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


I'd love to hear about records you own that left you cold or disappointed when you first heard them but really grew on you with time. I'll give two examples.
The first is Paul Simon's collaboration with Brian Eno from 2006 entitled "Surprise." I really, really disliked it at first – so much of it felt to me like noise. But over time, I came to appreciate it.
The second is Donald Fagen's "Sunken Condos." I am such a huge fan of him and Steely Dan that I was shocked by how little affection I felt for that record when I first heard it. Now, the better part of two years later, there are songs on the album that I can't get enough of. Strange how this happens…
Your examples?
rebbi
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.


In Search of the Lost Chord by the Moody Blues was a tough nut to crack. I could never get past side one. I gave my copy to a school chum. Years later in the late night on The Mighty Met KMET I heard lyrics Timothy Learys Dead (The Legend of a Mind)coming from the FM station and I loved it. I knew it was The Moody Blues and I knew their catalog but had never heard this and I assumed it was a song from a new album but they didn’t have anything new out.
I remember I never played side two of ISOTLC and I asked a friend to spin it one night and there it was and the whole album made sense and fell into place

I've been listening to both the Hogwood and Pinnock recordings of C.P.E. Bach's Six Symphonies for the past few months. I prefer Pinnocks version (greater "authority" than Hogwood), and am finally becoming familiar with the structure of the music. Lots of notes ;-) !