Critically Acclaimed Artists and Albums You've Forced Yourself to Love (And Still Don't, Really)

Inspired by this dystopian piece from 2013: http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/what-if-you-dont-like-beyonces-album/

There are (at least) two subcategories here:

1. Canonical acts/records that you, at one point, felt obligated to enjoy in order to become a paragon of 'good taste.'

2. Artists/albums praised to the heavens by critics you personally respect, and which turned out to be crummy.

At its best, it's a useful process insofar as it teaches you to listen in a manner that is neither passionate nor absent-minded, which were my go-to stances before I started reading music criticism in my teens. And in some cases, it can lead to a genuine epiphany. At its worst, however, it enforces conformism, including and perhaps especially when the critical voice you choose to heed claims to be at variance with the 'mainstream.'

This isn't just about overrated names/titles. There are plenty such instances where I moved on after two spins. What I'm interested in are the times you gruellingly tried to come around in spite of your better judgment, the LP's you played on repeat, knowing full well that you were lying to yourself while refusing to admit it. One more thing: you may actually appreciate them to some extent, but they certainly don't deserve the sheer amount of hours you've sunk into them.

Some personal examples from the first subcategory:

My Bloody Valentine, Loveless
The Beach Boys, Pet Sounds
Public Enemy, It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
Talking Heads, Remain in Light
The Smiths, The Queen Is Dead
David Bowie, Hunky Dory
Beastie Boys, Paul's Boutique

Aside from Pet Sounds, I don't actively hate any of them, but I still feel duped whenever they come up.

Pretty much any regarded album by The Smiths.

I absolutely adore "Only Shallow" from Loveless and can't even hum a damn bar from the rest of the album.

waitin for the first smug person to go "JEFF BUCKLEY - GWACE"

(that is a stall post while I try to think of one of these)

oh oh....

Radiohead - Amnesiac, although at the time I was a huge Radiohead fan, and from the getgo didn't like this album. when I learned it actually had received high marks, I kept trying over and over to enjoy it and then eventually gave up

Re: Loveless. 'Only Shallow,' 'Sometimes' and 'Soon': for my money, those are the three that make up for it, albeit always insufficiently.

challops the thread

i can't be doing with The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, i'm sorry robert.

Hunky Dory seems like a very strange choice, it's such a warm and instantly enjoyable album.

Don't think I've ever forced myself to like any music, sorry.

Don't think I've ever forced myself to like any music, sorry.

― Camaraderie at Arms Length, Tuesday, February 21, 2017 4:22 PM (fourteen seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this

I guess the biggest one of these for me is Television's Marquee Moon. I've tried and tried, and I can absolutely appreciate what I'm hearing, but I fucking hate it too? I dunno. I just can't fathom how someone would praise it. Or even listen to it more than once if it wasn't one of those albums you're supposed to love.

i don't actually like any albums, most all albums I enjoy were learned through reverse-Ludovico techniques

yeah how is it possible to "force" yourself to like anything

xp

might wanna get some tips from the Chief Keef threads

To the instinctualists: really? You've never allowed yourself to be influenced by someone else's opinion only to realize that you were acting in bad faith? I mean, all the more power to you if that's the case.

Well, I like stuff now I hated when it was new. Like Michael Bolton or Bell Biv Devoe.

Bob Dylan, NWA, well over bothering with either now tho

You've never allowed yourself to be influenced by someone else's opinion only to realize that you were acting in bad faith?

strange definition of "like" you have there. I've listened to all kinds of things people have enthusiastically recommended to me, sometimes it's taken me awhile to figure out why I do/don't like it but so what.

i suspect pomenitul doesn't make "literal" forcing, but just like maybe allowing someone's expertise to force you to give the album additional listens to see "what you missed", or listen for different things. in the end, though, I've found all that does is occasionally make you notice good things you missed on closer examination, not outright loving things you hated originally.

w/ that being said, my rap tastes changed so drastically been 2004 and 2010 that I felt like all opinions pre 2005 were thrown out and start over.

Bingo.

All those late-period Radiohead groove songs. Been listening to them over and over, but I really really don't care about them, and they all seem the same to me, and so many people love them. Something like 15 Step. Oh, it's a drum-pattern, wow!

'Kind of Blue'. Great? Most likely. But it's such a snoozer compared to other Miles Davis albums.

