Never Again / Forever And Ever

The Beastie Boys. Not a chance I'll ever listen to them again. I loved them from about 14 to 16 but now their time has passed, well and truly. The magic is gone.

I may never listen to Super Furry Animals again, since all their albums seem to be amazing and interesting for 3-4 weeks and then they lose ALL their appeal rapidly. Rings Around the World is the best example of this. However if they release another album I'll buy it, it's a good 3-4 weeks.

I guess I'll always listen to Gram Parsons. Probably Hank and Johnny aswell. Can't really say why, only that I've played all their albums to death and still want to listen to them.

pixies, but they weren't part of my life so i guess that doesn't count.

i haven't listened to these in ages: stereolab, velvet underground, falming lips, neil young, mercury rev, lou reed, john cale, mogwai, arab strap, tom waits, spacemen 3, high llamas, the fall, hardfloor, robert armani, smashing orange, low, joy division, ultra vivid scene, kenickie, pulp, david ackles, the byrds

i will again though to nearly all these. but somehow, much as i liked them, i cannot envisage playing pulp ever again.

That is a very difficult question. There is something definite and absolute about it which I do not like. I am just a human being and I can change my opinion at any point of my life. But for the sake of it:
never again: Supertramp
forever & ever: Johann Sebastian Bach: Goldberg Variations

I can't honestly think of anything I really liked that I'll never listen to again. Four or five years ago, I would have said I will never listen to Megadeth, Slayer, Poison etc. ever again, that they were part of my youth. But, now in the past couple of years I find myself rediscovering the metal I used to like. So, I assume that rediscovery will be a theme through my listening life, I don't subscribe to the permenance of goodbye.

I think I shall always listen to the Beach Boys, Kraftwerk...

Two records I doubt I will ever tire of:
Masters of the Hemisphere - I am not a Freemdoom
Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.

never again: Supertramp

I would have agreed with you last week, but after watching Magnolia at the weekend I may have to search out a copy of Breakfast in America.

Never Again : Pavement(!), Manic Street Preachers, possibly The Pixies, Beck, Nick Drake, Bob Dylan, The Doors, Primal Scream,

Forever + Ever : The Zombies - everything, The Kinks - everything pre 1970, The Beatles - White Album/Help/Revolver/Anthologies/Rubber Soul, Abba - Gold, Kraftwerk - Trans-Europe/Autobahn/Man Machine, The Supremes - singles, The Clash - London Calling/Sandinista, Human League - singles, Neu! - neu75, Rain Parade - Emergency 3rd Rail, Lee Perry- upsetter singles, The Who - Leeds. Nuggets 2. Rubble 1+2. VU- Loaded. JoyDiv/New Order - everything.

I would have agreed with you last week, but after watching Magnolia at the weekend I may have to search out a copy of Breakfast in America
That is exactly the problem with the question. Though when I saw Magnolia it also made me run to the record store, but not for bloody Supertramp. I bought Aimee Mann's Bachelor #1, a wonderful disc.

The question of course is self-defeating in that by listing something you will never listen to again you might be pricked into listening to it again. But I don't think it's impossible to answer, just that you have to think carefully. But - would it still be a difficult question to answer in ten years? In thirty?

Never Again : Pavement(!), Manic Street Preachers, possibly The Pixies, Beck, Nick Drake, Bob Dylan, The Doors, Primal Scream,
Have all those been part of your life Dr.C? So then you did have quite a decent taste (except the Manics) when you were younger. ;-)

A lot of the 95-97 post rock stuff will probably never set foot inside my music system again. Techno Animal's Re-Entry springs to mind. Certainly Macro Dub Infection 2 has been retired although I'll give MAcro Dub Infection 1 a listen again. Those 93 Ambient comps like Trance Europe Express and Artificial Intelligence have become very dated and unexiting now. In fact they haven't been played by me since 93. A lot of my early 90's indie/grunge records will gather dust for years to come. Leatherface anyone? However, I never ever throw records out or se ll them -- I bought them for a reason at the time and so they'll remain in my collection as period pieces till the end of my days!

