Music which, for one reason or another you tried really hard to "get" but then... (more inside)

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Music which, for one reason or another you tried really hard to "get" but then... even when you realised it actually is at least 75% great, something is stopping you actually 'loving' it? or liking anywhere near as much as you feel you 'should'?

Not sure if this is a result of collosal pre-listening hype (inevitable dissapointment?), actual weaknesses in the music I'm underrating, or something else?

Sigur Ros and Joanna Newsom are specifically the artists I'm thinking of here... I don't want Animal Collective to be next on this list, but it already feels inevitable!

Experiencing the exact same feelings of nagging doubts, the same inability to escape them critically, the same unwillingness to write them off instantly because there is something there which is likeable & creative.

― fandango (fandango), Saturday, 3 December 2005 16:31 (twenty years ago)

Like a lot of people who came to music through Punk-era Peel, I felt I really should like reggae. I finally gave up on it a few years back, after buying a couple of those lavish Blood and Fire reissues. Absolute flatline response, I'm afraid and I reckoned if I wasn't feeling it with those, it wasn't ever going to happen. I still respect the genre, I suppose, whatever that means.

― Soukesian, Saturday, 3 December 2005 16:43 (twenty years ago)

I can imagine reggae being hard to get into on a home listening basis... it really needs to be 'introduced' in a social/dancing setting I reckon.

Some types of reggae at least (not all obviously *cough*).

― fandango (fandango), Saturday, 3 December 2005 16:47 (twenty years ago)

Not that I'm much of an authority on the subject! Very n00b.

― fandango (fandango), Saturday, 3 December 2005 16:48 (twenty years ago)

A friend and I often nearly come to blows on the subject of the Stooges' Funhouse. While I love the first album to death, and really groove on Raw Power and the early Iggy solo records I just can't get into Funhouse... I can acknowledge it's debt to John Lee Hooker's one chord blues, Motown and all that, and TV Eye is a great song, but there's something about the production that just leaves me cold - and don't even get me started on the saxophone playing...

― Rombald, Saturday, 3 December 2005 17:29 (twenty years ago)

Tortoise. Tried four seperate times to get into them, I've considered buying Millions Now Living Will Never Die a couple of times, but cannot really get into them.

I think I got into pavement on the third try, but before that it was the same thing.

― Tokyo Ghost Stories (Tokyo Ghost Stories), Saturday, 3 December 2005 17:52 (twenty years ago)

Neutral Milk Hotel, my friends love it, I don't. I still go back to give it another listen every once in a while, I never can get into it, though.

― Matt McEver (mattmc387), Saturday, 3 December 2005 17:58 (twenty years ago)

holy crap...yes, Neutral Milk Hotel...i've tried to get into "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" so. many. times.....and it just never works out.

I really enjoy a lot of the Athens scene, but this one just does absolutely zero for me. I don't even feel it beginning to connect. I could however listen to Olivia Tremor Control all the time and never get bored with it.

― bobby.lasers, Sunday, 4 December 2005 00:34 (twenty years ago)

Olivia Tremor Control! What the hell! Are these songs? Is this just lots of beeps and parts of songs? If they're not going to make songs... could they at least make.. I don't know... like soundscapes or ambient bits or... or... something. I still don't get the appeal, still.

― Stop it father, Sunday, 4 December 2005 00:42 (twenty years ago)

fandango, you should get Milk Menders Parade (or whatever its called). in the end it might not be a phenomenal album, but if you've only listened to parts of it and sorta already like it...it only gets better once you're totally exposed and sucked into Newsom's little retarded world of silly beauty and sadness and useless pottery pieces. i'm sure you'll buy it now!

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Sunday, 4 December 2005 01:04 (twenty years ago)

I can imagine reggae being hard to get into on a home listening basis... it really needs to be 'introduced' in a social/dancing setting I reckon.
Some types of reggae at least (not all obviously *cough*).

-- fandango (...) (webmail), December 3rd, 2005. (fandango)

Dude, are you serious? Who the hell gets into reggae in a "dancing" setting? I mean, what's that even mean? The guy was talking about Blood and Fire reissues, so let's assume he's not talking about Sean Paul type stuff. Do clubs over there play King Tubby? Over here they mostly play a lot of Young Jeezy. I seriously can't imagine what type of "dancing" setting reggae would likely be found in. "Social" I can sort of see, as in, at a buddies house who has eclectic music taste and saying, "hey, what's this?" but er. dancing?

