty years ago)

Speaking of which...

does everyone else's copy of The Perfect Prescription have, like, two pretty disturbing *BLIPS* during that first jesus song and somewhere else?

― poortheatre (poortheatre), Monday, 6 June 2005 04:02 (twenty years ago)

darkthrone - transilvanian hunger.

and i love it for that!

― latebloomer: Pain Don't Hurt (latebloomer), Monday, 6 June 2005 04:42 (twenty years ago)

Get Forged Prescriptions it's better.

― Orbit (Orbit), Monday, 6 June 2005 04:48 (twenty years ago)

When someone sent me the first Kid A mp3s, I was pretty sure they were fakes or jokes.

Me too!!!!

And they funny thing is- they were!!!!!!!!!

Damn my jokey online friend and his Fischer Price drummachine!!!!!

― Old Fart!!! (oldfart_sd), Monday, 6 June 2005 11:40 (twenty years ago)

I played "Droolian" several times before I realised the album was pressed to play at 45 rpm...

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 6 June 2005 11:44 (twenty years ago)

Hahahahahaha

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 6 June 2005 12:34 (twenty years ago)

it was a cassette being played in a friend's crumbling Ford Escort. I assumed the tape was fucked up, or the stereo was broken, or both. When I was told otherwise, I immediately went out and bought it.

same for me with 'Today' by Galaxie 500, except the car was a Saturn.

― Lee F# (fsharp), Monday, 6 June 2005 12:39 (twenty years ago)

cf. mark grout's story, my sister-in-law sent me a cassette of the cocteau twins' "victorialand" - dubbed off vinyl played at 33rpm. unlike mark grout being able to suss out "droolian" quickly, i was stuck living in a country town in the middle of almost-nowhere in australia, thus no chance of figuring out that it was actually at the wrong speed. i did have my suspicions - "wow, is liz fraser's voice ever weird on this record..." (i should add that i was something like 11 years old when this all happened, so maybe there's some excuse.)

when i finally heard the record at 45 it was a revelation - and a relief. although it does still sound great at 33. (i would later discover that my ex-housemate james preferred to listen to it at that speed - 'sure, her voice is odd, but everything else just sounds so much better. and slower.' [well, duh.])

― jon dale, Monday, 6 June 2005 12:48 (twenty years ago)

ha - victorialand on 33 seconded. somehow i figured it out a few months later. gotta go rip it at 33 now...

― chr1sb0y (chr1sb0y), Monday, 6 June 2005 13:33 (twenty years ago)

When I first bought Downward Spiral on cassette, I had to go back to the store to listen to the CD just to make sure it was supposed to sound like that, (esp. Eraser).

― Viz (Viz), Monday, 6 June 2005 13:52 (twenty years ago)

Tricky

― The Mad Puffin, Monday, 6 June 2005 13:57 (twenty years ago)

Get Forged Prescriptions it's better.

really? hm... just got paid, so maybe I will. should I get it before Playing With Fire?

― poortheatre (poortheatre), Monday, 6 June 2005 14:03 (twenty years ago)

I actually had "Victorialand" on cassette. Didn't like it much anyway...

(That's the one with no drums at all, right?)

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 6 June 2005 14:08 (twenty years ago)

Harras by Derek Bailey, John Zorn & William Parker - the last track cuts off suddenly right in the middle of a heated improv session - actually cutting Zorn off mid-squeal. Apparently, Bailey said that he wanted the album to end on a high note.

― o. nate (onate), Monday, 6 June 2005 14:14 (twenty years ago)

Funkadelic "Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow" pwnz

― Shakey Mo Collier, Monday, 6 June 2005 15:28 (twenty years ago)

The Velvet Underground And Nico – I got a copy after reading Popism, in which the VU sound is hyped as far out and noisy and even as a possible replacement for suicide (c/o Cher). So I come home, put it on the stereo and get Sunday Morning.

Huh?

― LRJP! (LRJP!), Monday, 6 June 2005 15:41 (twenty years ago)

I think the first time I heard Colossal Youth by the Young Marble Giants, I was a bit mystified. Grew on me, though.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 6 June 2005 15:43 (twenty years ago)

Ministry - The Land Of Rape And Honey

I was expecting something "Everyday Is Halloween"-esque.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 6 June 2005 15:43 (twenty years ago)

The Robert Johnson King of the Delta Blues Album. I thought: "This guy is supposed to be a great guitar player? I can barely hear him!"

Whichever of the first two Big Star albums I got first. I thought: "This is supposed to be power pop? It sounds like hard rock!"

Since then I've changed my tune.

― k/l (Ken L), Monday, 6 June 2005 15:46 (twenty years ago)

Ministry - The Land Of Rape And Honey

I was expecting something "Everyday Is Halloween"-esque.

Ahhh...and you were deliciously wrong!

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 6 June 2005 15:50 (twenty years ago)

Shakey OTM re. Funkadelic. I still think my CD is defective. (Can't recall the vinyl sounding THAT weird.)

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Monday, 6 June 2005 16:14 (twenty years ago)

actually "blueberry boat" belongs here, although i've never warmed to it

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Monday, 6 June 2005 16:40 (twenty years ago)

Ministry - The Land Of Rape And Honey

Same here, except I was hoping for, you know, something good.

