What's The Most Difficult Album You've Ever Listened To?

Rothko

Or, in other words, the most "out there" or least accessible album that you've tried listening to.

For me, it would probably be Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica.

Other albums that I found particularly difficult would be Frank Zappa's We're Only In It For The Money, John Frusciante's Smile From The Streets That You Hold, Miles Davis' Bitches Brew and Herbie Hancock's Sextant.

RikkFlair

John Frusciantes debut album left me scratching my head.

Occasionally I'll let Lou Reeds Metal Machine Music assault my senses :pac:

Da Shins Kelly

I agree with Bitches Brew for sure. Found that one extremely tough.

karaokeman

The worst for me was The Flaming Lips Embryonic, The Soft Bulletin was quite manageable for the most part, but the former I just couldn't get my head around.

Honourable mentions go to The Beach Boys' Smiley Smile, and John Frusciante's A Sphere In The Heart of Silence barr one song.

I only lasted for five tracks of Kate Bush's Aerial.

Herb Powell

I would say The Shaggs' "Philosophy of the World", but it's just too entertaining

zef

Lou Reeds 'Berlin', so depressing but still a great album.

SilverScreen

Earth - Earth 2: Special Low Frequency Version

I really don't know what to make of this album. I like slow, droning music this album is just... an endurance test. I understand you're supposed to turn it up good and loud and immerse yourself in its intense atmosphere, but I was just crying out for some sort of dynamics to break up the otherwise monotonous wall of noise. The only cool thing about it is when you've finished listening to it and you take off your headphones everything sounds trebly because of the amount of bass.

Wing126

Pulled Apart By Horses by Pulled Apart By Horses.
There's one or two good songs on it, but the album is pretty heavy, but it isn't metal or anything, it's kind of like Biffy Clyro's early stuff mixed with some obscure genre they made themselves. At least, I can't put a genre onto it anyway.

Rothko

RikkFlair wrote: »

Occasionally I'll let Lou Reeds Metal Machine Music assault my senses :pac:

Lol, I do that sometimes too. The longest I've managed to listen to it for was 5 minutes.

kunst nugget

Herb Powell wrote: »

I would say The Shaggs' "Philosophy of the World", but it's just too entertaining

Oooohhhh...
The rich people want what the poor people's got
And the poor people want what the rich people's got...

Rothko

karaokeman wrote: »

The worst for me was The Flaming Lips Embryonic, The Soft Bulletin was quite manageable for the most part, but the former I just couldn't get my head around.

I only lasted for five tracks of Kate Bush's Aerial.

Yeah, I found Embryonic to be a tough listen at first too but I eventually grew to really like it.

Interestingly, I have Aerial too but I haven't given it a listen yet. I love all of her stuff that I've heard so far though.

SilverScreen

I'd actually love to listen to an entire Merzbow album just out of curiosity. I'd probably have a seizure after 10 minutes though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGzrL8J0t-c

rcaz

Zero1986 wrote: »

I'd actually love to listen to an entire Merzbow album just out of curiosity. I'd probably have a seizure after 10 minutes though.

Get the Merzbox and strap yourself in!

I've got Dharma, and I like it a lot. It's definitely a very particular kind of music that I'm rarely in the mood to listen to, but when I am in the mood, it's real cool.

This one's one of my favourites:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIsh1J4FbKU

John Coltrane's Ascension is kinda hard going but it's really fantastic stuff. I usually find it best to have a few beers and put it on without trying too hard... Just let the sound come at you and wash over you. That's where the real enjoyment is for me, anyway.

And Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz is a ****ing great album, another one where it's not worth trying to follow the lines or anything, just get stuck into the sound. Play it LOUD.

bullpost

Aerial is great - the second disc is a real grower.

Suas11 wrote: »

Interestingly, I have Aerial too but I haven't given it a listen yet. I love all of her stuff that I've heard so far though.

Prettyblack

Bitches Brew for sure.

I remember finding "()" by Sigur Ros very hard as the lyrics didn't change at all from song to song, it was just the same phrase repeated over and over. I heard it recently though, and it wasn't as bad.

Tales From Topographic Oceans by Yes - a double album made up of just 4 songs - none of which have any good hooks or structure.

Sinfonia

Autechre's EP7 took a while I must say.
<acknowledgement that it's not technically an album>

PickledLime

rcaz wrote: »

John Coltrane's Ascension is kinda hard going but it's really fantastic stuff. I usually find it best to have a few beers and put it on without trying too hard... Just let the sound come at you and wash over you. That's where the real enjoyment is for me, anyway.

And Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz is a ****ing great album, another one where it's not worth trying to follow the lines or anything, just get stuck into the sound. Play it LOUD.