― Mickey (modestmickey), Sunday, 4 December 2005 02:13 (twenty years ago)

Clubs play King Tubby I'm sure! On reggae night.

I like reggae as sociable music. It's very social. I'm also slightly blasted righ tno.

― fandango (fandango), Sunday, 4 December 2005 04:32 (twenty years ago)

I have the Milk Eyed Mender.. . it's lovely, but I still don't feel totally there... oddly. It is a good album though.

― fandango (fandango), Sunday, 4 December 2005 04:36 (twenty years ago)

get the Milk Mender's Parade, then. esp. good for your current condition!

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Sunday, 4 December 2005 05:07 (twenty years ago)

Wait, there's another Newsom release?

Anyway, I was almost thinking of starting a thread like this myself (or searching one out -- is there one already?) because I really just can't get into Brian Eno. I respect him, I find the music pleasant enough, interesting things are going on in it, but it just doesn't excite me.

― Abbadabba Berman (Hurting), Sunday, 4 December 2005 05:42 (twenty years ago)

I think a lot of this has to do with hype. Also, have you read the lyrics to the Newsom? They're fucking incredible, especially "This Side of the Blue."

― regular roundups (Dave M), Sunday, 4 December 2005 05:42 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, her ability as a songwriter allows me to get past the "challenging listening" of her vocals.

― Abbadabba Berman (Hurting), Sunday, 4 December 2005 05:46 (twenty years ago)

It seems like it would be really hard to like her music in spite of her vocals.

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Sunday, 4 December 2005 05:54 (twenty years ago)

I definitely felt this way about Animal Collective before Feels. Every time I would listen to Sung Tongs I would have the nagging feeling that I was completely missing something that most people heard. But I bought Feels and it's been a lot easier for me to get into and enjoy.

― running in circles (running in circles), Sunday, 4 December 2005 06:01 (twenty years ago)

I don't want Animal Collective to be next on this list, but it already feels inevitable!

the thing that will keep them off this list for me is how much i continue to love sung tongs. the rest of their stuff never stacked up all that high (with some exceptions, yknow), but if they stopped making music now, or else made *pretty good* or even *crappy* music for 20 years from now, id still feel great about loving them.

― petesmith (plsmith), Sunday, 4 December 2005 06:01 (twenty years ago)

Oh yeah, I also don't *get* Illmatic, which my brother just gave me. Nas seems like a good, talented lyricist and all, but his personality just rubs me the wrong way and his flow doesn't grab me.

― Abbadabba Berman (Hurting), Sunday, 4 December 2005 06:08 (twenty years ago)

I love her songwriting, but it seems incredibly over-weighted with all kinds of obscure references and meanings sometimes... I admire (but hardly love) those 20 minute ramble-a-thon/medley(but actually incredibly structured) things she's been doing live recently but... I dunno, maybe she's the new Captain Beefheart and I'm just not ready to be challenged full-on all the flipping time like that :/

― fandango (fandango), Sunday, 4 December 2005 13:04 (twenty years ago)

i'm not sure if you're still talking about joanna. i like her songwriting too, but i think the best part of her singing/playing/composing in general is her sense of timing/rhythm. i also think she's a pretty good vocalist with respect to conveying emotion and matching the instrumentation in the song. its interesting b/c upon first hearing her album, i really felt it was superficial, but these are really clearly HER songs as things just naturally fit together perfectly.

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Sunday, 4 December 2005 22:52 (twenty years ago)

and "Sadie" is more full of heart than anything i've heard in awhile. the lyrics and singing in this songs are wonderful wonderful wonderful and astounding. it must be atleast in part about her dog.

in terms of the original topic of the thread, generally when i hesitate on buying stuff its b/c there is some dud quality to it for me, yet sometimes i'm not even aware of why exactly i don't like it. i generally just go with my bad feeling tho.

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Sunday, 4 December 2005 23:17 (twenty years ago)

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