Which album have you given the most chances but still ended up disliking?

I’m guessing that the ubiquity of best-of lists, umpteen canonical “listen-to-before-you-die-or-we’ll-kill-you” rankings, general hive-mind peer pressure, and the Internet-fueled drive to make you feel you need to have an informed opinion about everything is degrading the independence and integrity of individual taste, thus seducing people into the masochistic exercise that is the subject of this thread. The ability to love, like, dislike, and hate music in perfect freedom and idiosyncratic cluelessness is a beautiful thing worth preserving. On the other hand there’s something hinky and codependent about the faux bravery of saying you don’t like Astral Weeks or Pet Sounds or whatever, especially if you tried to force yourself to care.

 

Here's a good example, comparing Miles Davis - Kind Of Blue to his 1972 album Jack Johnson or Bitches Brew. How can you do that, it's totally different decades and styles.. scratching my head here about this tread.

 

I keep trying but I don't get it myself.

 

Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys. Heard it in mono & stereo and still don't get it. The White Album by the Beatles is a close second.

 

Was that "ever" the case though. I mean for people, like us, who are more than occasional/casual music listeners.

 

I think this is a good example. Not everyone loves Bitches Brew the first time they hear it, but if you keep trying, it will work. For me, Kind of Blue is pretty straight forward, a master piece the first time I heard it.

 

Of all of Van's albums (and I've heard most of them), this is the last one I ever want to hear again. I can't for the life of me figure out just what it is about it that so many find redeeming?

 

Oh well.

 

Yeah. on the corner is more fun than KOB too. Is that a better comparison for you

 

Clearly his worst in my opinion and I LOVE McCartney too! I have to admit that "Driving Rain" is a close second!

 

That is, with all due respect, not a comment with merit. When Marquee Moon was released I was living near Detroit and had listened to hundreds or thousands of hours of hard rock, avant garde jazz, Miles Davis' electric bands with Pete Cosey on guitar, the MC5, the Stooges, the Velvet Underground, and early punk. Television was not at all too heavy or advanced for me. I thought it was fair to middling, a bit dull, compared to what I had been listening to, which was more adventurous and unusual by far.

Also, Kansas City, Missouri, is definitely not Kansas. You could get into a fight confusing Kansas with Missouri if you were in Kansas City (or at least a heated argument).

 

The Beach Boys - Smiley Smile

It it is the perfect album that I should like:

• The Beach Boys are my favorite band,
• 1967 is in my opinion the greatest year for rock albums, maybe tied with 1971 and slightly ahead of 1972,
  
• I generally like psychedelic and experimental albums of that era like Freak Out, Da Capo, Magical Mystery Tour, Piper At The Gates Of Dawn or the first two Soft Machine albums,
• I adore Smile (Sessions), Wild Honey and Friends,

but I still dislike it with the obvious exceptions of Good Vibrations, Heroes And Villains and, to some degree, Fall Breaks And Back To Winter.

 

I'm not a fan of RUSH, but I do like a lot of their "Signals" album, especially "Subdivisions" and "New World Man". I believe that I like the songs of theirs, when there is a lot of melody, rather than just a lot of energy and also when Geddy Lee's singing doesn't matter, because his singing is like nails on a chalkboard to me.

 

Pet Sounds has a mood of its own. If you don't connect with it, probably it will not do much for you. But it might some day.

The White Album, on the other hand, is a pretty straight forward collection of songs. It's all in the surface. You either like them or not.

 

Interesting thoughts and you're right, there is a lot of hinky hubris in these debates and Internet proclamations.

When my own opinion of an acclaimed album goes against the grain of critical consensus, it forces me to articulate my perspective. That's not always an easy thing to do and the things that I dislike about, say... Quadrophenia are often the exact same things that other fans love about the album.

Astral Weeks was never my favorite Van Morrison album, but the more my collection grew, the more I learned about jazz and broadened my musical tastes, the less I liked Astral Weeks. When it was the only baroque-folk-jazz joint in my collection I thought it was pretty cool, but as the years passed it just started sounding like a mash-up, everybody in the studio vamping away, doing their own thing. I'd love to hear Morrison's solo performances of that material.

 

This is absurd, I am going to go home and listen to Astral Weeks strictly out of spite.

 

Agreed, I've played it probably 100 times over the years, and I never warmed to it.

 

George Harrison - All Things Must Pass

And corned beef. I keep trying it because everyone loves it but I hate the stuff.

 

Pet Sounds

Still haven't given up on it though!

 

Here's one that will make some people's heads explode- the Grateful Dead's "Anthem of the Sun". I have heard all of the Dead's official studio and live releases, and a lot of the Dick's Picks, Dave's Picks and other live sets. I have heard a ton of avant garde music--classical avant garde, jazz avant garde, electronic avant garde. "Anthem of the Sun" is not too heavy or unusual for me. I just think it is boring. I have heard it hundreds of times, and always think, blah.

 

Yeah but who does like these?

 

Now that's funny! I'll teach you, Buddy!

 

McCartney 2!!! Have you heard temp secretary? Genius

 

I didn't want to say this out loud in polite company, ever, but I love some of All Things Must Pass and find some of it to be nearly unlistenable.

 

The same if not worse...