remphish1 Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 How long does it take for an album by an artist you like to click? It seems it takes about 4 or 5 listens for me to have an album sink in. It is very rare that on a first listen I like an album. I just had one of those moments with Travis latest album Ode to J Smith. Only about 3 months later and several listens! The only Wilco album I liked on first listen was Yankee... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
pmancini100 Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 that just happened to me with fleet foxes. id say it takes 2 or 3 listens for an album to click. the first time you have to "install" it, like my friend says. as a side note, i hated wilco when i first heard them. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sparky speaks Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 As much as it gets a bad rap around here by some, I liked SBS the first time I heard it.......It is one of my favorite albums...... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dondoboy Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 I think it really depends on the album. The first time I heard "Being There" I was in love. Played it for hours that day. "Sky Blue Sky" took forever for me to love. And 36 years for any Doors album. But I'm getting there. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GtrPlyr Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 Some records click right away, but usually it takes 3-4 listens for me to see the whole picture: each listen usually reveals something I didn't pick-up on the previous go through. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
lamradio Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 As much as it gets a bad rap around here by some, I liked SBS the first time I heard it.......It is one of my favorite albums...... Same here. It's actually the only Wilco album that I instantly fell in love with. The others took a few listens.. Even YHF. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
PopTodd Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 It took a while for My Bloody Valentine (Loveless) to click with me. But then, one day, I gave it another shot... in an elevated state... with headphones. And, CLICK! Well, more like: SLAM!!!!!! It was (and still is) pretty amazing. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sir Stewart Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 Same deal with Sky Blue Sky for me - the only Wilco album I loved right away. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Synthesizer Patel Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 it depends what you mean by click really. i don't think i truly understand any of my favourite albums - which is why i can keep coming back to them - but i kind of knew i liked all of them, or would like all of them, the very first time i heard them. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
cryptique Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 The "click" varies wildly for me. I've loved a lot of albums on the first listen, but typically it's at least two or three listens before I come around. On numerous occasions I've put an album away after a few listens, ignored it for a while (weeks, months, even years), then came back to it, at which time it clicked. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
plasticeyeball Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 Same deal with Sky Blue Sky for me - the only Wilco album I loved right away. some bits never get old. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nodep5 Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 I find the older I get, the moments of first time feeling it are fewer and far in between. I have a few albums that were instant tear provoking (literally) first time experiences Wilco Being ThereWhiskeytown Strangers AlmanacSun Kil Moon Ghosts of The Great Highway These three initial listens were profound Now I can think of one record that took about 6 months before I totally became obsessed and that was Love is Hell by Ryan Adams. Upon first listen, especially hearing "political scientist" I was appalled, but I went back to it and (with headphones) truly became wierd about that record. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
m_thomp Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 There are a number of different reasons. I think the main one is 'time', and allied to that people, and their tastes, change; there are albums that you once loved and still do, and then there are albums that perhaps can't stand nowadays. On a pure instinctive level I think I can always determine whether something warrants more plays almost immediately (ie after one listen). I tend to find that gets a bit clouded though once the environment in which you listen becomes too strong a force. It took me a while to appreciate Vetiver's To Find Me Gone, but then I realized I was trying to listen to on lots of noisy motorway journeys - this never lends itself to hushed acoustic music. So it's only when I dedicate time to properly listening (ie without too many distractions), as opposed to albums being shoved on for background decoration, that I can determine pretty quickly whether to exercise a little patience, and that patience usually increases the love. As for music that instantly destroys patience-braking point, that's a different matter. There are certain albums that I know, no matter how many plays after the initial listen, that I will never like, so I pass on the opportunity of torturing myself further. The last one of those was that Blitzen Trapper album. So I guess, to me, 'clicking' means 'not dismissing'. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nodep5 Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 Man this has got me thinking about the first moments of a record. Wouldn't it be cool to have been alive and put on Neil Young's Harvest and heard the opening seconds of "out on the weekend" when it was first released. Man some records just draw you in. Son Volt's "Windfall", now there is a start to a record. This is starting to sound like John Cuszack first side first song crap. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sparky speaks Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 Man this has got me thinking about the first moments of a record. Wouldn't it be cool to have been alive and put on Neil Young's Harvest and heard the opening seconds of "out on the weekend" when it was first released. It was since I was alive then .......But hearing After the Gold Rush the first time was even better......Ditto the White Album (My favorite of all time)........ Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nodep5 Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 It was since I was alive then .......But hearing After the Gold Rush the first time was even better......Ditto the White Album (My favorite of all time)........ I realized after I submitted that post that I was probably drawing a line in the sand with age that was making a lot of assumptions. That would have been cool. It was cool the first time I heard it at the age of 23 in the late nineties. But I already had preconcieved notions about Neil and his music so it is not the same. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Moss Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 I also loved Sky Blue Sky the first time but that is usually the case for Wilco with me. When is the new Springsteen going to click with me because it has not happened yet? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sparky speaks Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 I have had a very hard time clicking with anything Paul McCartney has put out the past two decades.......And I am long time Beatles fan......The last one that clicked with me was Flowers in the Dirt from the late 80's..... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Ghost of Electricity Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 Some women are drop dead gorgeous when you lay eyes on them, but when you try talking to them they suddenly don't look so good. Other women you don't notice at first but after a conversation you realize "hey!" Of course there are the ones who don't look so good and just get worse when they start talking, and ever so rarely there are the ones that you do notice and when engaged in conversation get even better. Records are more or less the same way, and the ones that belong in this fourth group are the ones we take with us, the ones we don't actually need because we can press "play" in our heads and there it is. For me, this "short list" includes "Velvet Underground and Nico," The Jayhawks' "Hollywood Town Hall," Dylan's "Blood on The Tracks" disc 1 of "Being There" (I lost disc two about a week after i got and didn't have the occasion to hear it again until years after disc one was written all over the sinews of my heart). Anything which I have to jump up to look through the shelf for obviously does not really belong there. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Central Scrutinizer Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 As much as it gets a bad rap around here by some, I liked SBS the first time I heard it.......It is one of my favorite albums......This album clicked immediately with me. But I agree it's not their greatest album, it just clicked with me. I think that an album can immediately hit you on a private emotional level; it can hit you under certain circumstances and each further listen reinforces the feelings of those circumstances. I think in most cases, though, greater, or deeper works take time to hit you. For you to truly get it. Unless you are overwhelmed by the initial impact and further listening unpeels the depth and layers. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mfwahl Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 I have had a very hard time clicking with anything Paul McCartney has put out the past two decades.......And I am long time Beatles fan......The last one that clicked with me was Flowers in the Dirt from the late 80's.....Have you heard the new Fireman? That shit was an instant clicker. I haven't read reviews so I don't know the reception but I love it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ih8music Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 I think it depends on my expectations for the album - if I have high hopes for it being great, I'm typically disappointed on the first listen or two but usually come around to liking (or loving) it. Only when something comes out of left field or is from an artist/band that's new to me do I sometimes love it upon first listen... most recent example of that was when I picked up Nobody's Darlings, my first Lucero CD, a few months ago. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nodep5 Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 I would agree that expecations can kill initial listens. That is likely why no Wilco album will ever floor me like Being There did. I was a huge fan of AM, but that album didn't lend to great expectations, so I was just expecting more simple, fun, cute songs and then I hear "Misunderstood" and you think, "is he screaming at me" Now that was wild at the time. I also agree with the post about your own personal stuff that is happening when you first hear a record. I really like Cardinology (which puts me in the minority) but I think it was at a time where songs like "Born Into A Light" and "Let Us Down Easy" were perfect for where I was at. Outside of that individual perspective those songs may sound like platitudes or trite. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
kathyp Posted January 29, 2009 Share Posted January 29, 2009 if I have high hopes for it being great, I'm typically disappointed on the first listen or two but usually come around to liking (or loving) it. This was my problem with The Replacements' Let It Be. I'd heard Tim first, and had already fallen in love with it. But (and this was in the days before the reissues -- and the second set of reissues) Let It Be eluded me for some time until I scavenged a copy, and I was ultimately disappointed. Granted, I like it now better than Tim (and am fully aware of Tim's flaws, production-wise), but back then I wanted it to be this big, great... thing. And it sort of wasn't. Back to the original question, I usually decide I like a record on the first or second listen. Unfair? Probably, but my livelihood doesn't depend on whether I "get" the latest Conor Oberst release or not. The exception is, a lot of times, the singer's voice. Something else has to draw me in if I can't stand the sound of the guy (or gal) singing. Mostly it's songwriting. (If you haven't guessed, I'm not a musician -- wicked guitar licks or a pounding bass line is usually lost on me.) Eef Barzely's voice grates on me, but the more I listen to his or Clem Snide's records, the more I warm to it, for example. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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