Albums that took more than one listen to'get'

Sinfonia

The thread formerly known as:

Don't know how to phrase this title, and it would be really long winded, so just read the thread. :P

Situation:
Me: "Have you heard/Do you like <Album> by <Artist>?"
You: "Gave it a listen once, wasn't really into it"
Me: "omfg etc. give it another chance, it's brilliant"
You: <weeks later> "That album is brilliant"

You get the idea.

Essentially, I'm asking you to name albums that you have "double-recommended" (so to speak) as they are well worth a second chance.

Also, let me know if this thread is nonsense, because I'm a bit foggy atm

ValJester

Two Dancers-Wild Beasts
Bandwagonesque-Teenage Fanclub
Actor-St Vincent.

seachto7

The National - High Violet
Bon Iver - For Emma
Soundgarden - Down on the Upside
Sparrow and the Workshop - Crystals Falling

Sinfonia

ValJester wrote: »

Actor-St Vincent.

Me too!

Also, I forgot to put one in the OP.
I recently did this with Silent Alarm, which is what made me think of this thread.

jill_valentine

I've had For Emma... double-recommended to me, and I'm bloody glad I heeded it.

lordgoat

jill_valentine wrote: »

I've had For Emma... double-recommended to me, and I'm bloody glad I heeded it.

his new album is out in june, which will be interesting...

Gillington

Sinfonia wrote: »

Me too!

Also, I forgot to put one in the OP.
I recently did this with Silent Alarm, which is what made me think of this thread.

Shame on you!

Well at least you are in to Silent Alarm now.One of the greatest debut albums in the last 10 yrs.

Oh and on-topic,probably Fleet Foxes for me

ElaElaElano

Someone told me to listen to Menomena a while back and I had a quick youtube and wasn't taken aback, but then someone here (Jeff?) posted up the album in its entirety streaming so I gave it another shot, and they're now one of my favourite bands.

So, yeah, Mines by Menomena. Get on it!

osnola ibax

SAW 85-92, although in fairness he had only listened to snippets from itunes before making his mind up. Thanked me later for making him listen to whole album.

Had a similar experience with a friend of mine and Youth and Young Manhood.

And then there's Kid A, the ultimate double recommend album.

Scubadevils

Interesting to see this thread here tonight as only today I was thinking again about this very subject and had planned to start a thread but couldn't quite decide how to approach it! Why is it that you could buy an album today and on first listen possibly decide that its only ok or mediocre, yet on subsequent listens it grows and ultimately becomes something you love. What is it that changes in the brain in terms of how the various elements of the music being processed and becoming more familiar and at the same time more pleasurable?

I was looking this up earlier tonight to see if I could find anything on a google search but didn't find anything specific to this. I did however find some interesting material on wikipedia that drills deep into the subject of 'music & the brain'. Although it doesn't directly address my question, it does generate some interesting points in relation to how the brain processes music - one in particular in relation to how different parts of the brain process different elements of music - i.e. pitch, tonality and rhythm...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_and_the_brain

What do people here think? Why does a first listen potentially mean little but after several listens you pronounce the album to be amongst the greatest ever?

Sinfonia

Gillington wrote: »

Shame on you!

Well at least you are in to Silent Alarm now.One of the greatest debut albums in the last 10 yrs.

Ha, no it was me who recommended it

smacg

miracle fortress - five roses.

32_4_1

think tank. my favourite album ever since

Sinfonia

Scubadevils wrote: »

Interesting to see this thread here tonight as only today I was thinking again about this very subject and had planned to start a thread but couldn't quite decide how to approach it! Why is it that you could buy an album today and on first listen possibly decide that its only ok or mediocre, yet on subsequent listens it grows and ultimately becomes something you love. What is it that changes in the brain in terms of how the various elements of the music being processed and becoming more familiar and at the same time more pleasurable?

I was looking this up earlier tonight to see if I could find anything on a google search but didn't find anything specific to this. I did however find some interesting material on wikipedia that drills deep into the subject of 'music & the brain'. Although it doesn't directly address my question, it does generate some interesting points in relation to how the brain processes music - one in particular in relation to how different parts of the brain process different elements of music - i.e. pitch, tonality and rhythm...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_and_the_brain

What do people here think? Why does a first listen potentially mean little but after several listens you pronounce the album to be amongst the greatest ever?

Well I think (like anything else really) repeated exposure to something can develop a greater understanding of it, which may improve its effect on you. There's also the question of familiarity: people seem to be more comfortable with patterns that they recognise (whether they know it or not) - the most widely consumed music tends to be very 'unoriginal', I mean a homophonic song with a I-IV-V chord progression (or I-V-vi-IV, see every song ever :P) and a 4/4 metre will be more popular than a densely-layered atonal piece with frequent changes between various irregular metres etc. Even songs will be more popular than instrumental music as people are prone to identify with the human element of the voice, and, regardless of how badly, anybody can sing.
Overexposure on the other hand could effectively ruin a piece of music for you too I suppose..

