Sounds terrible at first - turns out to be a classic??

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As with most people I guess, my first response to an album is a fairly accurate indicator of how much I'll end up liking it. There have been times though where initial hostility has transformed, over months or in a few cases years, into intense enthusiasm. So here are my candidates for 5 records which are superficially off-putting or simply bland but which reveal glorious hidden depths over time.

1. Vee Vee - Archers of Loaf 2. Manfred Mann's Earth Band (1972 album) 3. Of Human Feelings - Ornette Coleman 4. Lick My Decals Off, Baby - Captain Beefheart 5. Manic Pop Thrill - That Petrol Emotion

Anyone have any other suggestions?

― Scott Bassett, Wednesday, 2 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'm hoping that this will be the case with ROCK ACTION by Mogwai, but it's not lookin' that way.

― alex in nyc, Wednesday, 2 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Not so much an album as a group, namely Gallon Drunk, who I initially thought were just poor Birthday Party wannabes but who I eventually came around to enjoying on their own merits. There were predictions some time back I'd 'come around' on Gene. Not a chance in hell.

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 2 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

God, I'd forgotten there was a time, albeit brief, when intelligent people were actually touting Gene as the next big thing. What were they thinking??

― scott, Wednesday, 2 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I had an experience like this with "Second Edition" by Public Image Ltd. The first time I heard it, my roommate had just bought it, and we were just sort of looking at each other like 'what the hell?' However, some months later, I walked into the room and heard this wonderful snaking bassline with some great, angular guitar shards cutting into a fluid beat. I had no idea, but it was "Poptones." When he told me what it was, I was suprised, and I listened to the album all the way through, albeit with new ears.

I think the first time, the album didn't meet my expectations--it wasn't what it was 'supposed' to be in my mind. However, listening to it blindly (without context), I was able to hear it 'fresh.'

― Clarke B., Wednesday, 2 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

'Before Hollywood' - The Go-Betweens: no tunes, complete dirge, practically unlistenable. Greatest album of all time. 'If You're Feeling Sinister' - Belle and Sebastian: pretty dull, nothing much to catch the ear, a disappointment. Second greatest album of all time. I've learnt not to trust myself anymore; unfortunately though I seem to have less patience now than I used to.

― Ally C, Wednesday, 2 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

That's probably why you get depressions of love, Cookie.

Your first sentence on Before Hollywood seemed reasonably accurate, though maybe just a *bit* harsh.

Answer: why not The Wayward Bus? People like me have to get through all that noisy stuff before really appreciating it.

― the pinefox, Wednesday, 2 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Certain Prince albums took me a few listens (Parade for some reason especially), though now I can't imagine why. I think it was maybe because I loved 'Kiss' so much. I bought it before the other singles came out and the album was much much more than the extended Kiss-riff I was hoping it might be.

― Guy, Wednesday, 2 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I unwittingly referenced this in the previous thread: My Bloody Valentine's Loveless. Check the previous thread for the details.

― Sean Carruthers, Wednesday, 2 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"Psychocandy" by The Jesus and Mary Chain. The first few listens I thought it was complete and utter crap. I was only about 15 and totally unprepared for such a horrendous noise. Then something clicked and it completely changed my life. Probably had more of a revelatory effect on me than any record ever will. Just opened me up to everything... Couldn't bear to listen to it now though.

― Johnathan, Wednesday, 2 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Metal Box is the first one that comes to mind. I figured that I'd like it since was into the Sex Pistols and PiL's 9. (Keep in mind that this was 1989; I was 13 at the time.) Took it home, played it, had the life scared out of me. I vaguely recall getting through the whole thing once. I didn't listen to it again for a few years. When I mustered the courage to play it again, I suddenly "got" it. Somewhere along the way, I developed a taste for noise and repition that can blamed on Public Enemy and the Stooges. It's long since been my absolute favorite record -- no contest.

― Andy, Wednesday, 2 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I have a hard time thinking of rock bands where my first/early impressions *weren't* totally wrong. The Smiths/Radiohead/B&S - hated first time (and in the latter cases for a long time after). The Beatles/REM/Carter USM - loved first time out and grew to dislike.