Two absolutely cracking albums there! These 4 albums took me a lot of effort to really get into, but they're all amazing and highly recommended

The most recent jazz record that i picked up that took more than a few listen was Coleman's 'Sound Grammar'. No, your ears aren't deceiving you, that is in fact two bassists:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2wr9xZME_o

Soft Machine's 'Third' is probably best tackled one of the four near-twenty minute tracks at a time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ovor_ZWrAm8

Fredrick Thordendal's (he of Meshuggah fame, who aren't exactly the most accessible band out there to begin with) absolute head trip Sol Niger Within needs to be listened to as one piece. Think i listened to for about a year on and off bfore it finally clicked:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6kXLkJA6g0

Fitting that Gorgut's 'Obscura' has been described as the 'Trout Mask Replica' of metal. The entire album features similar oddness and intensity. This is a great video of the title track getting hammered out live

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PneRbPrCsZE

mosstin

karaokeman wrote: »

The worst for me was The Flaming Lips Embryonic, The Soft Bulletin was quite manageable for the most part, but the former I just couldn't get my head around.

Honourable mentions go to The Beach Boys' Smiley Smile, and John Frusciante's A Sphere In The Heart of Silence barr one song.

I only lasted for five tracks of Kate Bush's Aerial.

Ye Gods. You don't know what you're missing then. One of the finest albums of the 2000s.

PickledLime

mosstin wrote: »

Ye Gods. You don't know what you're missing then. One of the finest albums of the 2000s.

Aye! It's lovely too, perfect late night listening. Maybe the geek in me gets giddy hearing pi recited to a tonne of decimal places in such a soft, smooth manner!

snausages

Does music have its own Finnegans Wake?

Uh, I don't listen to a lot so for me a 'difficult' album might seem a bit tame to a lot of others here. I had a hard time figuring out if people actually enjoyed 'In the aeroplane over the sea' un-ironically or if it was all just a big joke. Anything from Sunn O)))) and Merriweather post pavilion confuse me as well.

SilverScreen

snausages wrote: »

Does music have its own Finnegans Wake?

Uh, I don't listen to a lot so for me a 'difficult' album might seem a bit tame to a lot of others here. I had a hard time figuring out if people actually enjoyed 'In the aeroplane over the sea' un-ironically or if it was all just a big joke. Anything from Sunn O)))) and Merriweather post pavilion confuse me as well.

I don't think In The Aeroplane Over The Sea is that inaccessible, I just found it to be a bit uninspiring and boring. I never really understood it's reputation as I think there were far better lo-fi indie albums in the 90's. Merriweather Post Pavilion is actually Animal Collective's most accessible album funnily enough. It's actually poppy enough in places yet still has an overall experimental bent.

Talib Fiasco

cLOUDDEAD - cLOUDDEAD. Still gives me nightmares.

Timfy

I nearly gave up with Tangerine Dream... and then suddenly it just clicked!

rcaz

PickledLime wrote: »

Fitting that Gorgut's 'Obscura' has been described as the 'Trout Mask Replica' of metal. The entire album features similar oddness and intensity. This is a great video of the title track getting hammered out live

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PneRbPrCsZE

Ooh I've listened to that one a few times, I'm not really into metal at all, but I could tell that one had something in it that I liked... I still haven't really gotten into that kinda stuff, it but it's definitely the most exciting metal I've listened to. It's savage to see people properly rocking out to microtones.


I'm really into electronic music, and I guess Venetian Snares might be a kind of Gorguts of electronic music. Winnipeg Is A Frozen ****hole is hard-going at the best of times, physically stressful at the worst :pac:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeMTcbXgc6k

dasdog

Some great posts on this thread of all flavours that deserve exploring.

Sun Ra & his various Arkestra formats released recordings from the sublime to the unlistenable absurd over the course of a few decades.

A very easy going tune from 1978.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2FnIzSf48k

pconn062

I have listened to several hours of Morton Feldman's piano music in one sitting, it was difficult but rewarding. Usually I find difficult music is almost always the music you learn the most from (I work and study as a composer). I can't believe people mentioned Bitch's Brew, it's one of my favourite albums!

dasdog

pconn062 wrote: »

I can't believe people mentioned Bitch's Brew, it's one of my favourite albums!

Like a magnet to my brain on the first listen.

Rothko

pconn062 wrote: »

I can't believe people mentioned Bitch's Brew, it's one of my favourite albums!

Oh, it's a great album. One of my favourites by Miles. It's just that it took me a while to get my head around it.

The Swordsman

Off the top of my head, 'Smile' by Brian Wilson.

Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys is one of the greatest albums ever. Smile was to be the follow up to Pet Sounds, but never was released and built up a mystique as the greatest ever unreleased album.

When Wilson eventually recorded and released the album as a solo artist 40 years later, I found it unlistenable. Tried a few times to get into it, but eventually I just gave up.

nyarlothothep

Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven by Godspeed you Black Emperor would be up there, it begins with a long intro of ambient sounds, I think I only listened to it all the way through once, aeons ago.

snausages

Everything about that album is great. Even the bit with the old dude reminiscing about Coney Island.

Irish Aris

I absolutely love Bjork, so listening to her Drawing Restraint 9 album (the soundtrack to her partner's Matthew Barney film) was a real ordeal. . .

delbertgrady

I remember actually feeling unwell while listening to Tilt by Scott Walker, his (generally) highly-praised 1995 album. I expected it to be "difficult", but I could not persevere with it. Also, Zero Tolerance for Silence by Pat Metheny is just insufferable noise. An otherwise accomplished guitarist, the album is forty seemingly endless minutes of improvised racket. A serious blot on his discography.

