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"Classic" albums you just don't get


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Patti Smith - Horses

 

By all accounts, I should love this record. It is in a style that I adore, made with people that I really dig, coming from a scene that is one of my favorites. Also, it is held up as an essential of that genre.

Somehow, it just leaves me cold.

 

Am I missing something?

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Perhaps what is missing is context? What was going on when the album was made? What was the political/musical/artistic landscape of the times? This could be applied to every album I think.

 

 

There is a lot of truth to this. Bon Iver - For Emma is a good example. Knowing the cabin story and the mental state he was in makes it heartwrenching to listen to. If the story wasn't true, it was absolute marketing genius and it made him a star.

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There is a lot of truth to this. Bon Iver - For Emma is a good example. Knowing the cabin story and the mental state he was in makes it heartwrenching to listen to. If the story wasn't true, it was absolute marketing genius and it made him a star.

 

I

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sometimes the album can take you to that context immediately. sometimes i don't like the way that feels, hence my 'not getting' some classic albums. classic rock takes me straight to the rec center in dazed and confused. horses, on the other hand, takes me to utter urban decay. don't get it. trout makes me sick to my stomach and pet sounds is just too damn cute. also, i think YHF is a bit too over-rated. a good experiment, but a little too much experimenting. case in point, the ends of reservations and ashes.

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I was just talking about that album with some friends yesterday. One loves it and the other is in the same place that you (and I) are in. My friend who loves it admits that it's a difficult album, but claims that you just need to keep listening to it, and it will reveal itself. Not sure if I can do that to myself, though. It's beyond "difficult", IMO.

 

 

Keep listening to it is a problem for me. Do I suddenly get it after 100 listens because I have that magical epiphany? Or does it just become so familiar to my ears that I become comfortable with it and confuse that comfort level with a true understanding and love of the work? For me repetition is not the key. Repetition has allowed me to know the lyrics to many many Bon Jovi and Def Lepard songs without ever owning a single album by either band, and it

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I don't really get the hype of "Horses", but I like much about it.

 

"Trout Mask Replica" I'll admit to giving up trying to like. Usually after listening to a little bit, I'll throw in Matthew Sweet or something to hear something more 'normal'.

 

 

A classic album I never "got" was Nevermind.

 

 

Maybe it was groundbreaking because it introduced the world to a "new" sound....a sound done MUCH better by bands like Dinosaur Jr.

 

('Teen Spirit' WAS fanastic though....that song alone deserves a TON of hype)

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interesting topic

 

for me, and i guess this is blasphemy, but Sgt. Pepper falls into this category

 

i like it OK, but to hear it spoken of in hallowed and mystical tones ... picked by rolling stone as the greatest album ever ...

 

to me, it's got two flat-out classics -- she's leaving home and a day in the life

 

but the greatest album ever? with fixing a hole? benefit of mr. kite? within you without you? lovely rita? when i'm 64? that's a LOT of filler for the greatest album ever

 

if i'm listening to the beatles -- which comes hard for me these days for some reason -- i would much rather listen to the white album, revolver, abby road, rubber soul or some of the super early stuff

 

i just don't get Sgt. Pepper

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I have had bands that I listen to and really try to get but it just did not work for me, but then I sit on it for a couple of years and listen again and it works. Radiohead is one such example, actually Metallica is another. Over time my musical vocabulary expands and allows me to hear it differently. I read more about what they were doing when they created the album and what they were shooting for etc
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My state of mind has such an effect on whether I can accept an album. There are many subconcious walls that I have up when I listen to certain bands. For example, when I hear about a band on this board, I listen to some songs on their Myspace or youtube. Do my own research. I'm very open minded and more likely to latch on to the band. However, when someone from my circle of friends gives me an album that they like, and I've never listened to it before, I have a harder time getting into it because I haven't made the "discovery" myself. Then again, maybe it's just because I have a better taste in music then they do!! :lol

 

Another thing that has affected me a great deal lately is seeing/reading interviews of the band. If they are obnoxious, I will have a hard time getting into their music. However, if I already like their music and they come off really authentic and cool in an interview, it will push me over the top as a huge fan (recent examples being Dan Auerbach and M Ward).

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Perhaps what is missing is context? What was going on when the album was made? What was the political/musical/artistic landscape of the times? This could be applied to every album I think.