It is only rock bands though - Chic and NWW and Public Enemy I loved from the outset and still do. This is one reason perhaps that I'm so cagey about writing on indie ;)

― Tom, Wednesday, 2 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

NWW

Nurse With Wound?

― Stevie Nixed, Thursday, 3 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I can think of two: Loveless by My Bloody Valentine. It doesn't sound like pure noise anymore, but when it came out it sure as hell did. and the Pastels, Illuminations. It's almost unlistenable at first, but you do know instantly there's something really brilliant about it, but you can't quite put your finger on it. Not sure if that counts...

― chris, Thursday, 3 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I heard Joshua Tree by U2 and thought it sucked. Then everyone told me it was a classic. I still think it sounds terrible though.

― Sterling Clover, Thursday, 3 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Motorbass - Pansoul (95) - But there's nothing there, exactly!

Herbert - 100pounds - Not as ridiculous as it first sounds

― K-reg, Thursday, 3 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Stevie: yes. Blame late night posting rush for abbreviations.

― Tom, Thursday, 3 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Wow, two Metal Box responses and now a third from me. After hearing it on a friends (a hi-fi enthu-si-ast-uh!) stereo system I completely chaged my mind about it. Those basslines! That yodeling! Every band should record on 12 inch 45's.

There's some interesting (recent) Keith Levine interviews on the Perfect Sound Forever website. Apparently Keith invented everything.

― Steven James, Thursday, 3 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

My friend Pete rushed out and bought Metal Box purely because it came in a Metal Box, rushed home and played it to his whole family straight away, without out even hearing it himself — only at 33 not 45. His dad suggested — surprisingly politely — that he'd perhaps been gypped.

My friend Pete moved to Australia shortly afterwards.

― mark s, Thursday, 3 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

There's a million Metal Box stories in the city.

― Steven James, Thursday, 3 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

what is metal box

― ali g, Thursday, 3 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

But have there been any albums that 'Sound Classic At First, Turns Out To Be A Dud'?

― DG, Thursday, 3 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ali G: Metal Box / PIL.

― Stevie Nixed, Friday, 4 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

It's amazing how many of the records that people list as being "pure noise" (Psychocandy, Loveless) were albums that I instantly glommed onto as being pure headcandy for me. Both those albums, the first time I heard them, it was like finally someone had got down the sound inbetween my ears on vinyl.

But then, the first time I played Psychocandy for a bandmate, she turned to my best friend and whispered "Does Kate know her stereo is broken?")

Weirdly, in a bizarre 180 to other threads, the album that took the longest to grow on me was probably the Third Velvets album. I missed the noise and feedback and sturm and drang of the first two albums, and it just sounded like a load of wibbling ballads, and decided that they Commenced To Suck Bigtime once Cale left.

It took several years for it to grow on me. Now I think it's sheer genius.

― kate the saint, Friday, 4 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I was in college when Psychocandy came out and I pounced on it. I was playing it at a loud volume in my dorm room when a girl poked her head in the window and said "Sounds like you've got a chainsaw in there". And this was before I beheaded those hitch-hikers!

Ali: Metal Box was by Public Image and literally came in a metal box- it was a film cannister type thing with three 12 inch 45's. I bought mine in high school (1983) for the princely sum of 20 dollars. Those were different times... *gets faraway look in eyes*

― Steven James, Friday, 4 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I once played "Deep in the Woods" by The Birthday Party on the stereo in my sixth form common-room. Some Jon Bon Jovi fan turned it off halfway through and everyone started clapping. Peasants.

― Johnathan, Saturday, 5 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i once made the mistake of playing butthole surfers' psychic powerless...another mans sac on the school stereo. it wasn't even our school. we had to go to another school for one class (don't know why).

anyway, it lasted about 45 seconds before being replaced by buggles. i never took any tapes to any school ever again.

― gareth, Sunday, 6 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I distinctly remember the first time I heard "Stigmata" by Ministry (off their 1988 album, THE LAND OF RAPE AND HONEY) in a roomful of roommates. I literally could not get my ears close enough to the speakers to soak in its sheer, utter malice, whilst various and sundry other friends couldn'y help but remark how "awful" it was. I believe I bought the album the very next day, much to their chagrin.

Sure, Ministry turned into an embarassingly juvenile cartoon (as they remain today), but for that one brief, fleeting moment, it was an absolutely classic piece of cathartic, mechanized noise.