Scubadevils

Sinfonia wrote: »

Well I think (like anything else really) repeated exposure to something can develop a greater understanding of it, which may improve its effect on you. There's also the question of familiarity: people seem to be more comfortable with patterns that they recognise (whether they know it or not) - the most widely consumed music tends to be very 'unoriginal', I mean a homophonic song with a I-IV-V chord progression (or I-V-vi-IV, see every song ever :P) and a 4/4 metre will be more popular than a densely-layered atonal piece with frequent changes between various irregular metres etc. Even songs will be more popular than instrumental music as people are prone to identify with the human element of the voice, and, regardless of how badly, anybody can sing.
Overexposure on the other hand could effectively ruin a piece of music for you too I suppose..

Yeah I was thinking on the familiarity alright, makes sense to assume that something new will be to an extent 'present' while you are listening, especially if its something quite different... whereas when you become familiar with it it will have a sense of past, present & future in that you have a previous knowledge of it, you are currently listening plus you know what's going to happen next (maybe not even consciously), if you know what I mean! As this increases, so does your level of either liking or disliking.

Another interesting website actually that I found on the brain and music yesterday...

http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n15/mente/musica.html

Sorry, kinda dragging this off topic :pac:

Sinfonia

I actually bought this book Rhythm, Music and the Brain a couple of years ago at an SMI conference, but it was pretty science heavy, so I shelved it. Might give it another try!

Scubadevils

Sinfonia wrote: »

I actually bought this book Rhythm, Music and the Brain a couple of years ago at an SMI conference, but it was pretty science heavy, so I shelved it. Might give it another try!

I bought one called 'This is your brain on music' but got bored, too many studies around accidents and how music helped people - not that I'm not interested in that side but it seemed to go on too much... must go back to it again and give it another shot.

I do like the look of this one though - 'Sweet Anticipation'

seniorolaighin

James Blake - James Blake

Oh_Noes

Mansun- Six

And OK Computer by Radiohead takes about 20 listens before you get to realise that there's no filler and every single track is fantastic.

Scubadevils

Scubadevils wrote: »

I bought one called 'This is your brain on music' but got bored, too many studies around accidents and how music helped people - not that I'm not interested in that side but it seemed to go on too much... must go back to it again and give it another shot.

I do like the look of this one though - 'Sweet Anticipation'

Correction to the above, I had meant to get 'This is your brain on music' but got 'Musicophilia' instead... which had all the tales of accidents etc.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Musicophilia-Tales-Music-Oliver-Sacks/dp/0330418386/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1301845534&sr=1-1

AhSureTisGrand

Every Radiohead album from OK Computer onwards
Loveless by My Bloody Valentine
Is This It? by The Strokes (I know this seems an odd choice but it left me bored at first)
Screamadelica by Primal Scream
Pinkerton by Weezer
Illinois by Sufjan Stevens
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West
Man Alive by Everything Everything

Kid V

seniorolaighin wrote: »

James Blake - James Blake

Headphones definitely help!

Also....

Burial - 'Untrue'
Spiritualized - 'Ladies and Gentleman We Are Floating in Space'
Portishead - 'Third'
Panda Bear - 'Person Pitch'
Flying Lotus - 'Los Angeles'
Grizzly Bear - 'Yellow House'


Very rewarding albums that i'm glad i persevered through repeated listens to get into.

quarryman

Van Morrison - Astral Weeks

Absolutely hated it first time I heard it.

lordgoat

quarryman wrote: »

Van Morrison - Astral Weeks

Absolutely hated it first time I heard it.

It's some album though! Gonna listen to that tomorrow, nice!

pappyodaniel

Paul Simon - Graceland
Radiohead - Kid A (of course)
Beatles - White Album
Stone Roses - Second Coming
The Kinks - Village Green Preservation Society

JimsAlterEgo

mercury rev - deserters songs

nobby grande

Captain Beefheart - Trout Mask Replica

MGMT - Congratulations

Radiohead - OK computer

bryaner

Sound of the Underground Girls Aloud..:D

Jim

I thought Belle & Sebastian was the worst kind of **** the first time I listened to them.

I was a pretty retarded kid.

smokedeels

Last year it was "Before Today" by Aerial Pink - I knew there was something in it, like when I first heard it, it just sounded like a mix tape of cheesy new wave music, and I guess it is, but it's got a charm that I knew was there even if it wasn't initially getting through to me, I love it now.

seniorolaighin wrote: »

James Blake - James Blake

I got one of his EPs after I read some great reviews but... I don't know, I understand it's meant to be minimal, but there's just not enough going on with the music for me to enjoy it and his vocals wreck my head too.

And the tracks I liked (i.e Klavierwerke) sounded like a less fleshed out version of some of the Mount Kimbie stuff I was enjoying at the time, so I thought, why bother?

sink

Probably the most extreme one for me was Weezers Pinkerton. I can remember getting caught up in the media hype of hating the album. I thought Weezer had betrayed their fans and swore never to listen to them again. It was around a year later when I really started to notice how good the album was, it kind of hit a raw nerve of being an awkward sexually frustrated teenager. Now it's one of my favourite albums of all time. Pity the got blasted for it at the time, it might have pushed them into their pop rock coma.