OK, it wasn't bad.. but I was hoping for something really fucked up, like the last trifecta on Twitch or something that really resonated like Pailhead's stuff, which was released just prior.. so when I got this tinny wanna-be thrash type stuff, I was a little "WTF?" about it.. there's the title track and then "Hizbollah" and "Abortive" which were more old-skool Ministry, and I like "Stigmata" and "Flashback", but I just didn't like the other stuff at all.. and it wasn't because I disliked hard thrash/rock elements.. it's because they were executed poorly. Things would get worse until Psalm 69, when songs like "Collision" would at least aim at a more jittery wall-of-noise direction, and of course "Jesus Built My Hotrod", then Filth Pig destroyed any hope I had for Ministry from there on out.

― donut debonair (donut), Monday, 6 June 2005 16:49 (twenty years ago)

Also, Butthole Surfers' "Brown Reason To Live". I had no idea they were THAT FAST back in the day.. I was expected these fucked up cavemen rock dirges like in the mid 80s T&G years...

― donut debonair (donut), Monday, 6 June 2005 16:51 (twenty years ago)

(In any case, I contend that "Jesus Built My Hotrod" was the simultaneous career peak for both Al Jourgensen and Gibby Haynes.)

― donut debonair (donut), Monday, 6 June 2005 16:52 (twenty years ago)

Another vote for Loveless. Also:

Sleater-Kinney:The Woods
MC5:Babes In Arms (Mastered from records? Surely you jest!)
Roky Erickson:You're Gonna Miss Me/Best of (Got it on tape and accidentally played it on a malfunctioning deck. It played rrreeeaaalllyyy slow, so i really could hear Satan in it.)

― Marx Goes Better With Coke (Charles McCain), Monday, 6 June 2005 21:03 (twenty years ago)

The new Low (The Great Destroyer) stumped me on first listen too. As did the Sleater-Kinney.
And both were produced by Dave Friedmann. Hmmm.

Sub-Pop 2005 release schedule sabotage shockah!

― Brooker Buckingham (Brooker B), Monday, 6 June 2005 21:14 (twenty years ago)

I mention "Black Secret Technology" above here... I just did a search for this and am interested to learn that it turns out there is a second version of this record that's been remixed (and had a track removed so it seems)... How bizarre. I actually find that quite disappointing in some respect, since it has such esoteric production and I like that.

― KeefW (kmw), Monday, 6 June 2005 21:15 (twenty years ago)

Tortoise - "Djed" thirded

― sleep (sleep), Monday, 6 June 2005 22:02 (twenty years ago)

I'm a bit intrigued by all the mentions for Loveless here.

I was quite familiar with that shoegazy, tremolo, distorted guitar sound by the time it came out, thanks to other bands circa '89 and '90, like Ride, The Charlottes.. and of course, going back even further, Sonic Youth.

I guess I'm just missing the "Woah! is something wrong with my CD or record player??" aspect in regards to the first listen here. Loveless sounded perfectly fine to me.. in all respects!

Maybe I'm just fucking old?

― donut debonair (donut), Monday, 6 June 2005 22:10 (twenty years ago)

I'm a bit intrigued by all the mentions for Loveless here.

It wasn't that I was put off or displeased with the music, it was just that during several points while I was listening to the cassette on my Walkman, I was absolutelly convinced that my batteries were dying.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 6 June 2005 22:12 (twenty years ago)

...that never happend with Ride, Lush, etc.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 6 June 2005 22:12 (twenty years ago)

hmmm.

I was pretty confident it was the music's intention as I got it on CD... i'm wondering if the people with vinyl or cassette first impressions were the ones who got that reaction then... because that makes sense..(the "batteries dying" or "grooves not static on wax" effect)

― donut debonair (donut), Tuesday, 7 June 2005 01:39 (twenty years ago)

Well, I got a promo of "To here knows when" e.p., which was my "..." moment. When I got "Loveless" and the intro kicked in I was like wo.

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 7 June 2005 08:22 (twenty years ago)

In the mid to late 90s, I bought Joy Division's Closer because a lot of bands i was into seemed to be citing them a lot. As "Atrocity Exhibition" warmed up I thought my stylus was knackered or something. Took a few years before I could get my head around the sound being a good thing.

Also, the first track on the Joy Zipper "American Whip" album confused my folks. They didn't understand how a CD could go wibbly like a knackered old cassette.

― Ian Kynnersley (Wobble), Tuesday, 7 June 2005 10:32 (twenty years ago)

three weeks pass...

Here Come the Warm Jets

It's so compressed and the drum sound is so tinny.

― The Brainwasher (Twilight), Tuesday, 28 June 2005 16:28 (twenty years ago)

the Operation Ivy CD in 7th grade, because I'd never heard punk aside from green day and goldfinger. those were the days, am i right? anyone?

― matlewis, Tuesday, 28 June 2005 16:36 (twenty years ago)

The Wilderness. Sounds like the drummer mixed all the songs and really hates the guitarist.

― darin (darin), Tuesday, 28 June 2005 22:10 (twenty years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.