― alex in nyc, Monday, 7 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Gareth: Another Man's Sac rel.1985. Buggles' total career 1980-1980. Were people REALLY consensus-playing Buggles five years after the band was lost to the world?

(Minimum five years: since I find it easier to imagine someone coming on the Buttholes long ages later, and liking what they heard...)

(Ditto Buggles, sorta, but not a whole GROUP of people...)

― mark s, Monday, 7 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

eleven months pass...

Back in college, I owned a tape of Til Tuesday's "Everything's Different Now" (because of the Elvis Costello connection) and I didn't care for it. Years later someone made me a copy of Aimee Mann's "I'm With Stupid", and after overplaying that and "Whatever" for a while, I went and bought a CD of "Everything's Different Now" and damn -- what was my problem?

― Francis Heaney, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I brought home a Pere Ubu record (Datapanik) because of Robert Christgau's enigmatic review "Michael Stanley is Cleveland's answer to Pere Ubu." Didn't know what he meant, but thought it was strange enough to try a Pere Ubu record. Didn't take a shine to it right away.. (couldn't get past the voice at first.) Then, absolutely loved everything Pere Ubu did. Later, didn't care as much about Ubu. Now, care again, but not like I used to.

― Dave225, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Split Enz - Time & Tide.

A totally oddball record that to these ears, still occasionally has the marks of a forgotten classic.

― Mark, Friday, 3 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

one year passes...

Am I the only one that caught that Ali G reference?
(Do I get a cookie?! plz)

Sorry to bother! Keep on with yr lives, people!

― Francis Watlington (Francis Watlington), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 01:38 (twenty-one years ago)

I absolutely despised "Blur" at first, but it has certainly grown, and I now consider it at least almost as great as "Parklife" and "The Great Escape".

"13", now, that's another story though....

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 09:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Last christmas, I bought the Delgados' "Hate'" on a whim as it was part of one of those two for twenty quid deals along with another CD I bought as a present. The first time I listened to it I was horrified and swore to return it at the earliest possible oppurtunity. Me being me, I didn't get round to it, and took it on a train journey along with a bunch of other stuff I hadn't really got round to listening to properly. So I put it on my discman coming back from Leeds on the morning after Boxing Day, and it just clicked. For some reason it seemed to be the most fitting soundtrack for speeding through post-industrial Yorkshire on an overcast December day. Sometimes procrastination can be good.

― Ben Dot, Tuesday, 23 September 2003 20:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Arthur Russell - World of Echo

When I first heard it I thought is was weird and squibbley. Now I think it is insanely good genius-wise.

― Mike Taylor (mjt), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 21:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Lazer Guided Melodies

Record you started off hating but learned to love

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 25 September 2003 07:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Love - Forever Changes

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 25 September 2003 12:59 (twenty-one years ago)

4 Hero: "Two Pages"
Si Begg: "Commuter World"
Outkast: "Aquemini" (especially the last half)
Herbie Hancock: "Mr. Hands"
Vladislav Delay: "Anima"
Biosphere: "Substrata"
Anything by Albert Ayler.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Thursday, 25 September 2003 13:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, Anima and Mr. Hands are perhaps not classics, but they're definitely much better than they first sound.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Thursday, 25 September 2003 13:10 (twenty-one years ago)

The most recent example of this for me is "Where Is The Love?" by Black Eyed Peas.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 25 September 2003 13:16 (twenty-one years ago)

my most recentr would probably be Jelinek's 'Nouvelle Pauvrete'

― Fabrice (Fabfunk), Thursday, 25 September 2003 13:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Speaking of 'recent' - 69 Love Songs.
While listening to it for a first time, I started writing a letter to a far-away friend, bleh-bleh-ing at length wot a boxful of tripe this tripler was. Song by song by song. I found lotsa very unfriendly words for each of them. Sent the letter away first thing in the morning, too.
After a coupla more listens, however...

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Thursday, 25 September 2003 22:57 (twenty-one years ago)

two years pass...

Lick My Decals Off, Baby & The Velvet Underground (3) are the ones that stick out the most in my mind. Decals gave me a headache on the first listen and VU bored me to tears. Beefheart's now sits in my top ten and VU is my quintessential drunk-at-home-before-dawn record.