Never: Joy Division. I was a massive fan as a teenager, but I just can't take them seriously any more. And I could live without hearing 'The Velvet Underground and Nico' for the next fourty years, so no super deluxe remix editions for me thanks. Ditto 'Marquee Moon', The MC5, Spacemen 3, The Jam, The Smiths.

Forever: Well who bloody knows - I actually quite enjoy letting go of old faves and never looking back, and I'm always more excited by hearing a 'new' (to me) alb than a hoary old 'classic.' But I find instrumental music keeps me coming back for longer - jazz and classical esp. - 'cos you can always pick up on new things in the playing and there are no lyrics to get bored with. I've been listening to 'Spiritual Unity' by Albert Ayler on and off for something like twelve years, and I've not exhausted it yet (not overplaying it helps, natch...)

**Have all those been part of your life Dr.C? So then you did have quite a decent taste (except the Manics) when you were younger. ;-)**

No. Or at least not in the way that I think you mean. I haven't been obsessed with them, but then I don't obsess *without reservation* about many artists. But i have owned albums by them and even *played* them from beginning to end at times. The thought of playing the whole of say, 'Five Leaves Left' or 'Blood On The Tracks' is horrifyingly boring. What I need to decide now is whether there is anything at all left which these artists can offer me. If not, the albums will go. I'll probably keep 'Screamadelica' - it's OK.

The only one on my list which surprises me is The Pixies. Even Doolittle leaves me fairly cold now. I suspect I'll find a way back into them - I did enjoy the B-sides comp. What's disappointing is how long it's taken me to realize that Dylan, Drake, MSP and Prml Scrm are totally worthless.

Perhaps applies to Abbey Road, after years of me claiming it was my favorite album. I can't imagine playing it now, but like Tom says, it has nothing to do with hating it.

Who knows what I'll listen until the day I die. I'm pretty fickle, over the long run.

Never again: Underworld (actually sold that one)
Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Black Star, with the sole exception of "Brown Skin Lady" I am utterly utterly sick of this sanctimonious humourless bs.
Wu-Tang Forever. Euch.
The Doors - seconded.
Goldie - Timeless (but then no-one anywhere is ever going to listen to that again...)

Without any rhyme or reason - I don't think there's any era or genre of music that I'd single out, just records that were given far too much listening in relation to their merit...

Never again: none (see my new question)

Six Finger Satellite, but I was never all that into them.

Other likely suspects: Palace, Red House Painters, Dirty Three (maybe), Free Kitten (maybe), Lou Reed's "New York" and "Rock and Roll Heart"

Forever and ever: Britney/Britney, Tommy James and the Shondelles, The Velvet Underground, Lou Reed's "Street Hassle"

Wow, what a good, weird question. Almost every artist listed in people's never again categories made me curious to hear them again - if only to see why people would reject them!

Is saying you'd *never* want to listen to your old out-of-fashion records is being a revisionist in your own life? Isn't it over- confident in the immutability one's own current taste to deny that some records might have something in them you haven't been able to hear yet?

I tried to list things with emotions I don't plan to ever need again.

Emotions are hard to plan for.

(gawd, how embarrassink. that sounds like a Young Adult Fiction book title.)

Most emo song title ever?

We could collaborate on this one, Sterling. "I tried to list things with emotions I don't plan to ever need again," could be the first line of the Emo hit "Emotions are Hard to Plan For".

i tried to forget when you said we could still be friends.

I fixed my glasses with scotch tape,
you bought yourself a new cape

(it's an emo-goth love affair, doomed of course)

A single teardrop down your cheek
Love's right daft, I reckon

Answering question -- damn, a very very good one. I really can't say, or rather, some things won't be said goodbye too so much as acknowledged readily. Andrew Eldritch once said in an interview that records that meant a lot to you may never need to be played again -- all you have to do is look at the spine and everything about that album will come flooding back.