Dark Artist

'In a Flesh Aquarium' by Unexpect. I've had this album for a while and some songs still haven't grown on me but I find it extremely rewarding. They're an avante-garde band with influences ranging from classical, gypsy, metal, jazz, electro... basically everything, and that's not an overstatement. Their music is like an acid trip, totally chaotic but really rewarding once you start to unravel it.

briany

Trout Mask Replica is still an assault on the senses. Written by Beefheart, allegedly, almost entirely in one 8 hour marathon session at his piano which he wasn't trained on and then painstakingly put together by his band from what was transcribed at that session. It might sound like a group of people free improv-ing together but that was rehearsed! :O

GLaDOS

nyarlothothep wrote: »

Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven by Godspeed you Black Emperor would be up there, it begins with a long intro of ambient sounds, I think I only listened to it all the way through once, aeons ago.

Takes a bit to get into but I'd rate it as one of my favourite albums now.

rcaz

briany wrote: »

Trout Mask Replica is still an assault on the senses. Written by Beefheart, allegedly, almost entirely in one 8 hour marathon session at his piano which he wasn't trained on and then painstakingly put together by his band from what was transcribed at that session. It might sound like a group of people free improv-ing together but that was rehearsed! :O

Great stuff

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYdjQCrO_xM

mosstin

delbertgrady wrote: »

I remember actually feeling unwell while listening to Tilt by Scott Walker, his (generally) highly-praised 1995 album. I expected it to be "difficult", but I could not persevere with it. Also, Zero Tolerance for Silence by Pat Metheny is just insufferable noise. An otherwise accomplished guitarist, the album is forty seemingly endless minutes of improvised racket. A serious blot on his discography.

'Tilt' is positively Stock, Aitken and Watermanesque compared to 'The Drift'.

Cosmicfox

Arcade fire's first two albums. I liked intervention and was expecting more songs along the same vein.

Took me over a year to actually get into them and they'd be my favourites now.

magma69

John Coltrane's Ascension.

Free jazz in general. Find it horrible to listen to.

rcaz

magma69 wrote: »

John Coltrane's Ascension.

Free jazz in general. Find it horrible to listen to.

But it's all ****ing CLASS!!

magma69

rcaz wrote: »

But it's all ****ing CLASS!!

I didn't realise I was talking to the definitive judge of what's good and bad music. I'll get back in my box.

Free jazz is all ****ing class. The great rcaz says so.

rcaz

magma69 wrote: »

I didn't realise I was talking to the definitive judge of what's good and bad music. I'll get back in my box.

Free jazz is all ****ing class. The great rcaz says so.

Ah jaysus, are we taking everything personally now?

For me, free jazz is the most exciting music there is. It's just people, in the moment, exploring. It's not about how it sounds, or about listening to each part, it's about how it feels and hearing the whole thing as one. It's a big block of music that will never, ever happen that way again... I spent about two years approaching it the wrong way and never 'getting' it, then I realised what I was doing wrong.

But since we're taking everything personally, yes I am the definitive judge of what is good and bad music. My opinions are correct.

markesmith

Metal Box was a tough one to get into...also Mark Hollis' first solo record. But I love them both now.

mosstin

It hasn't actually been released yet but based on the snippets I've heard, Scott Walker's latest addition to his pop collection 'Bish Bosch' promises to be, ahem, challenging.

lordgoat

rcaz wrote: »

Ah jaysus, are we taking everything personally now?

For me, free jazz is the most exciting music there is. It's just people, in the moment, exploring. It's not about how it sounds, or about listening to each part, it's about how it feels and hearing the whole thing as one. It's a big block of music that will never, ever happen that way again... I spent about two years approaching it the wrong way and never 'getting' it, then I realised what I was doing wrong.

But since we're taking everything personally, yes I am the definitive judge of what is good and bad music. My opinions are correct.

dude, we normally agree but i hate jazz. I just find it annoying. It's the most annoying part of homeland. I mute the intro every episode.

i know i know... philistine!

kunst nugget

lordgoat wrote: »

dude, we normally agree but i hate jazz. I just find it annoying. It's the most annoying part of homeland. I mute the intro every episode.

i know i know... philistine!

Tbf, that whole title sequence is utter gack.

Temaz

I despise jazz.

rcaz

I won't argue... I'll just say try this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNbD1JIH344

Maybe not for everyone, but if you like hearing musicians ****ing going for it, you might find something you like in here.

Lordgoat, you're into Radiohead, stuff like the horns in The National Anthem don't do anything for you?

karaokeman

rcaz wrote: »

the horns in The National Anthem

Now that you mention it, I've heard a lot of people say Kid A is a difficult album to listen to.

I used to dislike Radiohead before I heard that album as I was approaching them the wrong way back then, but my expectations for the sound of Kid A were bang on and now its my favourite album of theirs and The National Anthem is my favourite track.

Mental Mickey

Tool - 10,000 Days. Boring, proggy s***e.