Albums that I didn’t like at first but then later came to love
Urban Hymns – The Verve
Bittersweet Symphony came out whilst I was at Sixth Form, and I really couldn’t see what the fuss was about. It was really repetitious and boring. It just didn’t go anywhere or do anything. And all the followup singles seemed to follow the same pattern.
A couple of years later, I went to see a friend in Cambridge, and at some point during the weekend, she put on the album. For some reason, it lodged itself in my brain and wouldn’t leave, and I went round for several days, humming it to myself. In an attempt to exorcise it, I bought the album in a sale somewhere, and forced myself to listen to it. And then it clicked – actually, it’s really, really damned good.
Discovery – Daft Punk
Again, I was unimpressed by the singles. They just didn’t do anything for me, at all. And that whole thing with the low-bitrate samples just annoyed the hell out of me. But then, at some point, someone made me sit down and listen to the whole album, and actually pay attention. And then it all made sense. Plus, it’s got the coolest video ever made.
Final Straw – Snow Patrol
In fact, the album that prompted this posting. Listened to it on a listening post in HMV a couple of months back, and wasn’t impressed at all. Then, today, Rick asked me to rip and MP3 his copy to stick on the MP3 server at work, and as I was listening to it to check it had encoded okay, it hit me that it was actually pretty damned good.
White on Blonde – Texas
Words cannot express how much I disliked this at first. “Say What You Want” was just too goddamned annoying and repetetive and catchy and wouldn’t get out of your head, ever. So, after being stuck with it in my head for a week, I just relented, gave in, and accepted that, actually, I quite liked it after all.
Albums I still just Don’t Get
Is this it? – The Strokes
Nope, sorry. Boring.
Elephant – The White Stripes
No, you’re not clever and stripped down and reductionist; you’re just dull.
Anything, ever by Shania Twain
If you need this one explaining, you should probably just shoot yourself now.
I didn’t really get the White Album until I discovered that there were supposed to be two of them.
Lori? U2 is legendary. you should suffer penance for not getting them.
Chris, the verve are still dull. The white stripes have something about them. Watch the videos.
Elephant by the White Stripes – Dull?!?!?!
Keep listening to it and play it LOUD – you’ll get it in the end!
Discovery is a quality album.
‘A Northern Soul’ is a better Verve album. If you don’t own a copy of that, you should get one.
Same happened to me with U2’s Achtung Baby. Never really understood why people raved about the band and then one time when my friend played this album I realised that, not only did I have to own it, but I actually ‘got’ U2.