Besides a certain Blatantly Obvious album, I suspect I'll be listening to the Cure's Faith to the end of the time. Beyond that, dunno. Much of my music is sometimes is like any one of the episodes of MST3K I've got lying around -- something you thought you were tired of you suddenly obsess over.

my tastes change like the wind. and although i hold on to almost everything i own (it's a rare, rare occurance when i actually sell a cd or otherwise get rid of it), i'm typically listening to a specific clutch i'm fascinated with at the time. it's also hard because artists - even whole genres - that i thought i was "done" with can come flying back into focus, even if only for a few intense days. (see last months bizarre flirtation with circa 1990-93 hardcore...something i easily haven't listened to in seven years.)

never again: most indie hiphop, free jazz, grunge, triphop/ninja tune

forever and ever: 1996-2000 radio hiphop & r&b, post-punk/post- disco/pre-house, the pixies, james brown, chic, king tubby, talk talk, p.i.l., the ronettes, can's "monster movie" and "future days"...

i didn't put jungle on that list, which unnerves me.

Never again: Cow Punk, the Marshall Tucker Band, Santana, Bikini Kill.

Forever & Ever: Bowie, Abba, Kinks, Kraftwerk, Prince, Velvets/Nico/Cale, Eno/Roxy, Motown, Girl Groups/Spector, Dolly Parton, George Jones, Patti Smith, Smiths, St. Etienne, Black Sabbath.

I was going to say The Cure (sorry Ned) but am now thinking I should pull the albums out and give it a try. Sometimes I don't think the songs have aged well.

Ned, I am interested that you single out Faith as a fave.

To me, it's very much a perfect album, eight just wonderful songs -- even "Doubt," arguably the least compelling song on the record and never played live by the band unlike everything else on there, still works in the overall sequencing. And that sequencing is very important, it's a perfect arrangement for everything that's there -- I can't imagine hearing the album any other way. The way Simon Gallup's bass starts the album with a strong kick that's then softly undercut by the keyboards, the extended intro to "All Cats Are Grey," the sprawling dreamy synths of "The Funeral Party," the lost and forlorn calling of "The Drowning Man," the title track's slow focused collapse...amazing, just amazing. It is of a piece and I seem to listen to it at least once every couple of months, if not more.

I tried to list things with emotions I don't plan to ever need again I tried to forget when you said we could still be friends.

Saw your face last when summer ended, licked at wounds that will never be mended,

(now it's time for the fast build-up part before the chorus)

And you know, some of that could be Cure lyrics as well, which makes perfect sense.

Indeed, Ned, I pulled out Faith earlier this eve and played it through. Now am playing The Top, as Piggy was mentioned on ILE.

Ah, but what did you think of the relisten?

Most likely never again: Oasis, Led Zeppelin, pretty much any solo Beatles except All Things Must Pass and some of Lennon's stuff, Blood on the Tracks (honestly, I was a pretty big Dylan fan at one point, but I could never get into this), the Doors, Robert Johnson (I tried), The Band (ditto), anything Eric Clapton's ever been involved with except Cream and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," Guns N'Roses, Nirvana (except Unplugged), REM's Murmur, and Screamadelica.

Forever and ever: early and mid-period Beatles, all the classic Spector singles, Stone Roses debut, Manics (fuck off!), Suede, Blonde on Blonde era Dylan, The Replacements, The Who, Big Star, T. Rex, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly, "Brown Eyed Girl," "Common People," "God Save The Queen," and "Rebel Girl."

But you never know, I mean, I could have sworn that I'd never like any post-Barrett Pink Floyd, but I've found myself actually liking Wish You Were Here quite a bit.

Never again: Beastie Boys, Fatboy Slim, all Norman Cook other than "Dub Be Good To Me", Lo-Fidelity Allstars, anything ever that could have been called "Big Beat", Asian Dub Foundation, Animals That Swim, Common, Mos Def & Talib Kweli.

Kool Keith is edging ever closer to that list. I nearly added Blur but there's always the chance. Ditto Cornelius. There is stuff I have simply not been inclined to listen to in months - Radiophonic Workshop material for instance - but I think that's down more to my obsession with it last year and the fact that I go in phases, in everything.

Forever and ever: Scritti Politti, XTC, Sparks, The Associates, Saint Etienne ...

Most likely never again: The Beatles, David Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust", "Aladdin Sane", and "Scary Monsters" albums, the more recent Stereolab albums, Lou Reed's "Transformer", Pavement, The Smiths.

Forever and Ever: David Bowie's "Low", Wire's "Pink Flag"...for some reason, I still learn or hear something new every time I listen, even though I've listened to both of those albums several hundred times.