I still do something like this with classical music, where I don't trust my own judgment as much as with popular music. If I'm not into a classical piece, I'm open to the possibility that the problem is with me and that I need to give it more time.

Forcing myself to like something was more of a reality for me in high school and when I wanted to like what was "cool" or part of the canon.

Surely everyone's pretended to like something in the name of love though?

i got into John Mayer for a girl

Surely not Nickelback though ;-)

I got out of a girl for Nickelback

your dedication is inspiring

I would do anything for love, but…

I won't listen to Ratt

I got into Kate Bush because of a girl. Lost the girl, kept Kate Bush.

i tolerated the dismemberment plan for a girl. well, tolerated travis m -- the others are fine

For me, the reason I "forced" myself to keep listening to an album is because I paid to listen to it in the first place. Back in the day when dropping $18.99 for a CD was fairly common, I'd listen to many a terrible album over and over again, praying to God something would stick.

I do think cost of music plus relative lack of music ownership did that to me too, back in the days where I'd maybe get 10 albums at most in a year.

going through music like underwear really helps you be more selective

I tried and tried but just couldn't get into Public Enemy's Nation of Millions. The production's just so chaotic and messy, while Chuck D's rhymes go in one ear and out the other. "Fight the Power" is probably the best song of the 80s though, pity their other stuff leaves me cold.

For me, this is my misguided eight month hoarding of any and all Frank Zappa albums I came across.

Such bad music.

DJ Sprinkles - Midtown 120 Blues

^ oh yeah that one too for me. It's got lots of great songs but that clicking noise that runs throughout the record (it's most prevalent in the title track) is so ear grating

I feel like a lot of albums with 33 1/3 titles about them fit quite snugly into this category:

Sly Stone - There's a Riot Goin On - When that yodeling song comes on, I always question if this is really the right Sly Stone album
Aphex Twin SAW II
Eno Another Green World
MBV Loveless (and Isn't Anything)

Also (if we're being honest here):
Elvis Costello's entire discography from '79 - '86
Electric Miles
Rap that came out in the last 10 years

the canon doesn't exist unless you let it

My Bloody Valentine, Loveless

I like Isn't Anything way better. Weird, sexy, off-kilter, it's like the sound of reckless young passion and stupidity. Loveless isn't bad, but it's not the same to me.

Or as I like to call it: Almost Loveless.

Raggett's about to Kool-Aid man some mo'fuckas itt

12-inch of feed me with your kiss is comparable to loveless though. so godly. and it sounds 400% better than the same song on the album/cd. it's like a crime against humanity how much worse it sounds on the lp/cd.

(also i kinda like emptiness inside and i believe more than anything on isn't anything too. at least i don't think they are on the album.... still a good album though. don't get me wrong. but YMMR EP + FMWYK 12-inch is also a really good album.)

The production's part of the appeal of Isn't Anything for me. It's like lighting off a bunch of homemade firecrackers. Loveless is too engineered, so I find it kind of boring and sleepy. For that sound I'll go with Slowdive.

You should try turning Loveless up. So not boring and sleepy when loud. It also sounds really different - in a good way - when loud. I love that album though. Could listen to it every day.

how loud do y'all listen to music through headphones?

I used to listen to all my shit through a regular stereo system and then when it broke in 2015, opted not to replace it and just listened to everything through headphones but LOUD as FUQ. wondering if I will be deaf in 5 years.

I don't know that this one has universal love as much as critical praise with detraction from various corners, but Ministry's Psalm 69 was one I tried, tried, tried to love and had to give up. I think the problem was that it was on the cusp of my industrial/EBM phase, where I was listening to Skinny Puppy and Frontline Assembly and Psalm was too straight up metal in places for me, but I don't know if that was it. I love "N.W.O." and "Just One Fix", as well as the title track, but can't stand "Jesus Built My Hotrod" (don't really dig the Gibby collabo here) and some of the other tracks don't click for me. pre-Psalm Ministry is my jam.

I much prefer the other side project REvolting Cocks.

-other

Psalm 69 wasn't the beginning of the end for Ministry. It was the end. Everything since has just been post-mortem twitching.

i haven't heard much from post-Psalm other than singles and the 1998-2004 era songs I heard the one time I saw them live.....