Record you started off hating but learned to love

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The first time you heard it you thought it was crap.....

Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 20 September 2002 15:17 (twenty-two years ago) link

All of them. It's a good way to build up.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 20 September 2002 15:19 (twenty-two years ago) link

"Yellow" by Coldplay

Derek Dalek (Derek Dalek), Friday, 20 September 2002 15:20 (twenty-two years ago) link

It was Lazer Guided Melodies for me. Failed to see a single redeeming feature in it the first couple of times I played it. A couple of years later I was persuaded to play it again and couldn't believe it was the same album or work out what the hell had been wrong with my ears the previous times.

Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 20 September 2002 15:27 (twenty-two years ago) link

Primal Scream 'Movin On Up'
Morrissey 'Everyday Is Like Sunday'
Kraftwerk 'The Model'
Sugababes 'Overload' (GASP! well not hated but found a bit irritating)
Beck 'Loser'
Mystikal 'Danger (Been So Long)'
Fischerspooner 'Emerge'

blueski, Friday, 20 September 2002 15:27 (twenty-two years ago) link

Afghan Whigs - Gentleman (arguably the only good record they ever released)

Pavement - Slanted and Enchanted

Slint - Spiderland

My Bloody Valentine - Loveless

rms (rms), Friday, 20 September 2002 16:06 (twenty-two years ago) link

the first time I took a listen to any of these, my initial reaction was 'What the Hell is this CRAP?'

rms (rms), Friday, 20 September 2002 16:07 (twenty-two years ago) link

The Walkmen album

insectifly (insectifly), Friday, 20 September 2002 16:11 (twenty-two years ago) link

The single "Get Free" by the Vines has grown on me (Vines, grown on me, GEDDIT?!?!?!)

YOSHIMI BATTLES THE SHAMELESSLY SILLY ALBUM TITLE by the Flaming Lips went from being an object of intense loathing to possibly my most prized album of the past year.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 20 September 2002 16:12 (twenty-two years ago) link

Guided By Voices, Bee Thousand. There's probably others, but I literally forced myself to listen to this record repeatedly because I couldn't understand why anyone liked it at all, much less so much. After about five listens, I started liking "Tractor Rape Chain", and then another additional song with each listen. I still hate "Demons are Real", but the rest of the record is pretty great.

doug, Friday, 20 September 2002 16:18 (twenty-two years ago) link

big ones: pink flag and pet sounds.

both were six month growers for me. i put them on once and went 'ehh' then spent half a year or so unwittingly listening to similar and/or influenced/inspired by records. i put those two albums back on - at different points, of course - and couldn't believe how i didn't 'get it' the first time around.

also, i recall some trepidation over sloan's bizarre change in direction on 'twice removed' when it was first released...

just young and dumb all around.

brian badword (badwords), Friday, 20 September 2002 16:23 (twenty-two years ago) link

Summerteeth and OK Computer. It was like they never penetrated my brain the first go-round, then mysteriously six months later when I gave it another try they went right to the core of my being.

Before these two albums, I didn't think much of Radiohead one way or the other, but I was a big fan of Wilco.

teeny (teeny), Friday, 20 September 2002 16:38 (twenty-two years ago) link

Mule Variations. At first, I thought I could care less about where his pony was, but I acquired a taste for it. At the time of Tragic Kingdom's release, I hated it as well. Then I learned to tolerate it--and I subsequently hate them again.

Steph (Steph), Friday, 20 September 2002 16:41 (twenty-two years ago) link

Talking Heads - Remain In Light
Mercury Rev - Yerself Is Steam, Deserter's Songs
R.E.M. - (...basically most of the IRS catalogue)
Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation

gazuga, Friday, 20 September 2002 17:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures

I couldn't get into it at all. Not being familiar with Martin Hannett's production techniques, I was left a bit cold by it and it didn't leave a huge impression on me. I’m not exactly sure what I was expecting. But now it's one of my favorite records. My heart races the minute I hear Hook's throbbing bassline on the opening of "Disorder".

I'm still slowly warming up to Closer. Not an easy record to play when you’re in a wrecked state of mind.

JC (JC A.), Friday, 20 September 2002 17:21 (twenty-two years ago) link

Damn, I can't believe I forgot Sulk!! This would have been a better example.

