Albums You Initially Dismissed But Now Love

[meccalecca]

We've all made mistakes. Listened to a song or album one time and said it sucked, then later on in your life within a new setting, this record finds you again and you have an epiphany.

What are some of your favorite albums that you initially dismissed?

The first that comes to mind for me is Low's album Drums & Guns. When that album came out, i was not really familiar with Low but ended up with a copy of the cd. When I first listened, it totally bored me to sleep aside from maybe a song.

A year or so later I heard and feel in love with their album The Great Destroyer. So, naturally, I returned to Drums & Guns and try to understand how this could be the same band that once bored. me. Upon re-listening everything clicked into place.

I also really didn't like Bob Dylan or Neil Young when I was a kid. I blame the harmonica. I still hate the sound of the harmonica.
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http://jonnyleather.com

[HazeyTwilight]

I bet most people (including myself) will mention In The Aeroplane Over The Sea. At one point I called it the most overrated album of all time, but it grew on me and I completely get the hype.

Other mentions would have to go to Pinkerton, Doolittle (to a lesser extent) and Amnesiac.
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[Guest]

A few that come straight to mind:

Unknown Pleasures
Highway 61 Revisited (or anything else by Dylan, tbh)
The Velvet Underground & Nico
Are You Experienced
Ten
Born to Run
Darkness on the Edge of Town
Elephant
Pinkerton
Definitely Maybe
Hunky Dory
Surfer Rosa
Slanted and Enchanted
The Piper at the Gates of Dawn

Just to name a few. I didn't necessarily "dislike" all of these albums, but I didn't care for any of them after one listen, and they're all among my all-time favorites now.

And yes, I also hate the sound of the harmonica. It's the only part of Dylan's sound I don't care for.

[drakonium]

Funny, I'm currently listening to The Smiths self-titled, which previously annoying me, but I'm really liking it right now. It's still miles away from The Queen Is Dead, but still very enjoyable.

About real hate and real love, I guess Mercury Rev's Yerself Is Steam falls in that category. I've always loved Frittering, but the rest was really terrible. And like you, I loved it after listening to a more accessible Mercury Rev album, Deserter's songs.

I really hated It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back at first, too. I just hadn't listened to enough hip hop to "get" it.

Other examples include Daydream Nation, Loveless or Astral Weeks. Sister, Slowdive and more folk music helped me appreciate them, respectively.

Edit : ah, yeah, I forgot Slanted And Enchanted. Crooked Rain was what lead me to like Pavement.

But I genuinely disliked all the albums I've quoted above. They were truly painful experiences then.

And WTF with harmonica guys? It's an instrument of sheer beauty

[meccalecca]

When I first heard my older brothers listening to Sonic Youth and Fugazi in the early 90s, I thought it was just noise.
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http://jonnyleather.com

[Guest]

[Puncture Repair]

In The Aeroplane Over The Sea springs to mind, but it's an obvious choice. I remember just thinking it sounded awful, hurt my ears and had little tune.

Certainly my views on Hip Hop have changed. Listening to Illmatic the first time was real chore, because I didn't really understand it, I just wanted to. I was still in the category of people who think rapping is just talking over some music. After listening to a number of other hip hop records, I returned to Illmatic and I was absolutely blown away - and it still sounds as good as that one time. I tried writing a rap song the other day, but it totally sucked - it's easy to forget just how much pin-point accuracy goes into the wording of Nas' verses.

[sp4cetiger]

Just about all of my favorite albums, really. What's rare is that I love an album right away and continue to love it years later. Loveless is the only album in my top 10 that I liked right away, but who knows if it I'll like it as much in five years.

This effect is really what drives my listening habits. Anything I think might be challenging me, I try to listen to it over and over again, hoping I'll reach the point where it "clicks." Sometimes it never does, but when it does, I can become obsessed with that album for months. Right now Yoshimi and Soft Bulletin are clicking the most with me and I'm just trying not to listen to them too often, for fear of forever wearing out the high.

[Patman360]

I couldn't stand If You're Feeling Sinister by Belle & Sebastian the first time I heard it, like it took me ages to even try it again, yet now it's 4th in my overall chart.

I'll just quote myself off my chart.

[meccalecca]