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"Classic" albums you just don't get


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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.

 

 

i'm that way with AGIB. the other albums do not do it for me the way AGIB does it. i first heard online with their cool old timey radio player. so great!

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Oh Lord yes. And for me you can add that GBV stuff too.

 

But did you and Jules VOTE?

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There is a lot of truth to this. Bon Iver - For Emma...

 

I stopped reading that sentence at this point. I'll take "Horses" any day of the week over that tripe.

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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?

Yes, but maybe you had to be there. Maybe it has not aged well..

 

LouieB

 

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.

Emma is not a classic.

 

In fact in a couple years it will barely be remembered.

 

LouieB

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Yes, but maybe you had to be there. Maybe it has not aged well..

 

LouieB

 

 

Emma is not a classic.

 

In fact in a couple years it will barely be remembered.

 

LouieB

 

Sorry, I wasn't using Emma as a classic, just an example of liking an album better when put in context. I should have been more clear.

 

Another thing to note regarding giving an album hundreds of chances to click. For me, I know there is so much good music out there that I haven't discovered and more good stuff coming out every week. Add to that all the music I already own that I want to listen to and sometimes I would rather just move on than beat an album to death that I'm just not feeling. Too many good tunes to go around and not enough time to listen.

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pet sounds

 

a few GREAT tunes, but the rest...

EVery few years we hash this one out...I agree with you, but Pet Sounds is not simply about the songs, it is about the sound.

 

Beefheart....great but an aquired taste all around.

 

LouieB

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Beefheart....great but an aquired taste all around.

 

I disagree he has always had "An emporers new clothes" feel to me. People rave about him publicly and wax peotically about his genius and how difficult it is to understand him, but in the long run, I do not believe that what they write means what they think it means. And he is basiclaly exposed for what he is on the very first listen. Beer is an ecquired taste and I grew to like it fairly quickly and love it over time. I neither love Beefheart nor like him and I have been trying for far longer than I have with beer.

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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

 

If you were alive and old enough to remember what listening to that album was like for the very first time, you would get it.......It was like nothing you had heard before........You have to view it in the context of what it meant at the time of its' release.......It was a milestone in the recording business one might say........But the White Album is my favorite.......

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If you were alive and old enough to remember what listening to that album was like for the very first time, you would get it.......It was like nothing you had heard before........You have to view it in the context of what it meant at the time of its' release.......It was a milestone in the recording business one might say........But the White Album is my favorite.......

Wouldn't the term "classic" imply that, no matter the time period, it held up. That it could be listened to in any context and still be great? I don't think of any Led Zeppelin album in the context of what it meant at the time it was released.

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Most "classic" albums, I can get even if I don't find them to be my favorites or particularly compelling. Even something like Trout Mask Replica I get...but I don't listen to repeatedly because it's just not that kind of album for me.

 

I've yet to find a classic album that I just can't listen to, or see why it might be regarded as influential.

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Most "classic" albums, I can get even if I don't find them to be my favorites or particularly compelling. Even something like Trout Mask Replica I get...but I don't listen to repeatedly because it's just not that kind of album for me.

 

I've yet to find a classic album that I just can't listen to, or see why it might be regarded as influential.

Thanks for eloquently stating my feelings on this subject. :thumbup

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Try Beefheart's first album, Safe As Milk.

 

It's weird, but not to the usual Beefheart level. Quite listenable, and I would say quite enjoyable.

That's probably my favorite of his. Definitely a good one to start with for anyone curious about the mans music.

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Exqueese me? Have I seen this one before? "Frampton Comes Alive"? Everybody in the world has Frampton Comes Alive. If you lived in the suburbs you were issued it. It came in the mail with samples of "Tide".

-Wayne

 

Don't get this record.

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pet sounds

 

a few GREAT tunes, but the rest...

 

Yes, this is mine as well. Couple amazing songs on it for sure, and I'm glad it inspired Paul to aim higher, but I just find a lot of it very boring.

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Pearl Jam- Ten

 

It always baffled me how this got called Alternative when it basically pedalled the same sort of corporate rock schlock riffs that had dominated Radio since the mid-70s. Pearl Jam had about as much to do with Punk as Aerosmith did.

 

 

The White Stripes- Elephant

 

It has maybe 4 okay songs. It has nothing worth being considered legendary.

 

 

The Arcade Fire- Funeral.

 

It's not a bad album. It's just been done before. "Rebellion (Lies)', "Neighborhood #1" and "Wake Up" are great singles, but I sort of feel like other songs on the album fail to live upto that promise.

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

 

I agree, I will take Nirvana over Dinosaur Jr. anyday, although I love D. Jr.

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I agree, I will take Nirvana over Dinosaur Jr. anyday, although I love D. Jr.

 

 

Random fact, Thurston Moore once tried to convince J Mascis to join Nirvana after Barlow left Dinosaur, and their future was in doubt. This was in the late 80s though, so Mascis was pretty incredulous about joining a band that at the time, only had a single out, and an LP forthcoming.

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Any Pink Floyd or Grateful Dead albums.

 

The two greatest psychedelic bands of all time, and also the two single greatest live acts in rock history(ok, throw the young WHO in there as well) both in terms of the show and the technology they pushed to change the live experience as we know it today.

 

Sad that you are missing out on such talented acts. They made albums that worked great while on psychedelics and while sober. The only artists more influential were the Beatles and Dylan.

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