Album(s) That Took The Longest To Come Around To

Astral Weeks. Wait, I still don’t get it. 

Spirit-Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus. Was familiar with this album since my early 20's/late 1980's. WRIF/Detroit had a DJ(Arthur Penhallow) that loved playing "Nature's Way" and I thought it was just another "Baby Boomer/Hippie" track without giving the album any thought. Proceed to 2010 when I started collecting vinyl and found a 2nd pressing(Epic/Orange) and realized the excellence of the complete album/recording. Easily a Top 100 Pop/Rock recording of the 1970's!

Anything Leonard Cohen. A true musical poet.

Anything Leonard Cohen. A true musical poet.

@bubinga , in that case, why would Leonard Cohen be on the list of "albums that took [you] the longest to come around to"?

This could be TL:DNR, but here goes...

Almost my entire music listening history is loaded with: albums, musicians, bands, composers and even entire genres and subgenres, that took many listens and time to get into. Mostly because they pushed the envelope of what I was already listening to, and challenged me, hell, even made me "work".

My first loves in music were: The Beatles, The Who, Black Sabbath, Uriah Heep, Ten Years After, Grand Funk, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, etc. Those all came easy for me to like.

When I reached my late teens, early 20’s, I discovered prog with the likes of: Yes, Genesis, King Crimson, Camel, Renaissance, etc.

Someone at the time recommended Gentle Giant, but I had a hard time with them. My mind wasn’t quite ready for their use of atonality, polyphony, somewhat irregular rhythms, complex multipart vocals, syncopation. So, I put their record on my shelf, kind of ignoring them for at least half a year.

As I continued to explore the prog genre, especially the Italian bands, my tastes began to encompass more, diverse bands. So, I decided to take that GG album off my shelf and give it another try. What was I thinking!? Their brilliance was now obvious to me.

This experience of not immediately liking an album, but later coming to love it, immediately stuck with me throughout my life since, and taught me to give music quite a while before I decide whether I like it or not. Especially if it has most or all of the attributes I love in music going for it.

I.e., very high levels of musicianship, high levels of complexity, deep and broad emotional and/or intellectual content conveyed.

Even more, TL:DNR.

This happened again with the subgenre of jazz, jazz fusion (Mahavishnu Orchestra, Weather Report, Brand X, Return to Forever, Allan Holdsworth, etc). But giving this time to get into, allowed me to also begin to love: post-bop, avant-garde, chamber-jazz, etc.

It happened again with the prog subgenre of avant-prog. A particularly "thorny" sounding subgenre, with abundant use of: atonality and dissonance, very complex and unpredictable arrangements, polyrhythms and highly complex time signatures, free improv. Avant-prog took me the longest to get into, but turned out to be extremely rewarding for the "work".

And finally, it happened again in my early 50’s with post 1950’s classical music, i.e., atonal, serial, avent-garde, Spectralism, New Complexity, etc. This probably the most challenging of all the music I love.

For me, to a large extent, the music that takes a long time to get into, also seems to have the best staying power. Holds up to many listens without getting tired of it. It always seems reveal more, have more to decipher, more discover, more subtleties, more varied emotions, on further listens.