JC (JC A.), Friday, 20 September 2002 17:42 (twenty-two years ago) link

Big Star - third/Sister Lovers

kinski (kinski), Friday, 20 September 2002 17:54 (twenty-two years ago) link

I really hated the Smiths when I first heard them ("Hand In Glove" - I still don't like it much, but I came around when I heard "There Is A Light...")

heard the 1st Clash album => hated it => learned to love it and obsessively listened for a while => got tired after a while and just sort of respected it => got thoroughly sick of it.

Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Friday, 20 September 2002 18:28 (twenty-two years ago) link

Original Pirate Material

M Matos (M Matos), Friday, 20 September 2002 18:47 (twenty-two years ago) link

things to make and do

willem (willem), Friday, 20 September 2002 22:04 (twenty-two years ago) link

"Original Pirate Material" indeed.

Siegbran Hetteson (eofor), Friday, 20 September 2002 22:15 (twenty-two years ago) link

"unkown pleasures" was an unknown pleasure in my collection for a long time (forgive me). basically, I could never get past the first track, which is sooooo good.

Aaron Grossman (aajjgg), Friday, 20 September 2002 22:18 (twenty-two years ago) link

If You're Feeling Sinister - and to make matters worse my public groping towards liking it ended up transforming my social life too!

Tom (Groke), Friday, 20 September 2002 23:07 (twenty-two years ago) link

I started out hating the Streets... "Then me and Nigel had a pint, he's a top geezer..." Shut up already. Now, I sort of get it, I guess. I wouldn't buy it, but I love hearing it in clubs.

ANDY, Friday, 20 September 2002 23:09 (twenty-two years ago) link

so once you understood the production you began to enjoy unknown pleasures? hmmm...

keith (keithmcl), Saturday, 21 September 2002 00:57 (twenty-two years ago) link

This Mortal Coil's "Song to the siren"

electric sound of jim (electricsound), Saturday, 21 September 2002 04:14 (twenty-two years ago) link

Interesting responses so far... The Streets just felt so alien to me at first, but I was very interested, even moved, from the get-go. While I didn't hate it at all really, Ride's _Nowhere_ has grown in stature for me tenfold over the past six months or so. To be honest, Can were a big grower, my first purchase being _Tago Mago_ and all - the first time through those two really long really sick whoppers in the middle was, um, trying, to put it mildly...

Clarke B., Saturday, 21 September 2002 04:34 (twenty-two years ago) link

Has It Come To This?
Babies, remarkably
Modern Life Is Rubbish
Selected Ambient Works
anything by Take That

Charlie (Charlie), Saturday, 21 September 2002 05:31 (twenty-two years ago) link

The first time I heard Back In Black, as a rabid 15 year old Sex Pistols loving punk, I had only one question: What the FUCK is wrong with his voice? (My metalhead friend answered "he's got PLYERS on his balls!")

Today I bought that album and it is ACENESS incarnate.

kate, Saturday, 21 September 2002 11:46 (twenty-two years ago) link

so once you understood the production you began to enjoy unknown pleasures? hmmm...

No. I wouldn't say that. It just made me appreciate it on another level. Does that make sense?

JC (JC A.), Saturday, 21 September 2002 13:03 (twenty-two years ago) link

Appreciate sounds too hokey a word to use in this context, and of course time, perception, etc goes a lot into it too, what I was listening to at the time, what I had been exposed to. It really was unlike anything I'd ever heard.

JC (JC A.), Saturday, 21 September 2002 13:36 (twenty-two years ago) link

The Violent Femmes- Blind Leading The Naked
I took it back to the store I bought it from and asked for my money back. Compaired to the later records this is still great.

brg30 (brg30), Saturday, 21 September 2002 19:24 (twenty-two years ago) link

james- laid
the walkmen- everyone who pretended to like me is gone

todd swiss (eliti), Sunday, 22 September 2002 03:05 (twenty-two years ago) link

hes got pliers on his balls CLASSIC!

di smith (lucylurex), Sunday, 22 September 2002 03:23 (twenty-two years ago) link

ps this happens to me with just about every record i hear, especially 70s metal eg sir lord baltimore etc but i have gradually warmed to them.

