"Ugh, never again"

On two threads today, I've mentioned a couple of classic, well-loved albums in genres I adore where I've had such a negative reaction to them upon first listen that I've never played them again (Like A Virgin, Surrender). How often does this happen to you? What albums has it occurred with and did you ever figure out why? Do you think if you heard them again now, you'd have a different reaction?

I'm trying to think of genre-friendly albums where I literally only gave one listen to it and ended up with loathing rather than just indifference or annoyance -- I even made it through that Animal Collective album more than once (barely).

twice through animal collective! you sir have an iron constitution

given my longstanding love of noisy sleazerock bands I should be a hueg jesus lizard fan, yet I am not

I've never figured it out, and if I heard them now the only new reaction I can imagine is lol 90s

all that springs to mind is that last Girls Aloud album. maybe 'Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned' (but i did like a couple of tracks on it). lots of albums i SHOULD'VE had this reaction to at the time but didn't...

I had this reaction to The Milk-Eyed Mender, but after I saw Newsom live I came around to it.

Only other one I can think of was PIL's This Is What You Want, I sold it back to the store the same day I bought it... was that really 1986?

Thing is, if you just hear *one* Animal Collective song, I think "Oh, this is great..." but I have yet to be able to sit through an entire album, either.

I know that there are albums that this has happened with - and I've gone back and listened again and changed my mind, but I can't think of any... I do tend to try to revisit things.

I had this reaction to Van Dyke Parks' Song Cycle, though I'm not sure it qualifies as classic. Also the Pretty Thing's SF Sorrow. And many others.

When I don't like an album other people I respect like, I figure the problem is mine and that maybe I'll come around to it eventually. This happened with all kinds of jazz a few years back. This is a lot easier in the mp3 era since it's no biggie to keep around "stacks" of Jefferson Airplane and Yes albums, waiting for that day when they click with me.

The "classic" in the initial post is something of a red herring. It was more to place where I was coming from in thinking about this thread rather than to frame the discussion in terms of "canon albums you should like, but hate".

I think "The Bug" is the most recent example of this for me. Everything should be on, but wau it just doesn't seem to work at all. Also, at the risk of getting challopsed to death or whatever, "Machine Gun" has led to me not listening to the new Portishead (and yeah im sure im 100% rong about this, but i dont know, just not feeling it.)

I really have tried to like any of the Daft Punk albums, and sadly I have to report negatory. They just don't do it for me.

wau @ John re: "Machine Gun"

Have you heard "The Rip" at all?

I got through that Animal Collective record twice as well! :-D

no, i was being literal up there in that due to hearing "machine gun" i never listened to the new portishead at all (which is i guess a little bit different than the original thread question but eh, it fits)

i am aware that this is a stupid way to approach an album, but people seemed so rah rah about machine gun that i figured that the rest of the album was not going to do it for me either.

I think that Never Mind The Bollocks is "that record" for me. Or was, for a long time. I haven't really tried to get into it lately, but I did put a few songs offa it on mixtapesiPod playlists for my wife.

interesting, as I just tried to indoctrinate my friend tonight with You Tube clips of the Pistols. A person has to start somewhere, eh? I was trying to to give him a history lesson since we'd spent most of the day watching videos of The Damned, bless their souls.

It's good fun, but not as much fun as watching the Filth & the Fury.

Sex Pistols meant a lot to me in my teenage years, not so much nowadays.

Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain

/flee

most tom waits. i like some songs, but swordfishtrombones... yech. i should love his voice/lyrics but it's so contrived and the music on paper should be amazing but i just find it misdirected and dull. that is one big long challops, but i don't care and u can eat it

I think "The Bug" is the most recent example of this for me. Everything should be on, but wau it just doesn't seem to work at all. Also, at the risk of getting challopsed to death or whatever, "Machine Gun" has led to me not listening to the new Portishead (and yeah im sure im 100% rong about this, but i dont know, just not feeling it.)

― vaginary & western (jjjusten), Monday, February 23, 2009 7:56 PM (3 hours ago)

dude i had a similar reaction the first time i heard it, which was like oh 6 months ago. for whatever reason, i just wasnt feeling it at all, it just seemed like the opposite of what i wanted to hear at the time, and i had no desire to explore it further. i listened to the youtube of 'the rip' on the trax thread tho a couple weeks ago, and was blown away, and subsequently sought out the rest of the record and i really love it now. it's pretty weird and dense, so maybe it's one of those things you just have to want to hear

I listen to Trout Mask Replica once every five years, just to see, and struggle to get through it every time. It's just something I can't imagine ever wanting to hear.

hah nothing else on the album sounds remotely like "Machine Gun"

most tom waits. i like some songs, but swordfishtrombones... yech.

heh... I was just about to say, all Tom Waits pre-Swordfishtrombones. Love that record, though. It's when he became TOM WAITS, instead of "Oooh, lookit me, I like beat poets and I pose real pretty."

Something Like Heartattack and Vine, though... pretty insufferable. Heart of Saturday Night has a couple keepers, I guess.

this happened to me loads around the age of 11/12/13, when my sort of model templates of how pop should sound were the beatles and other sixties singles groups like manfred mann.
so i would pop down to the library and get out things like thirteen by teenage fanclub, giant steps by the boo radleys, and steve mcqueen by prefab sprout, cos various reference works had told me these were great pop groups of today. and then when i got it home i was confused and disgusted lol. the shock of modernity. and from that impression i didn't revisit them until years later, way after my taste had uttrerly transformed. now i love prefab, and like teenage fanclub, and i suspect would get a serious kick out of giant steps (i bought wake up! during my britpop phase when it came out - younger me would have loved 'wake up boo!')

Giant Steps is so good!

I only hope that the members of the Boo Radleys are saying of their band name, "Ugh, never again."

I believe they are saying that of the band in general.

daft punk fit this to a tee for me. i love dance music, i love most canon dance albums, i love 'da funk'...but everything else they've done leaves me cold at best, or is like nails on blackboard at worst (those fucking robot voices argh). yet literally every other person i know loves them, even the people who aren't into dance music per se...

it seems odd to tolerate the deranged guitary sound of the Da Funk riff but not their other hard signature sounds

I only download tracks, not albums, so usually if I'm listening to an alleged classic then it means I've bought it, which gives me an incentive to try again. That's the only way I got into 80s Tom Waits. The only one I can think of which sounded so horrible first time that I never revisited it is New York Tendaberry. I like Laura Nyro's earlier stuff and I'd heard this was her stone-cold classic but yikes, it was jarring. I just wanted her to shut the fuck up.

I think the only things I've returned after one listen never to revisit again happened pretty close together in my life, when I was about 19/20, and were both bought in the same shop (Spinadisc in Northampton); Playing With Fire (I think) by Spacement 3, and Muse's debut album. Muse's debut album obv. isn't meant to be great anyway,and I only got it cause I'd been at school with them. Spacemen 3 I keep thinking "I want to try them again",but that memory of "this is rubbish" and returning it has prevented me. Sorry, Kate.

i had a very bad reaction to the Doors and never want to go there again

the thought of it makes me feel a bit sick actually

The Doors are in many ways like tequila, I agree completely.

recently (past few years):

*Lucinda Williams, West
*Kanye: 808s

first listen to West = seemed to encompass every mean-spirited thing Greil Marcus ever wrote about her. grrrr! second time out = learned to like it.

808s = insufferable goon whines about ex-love interest ad nauseam. shut up already! later = oh yeah, this sounds really great when you ignore K's inane shortsightedness. whaddya know?

times i've made it through the new AC record? exactly one half.