― Hoosteen (Hoosteen), Sunday, 17 September 2006 22:34 (eighteen years ago)

Elbow - Asleep In The Back, which I dismissed as samey and valueless droning on first listen. It's now getting better every time I play it, as subtly nuanced and quietly dramatic a record as I've heard in a very long time.

I also hold onto the hope that Rehearsing My Choir will wind up like this, but it's not the biggest hope I have.

Also, having languished a long way behind, Yerself Is Steam is relentlessly catching up with Boces. Relentlessly and dazzlingly, may I add.

Finally, I've found that Soundgarden has had this sort of effect on me as well. "Meh grunge" suddenly became "WOW OH ROCK!" at some undefined moment, probably halfway through 'Limo Wreck'.

― Space Gourmand (Haberdager), Sunday, 17 September 2006 22:56 (eighteen years ago)

1. Vee Vee - Archers of Loaf

Really? Weird! I loved this from the first listen!

I can't think of any of these because I have a pretty short memory.

― bernard snow (sixteen sergeants), Monday, 18 September 2006 00:54 (eighteen years ago)

I'll never forget my first time listening to _Magical Mystery Tour_ and _Dark Side Of The Moon_, at a very young age. I especially remember feeling disoriented but pleased with "Blue Jay Way" and
"I Am The Walrus."

Conversely, I was so wrong about Radiohead, initially. I despised _OK Computer_, which went on to become one of my most beloved albums. I always slept on Tom Waits, Randy Newman and Will Oldham for an insanely long time.

― Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Monday, 18 September 2006 01:04 (eighteen years ago)

eg. Oldham, the first Palace Brothers album I heard made me think, "this is the worst music I've ever heard in my life." I actually thought it was kinda funny. I got my sister to listen to it and everything, and over the next few years whenever we heard something bad I'd say "this is almost as bad as the Palace Brothers." Little did I know that I'd later realize that Palace/Oldham/Bonnie Prince Billy are all impossibly classic.

― Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Monday, 18 September 2006 01:06 (eighteen years ago)

sounds terrible at first, turns out to be a classic: 'i see a darkness'..didn't exactly sound terrible, i just needed to persist with it for a while.

'burn, piano island, burn'...again didn't start off being terrible per se, but knowing the song structures really does help with this one. once you know the tracks well and can pre-empt the changes, the record is stupidly addictive.

'kill the moonlight'... sounded really restricted and underpowered in all the wrong ways at first, but there turned out to be surprising depth and versatility here, not to mention a shitload of infectious tunes.

sounds great at first, turns out to be a dud: too many to mention, but a few prominent examples include about half of beck's catalogue (ok...if i have to name names, 'midnite vultures' and 'guero'), the cure's 'bloodflowers' (really thought this was a stunning return to form, but it epitomises the whole notion of thin, padded-out songs and a general lack of forward-thingking creative energy), godspeed's 'lift your skinny fists..." (far from a complete dud in fairness, but also light years away from the masterpiece i proclaimed it to be upon the first handful of listens).

― Charlie Howard (the sphinx), Monday, 18 September 2006 13:17 (eighteen years ago)

10,000 KHz Legend by Air.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 18 September 2006 13:21 (eighteen years ago)

Charlie Howard OTM about Levez Vos Skinny Fists. Their true masterpiece is Yanqui UXO by such a gaping distance.

Guero was always a horrible disappointment for me.

― Space Gourmand (Haberdager), Monday, 18 September 2006 13:29 (eighteen years ago)

"Adventures Of Grandmaster Flash On The Wheels Of Steel". I heard it early on, didn't have a clue how it was made, no context for it at all, never heard of scratching etc. Just thought it was a clumsy mess.

― mike t-diva (mike t-diva), Monday, 18 September 2006 13:34 (eighteen years ago)

i think i convinced myself to like guero in spite of the bad reviews. then i realised i didn't like it, so essentially outsmarted myself

― Charlie Howard (the sphinx), Monday, 18 September 2006 13:43 (eighteen years ago)

Wowee Zowee by Pavement. That's a record that takes a few listenings to make any sense of.

In the Aeroplane Over The Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel didn't do much for me the first bunch of times either.

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Monday, 18 September 2006 13:43 (eighteen years ago)

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