di smith (lucylurex), Sunday, 22 September 2002 03:24 (twenty-two years ago) link

Daft Punk - One More Time (it actually has more meaning the zillionth time you hear it)
Sophie Ellis Bextor - Murder on the Dancefloor (suddenly I realised that it's not just drab disco house - it's drab disco house with vocals by a stunning robo-China-doll-diva)
Mogwai - Young Team

Keith McD (Keith McD), Sunday, 22 September 2002 07:21 (twenty-two years ago) link

Nick Cave's The Boatman Calls. Initial reaction of no tunes or songs of qaulity. Just real subtle but actually great.

tigerclawskank, Monday, 23 September 2002 10:35 (twenty-two years ago) link

69 love songs. at first i thought it was twee, and then as my boyfriend played it repeatedly i listened to the words and listened to the music again and realised it was great (which one or two obviously duff tracks). unfortunately i realised it was great only after the first magnetic fields dublin gig, but i did catch their second.

angela (angela), Monday, 23 September 2002 11:55 (twenty-two years ago) link

It happens quite frequently when I'll just hate a song initially, keep thinking I hate it, then finally listen again years later and just love it instantly. Examples: Kajagoogoo - Too Shy, General Public - Tenderness, Moody Blues - Nights in White Satin

Vinnie (vprabhu), Monday, 23 September 2002 14:24 (twenty-two years ago) link

Love's Forever Changes. I'm so embarrassed.

Arthur (Arthur), Monday, 23 September 2002 21:57 (twenty-two years ago) link

And all the early Abba singles. Imagine that.

Arthur (Arthur), Monday, 23 September 2002 22:01 (twenty-two years ago) link

Jeez, Arthur. You must have been filled with anti-pop hate. ;-)

Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 00:46 (twenty-two years ago) link

Pearls Before Swine- "One Nation Underground" and "Balaklava"

zzzz ---> whoa, deep, man

Joe (Joe), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 01:11 (twenty-two years ago) link

Lilys, "A Brief History of Amazing Letdowns"

Underclocked, Wednesday, 25 September 2002 21:31 (twenty-two years ago) link

funny how lots of my favorites completely went over my head at first listen....miles davis--bitches brew, king crimson--larks tongues, plastikman--consumed....morphine went completely over my head and then i heard "you look like rain" in between acts at an urge concert and now i own everything they ever put it out....

n.b., Thursday, 26 September 2002 07:50 (twenty-two years ago) link

er, put out. (also beta band--three eps)

n.b., Thursday, 26 September 2002 07:51 (twenty-two years ago) link

eleven months pass...
Steely Dan - Pretzel Logic
Ride - Nowhere
Talking Heads - Fear of Music. That one I so wanted to like that I didn't allow myself to listen to anything else for as long as it would take to 'get'. It took two weeks of listening to it on repeat and now I love it..
Often, I wonder if I could force myself to like ANY album that way..

Fabrice (Fabfunk), Thursday, 25 September 2003 07:57 (twenty-one years ago) link

heaven or las vegas by the cocteau twins and if you're feeling sinister by belle and sebastian come to mind. i loved both of them to pieces afterwards. not sure if i still love them like that now.

actually rethinking of this question, giant sand's center of the universe. it took me about 7 or 8 years before falling in love with it. but there as well i think i have fallen out of love already in the meantime.

alex in mainhattan (alex63), Thursday, 25 September 2003 10:51 (twenty-one years ago) link

Lou Reed - Street Hassle...... which is genius of course

Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 25 September 2003 10:54 (twenty-one years ago) link

one year passes...
Metal Box/Second Edition is pretty easy to hate at first, so that's understandable; I'm sure I wasn't alone as far as that goes. But to not instantly love Singles Going Steady is just inconceivable. Yet for the longest time I only liked "Orgasm Addict" and virtually nothing else registered. Strange.

Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Friday, 12 August 2005 13:23 (nineteen years ago) link

M.I.A.

PappaWheelie II, Friday, 12 August 2005 14:29 (nineteen years ago) link

nine months pass...
Sleeps with angles by the great Neil Young (GOD BLESS HIS SOUL)

ron kavanagh, Friday, 12 May 2006 11:41 (eighteen years ago) link


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