Tell Us about an Album That Took a Long Time to Grow on You

PS:  The first album I bought on the "new" CD format was Thick As A Brick - the very notion of not having to flip the LP seemed tailor made for that record.  Woof!

When I first listened to the latest U2 album - "Songs of Innocence", I was extremely underwhelmed. I got it free from the original iTunes promotion, and I thought I got exactly what I paid for it.....nothing. Anyway, I've been listening to it recently in preparation for seeing U2 in Louisville for their 30th anniversary tour for The Joshua Tree (even though they haven't been playing any songs from the latest album on the tour). It has grown on me. I now think it's a fairly sold album. Granted, it's not one of U2's best, but that is comparing it to some GREAT albums. Compared to other recent releases from other active bands, I think it holds it's own.

When I was first getting into progressive music, I had no problems enjoying most of the better known bands (YES, Genesis, Camel, ELP, etc) on first listen.

But then, Gentle Giant's "Octopus" was recommended to me. I had no idea what to make of it. With all that counterpoint, complex vocal harmonies, dissonance, mixture of Medieval and contemporary classical, etc, it was a real head scratcher. 

After a few attempts to get into it, I put it on the shelf for a few months. I kept hearing what geniuses these guys were, so I finally gave it more chances.

Now, most of their catalog are "desert Island" material for me. 

Since then, there have been quite a few more bands, mostly on the avant garde side of prog that took a while to grow on me. Henry Cow, Thinking Plague, Magma, are a few examples. 

Music From Big Pink.

Yes. It’s true. I was very late to the party.

Even though I was very familiar with "The Weight" I had never heard any other songs on the album. Eventually I bought the LP in ’72 because I heard "Chest Fever" on the radio and thought Garth Hudson’s organ wizardry was just too cool for school. So basically I listened to those 2 tracks and nothing else. I tried. I really did. But those other songs were just ’too folky’ for my young-buck-with-a-head-full-of-mush tastes.

6 years later someone asked me if I had the album and mentioned offhand that it was one of the greatest albums in the history of rock. When I replied that I had only listened to those 2 songs on the album I received an incredulous stare followed by several moments of silence. "Go home and listen to the whole album. Now. Please. You have no idea what you’ve been missing."

So I did. It was like an epiphany. And the rest is history. Today I have 4 versions of the album: MFSL vinyl, MFSL gold CD, Japanese vinyl and Japanese SHM-CD. I think I’m covered.

surprisingly, it took me a while to grasp nirvana's nevermind--when i first heard it, it sounded overpolished and overtly commercial, as if to sanitize a punk band for mass consumption. i still have issues with the production (much preferring the rawness of in utero), but the songs are brilliant.