There are a number of great comments and viewpoints on this thread. Thanks for sharing, but I think ultimately it comes down to how you experience it. Your musical tastes are built and honed, but they're still viewed through experience of the here and now, and filtered through your emotions or frame of reference. Some "classic" albums lose their perception as such over time. Removed from the time or popularity of a genre and sub-genre, they're striipped of their relelvance and the music doesn't stand on its own. Great is the rediscovered classic, whose depth, message, recording technique, or overall theme stands on its own regardless of time and place. Often your first listening to anything is elevated or doomed based on where you're at -- physically and emotionally --upon listening to it. Who suggested it and what you think of that person can ruin it for you.

 

The best, most recent example I can find of this is SBS. In the situation I first listened to it, it was a great experience and is an album I cherish. It rekindled my enjoyment of Wilco and affected other music I've listened to since (more indirectly rather than direct influence from that album, if that makes any sense). In another circumstance, I might have said, "meh."

 

Is it a classic album? I dunno. But through the prism of those first moments, it sure looks like one.

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I hadn't listened to The Clash's Sandanista in a long long time. I think I had only listened to it twice, total, about 10 years ago. Didn't care for it.

 

I put it in over the weekend and it clicked with me. Now I love it.

 

I'm glad others have mentioned Trout Mask because that one never worked for me either.

 

I do think there is something to be said for repeated listenings. Sandanista is a great example of this. The new Animal Collective took me a few listens. Bee Thousand gets better with every listen. Husker Du and My Bloody Valentine. All of these have amazing melodies that may be hidden on a first run through and really start to come through the more you listen.

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I'm glad others have mentioned Trout Mask because that one never worked for me either.

 

I do think there is something to be said for repeated listenings. Sandanista is a great example of this. The new Animal Collective took me a few listens. Bee Thousand gets better with every listen. Husker Du and My Bloody Valentine. All of these have amazing melodies that may be hidden on a first run through and really start to come through the more you listen.

 

 

Loveless took several listens (and a big, fat joint) for me to finally get into.

 

Sandinista is difficult, at first, mostly because of the sheer amount of music on that record! So yeah, that took a couple of listens for me to get through it and get to some of the better tunes that are buried in there. Although, I don't know that I would call it a "classic" on the same scale as, say, London Calling or even The Clash.

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I hadn't listened to The Clash's Sandanista in a long long time. I think I had only listened to it twice, total, about 10 years ago. Didn't care for it.

 

I put it in over the weekend and it clicked with me. Now I love it.

 

 

I love the Clash and Sandanista has never really clicked for me. I think, and this has been said many times before, that it had the potential to be a great single album a really damned good double or what it was just a three record mass of stuff.

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A classic album I never "got" was Nevermind.

 

 

Maybe it was groundbreaking because it introduced the world to a "new" sound....a sound done MUCH better by bands like Dinosaur Jr.

I think it has more to do with his voice than anything else. And that's something J. Mascis never had.

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Keep listening to it is a problem for me. Do I suddenly get it after 100 listens because I have that magical epiphany? Or does it just become so familiar to my ears that I become comfortable with it and confuse that comfort level with a true understanding and love of the work? For me repetition is not the key. Repetition has allowed me to know the lyrics to many many Bon Jovi and Def Lepard songs without ever owning a single album by either band, and it
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interesting topic

 

for me, and i guess this is blasphemy, but Sgt. Pepper falls into this category

 

i like it OK, but to hear it spoken of in hallowed and mystical tones ... picked by rolling stone as the greatest album ever ...

 

to me, it's got two flat-out classics -- she's leaving home and a day in the life

 

but the greatest album ever? with fixing a hole? benefit of mr. kite? within you without you? lovely rita? when i'm 64? that's a LOT of filler for the greatest album ever

 

if i'm listening to the beatles -- which comes hard for me these days for some reason -- i would much rather listen to the white album, revolver, abby road, rubber soul or some of the super early stuff

 

i just don't get Sgt. Pepper

 

 

to me it isn't a total classic. i could care less about good morning, mr. kite, and with in you with out you. the reason i think it has become such a classic is because it was the ultimate crowd pleasing album...it pleased the jazz fans, the new rock fans, the mods, the beats, the old folks, the young folks, musicals, folk music...for generations. it's like, everything great about any of the great genres of 'pop' music since it's inception. now, that doesn't mean i listen to it all the time. i don't. i think that is the fate of most of the classics...we treasure them, but maybe don't listen to them much. at least after we've memorized every damn detail:)

 

as an aside, i was listening to an archive episode of The Sound of Young American and they had on some editor of a book about everything that is over-rated. the first two things he said that were over rated were Wilco and Sgt. Pepper.

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