When a record you have been consciously ignoring for some time stands up and says "HEY! LISTEN TO ME! I AM A MASTERPIECE!"

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Some of my favorite records have made themselves known this way. It took me about 3-4 months to get into The Present Lover.

Today it is Lucien-N-Luciano's "Blind Behaviour". How brilliant is this? Why have I half-listened to it for SO long???

― .ada.m. (nordicskilla), Sunday, 23 January 2005 22:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Possibly Franz Ferdinand, which I liked from the get-go but am now REALLY getting into.

― miccio (miccio), Sunday, 23 January 2005 22:54 (twenty-one years ago)

If I ever experienced that I would stop taking drugs and then beat and throttle the album until it stopped speaking to me since inanimate objects aren't supposed to stand up and say things. You've lived in the Bay Area too long already, Adam, the fumes are getting to you.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 23 January 2005 22:55 (twenty-one years ago)

fumes??? You live in SoCal!!!

― .ada.m. (nordicskilla), Sunday, 23 January 2005 22:56 (twenty-one years ago)

But ours is a pure and natural smog that protects us from ozone degredation. Now that aside. ;-)

Probably the Junior Boys album. Early part of last year: "Hm...nice." Later part: "Ah, REALLY nice."

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 23 January 2005 22:57 (twenty-one years ago)

I wrote about this phenomenon on my blog once, in recognition of the fact that I hadn't thought much of Sigur Ros' "()", but six months after it came out, I found myself listening to it everyday. I was unable to come up with a snappy name for the phenomenon. Suggestions on this thread are welcome and requested.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Sunday, 23 January 2005 23:29 (twenty-one years ago)

slowburners

― miccio (miccio), Sunday, 23 January 2005 23:30 (twenty-one years ago)

method man's 'tical', which i always kinda liked but never really felt, sounded fantastic a couple weeks ago when i listened to it on random (accidentally) (the 'random', not the listening).

― m. (mitchlnw), Sunday, 23 January 2005 23:34 (twenty-one years ago)

"Slowburners" -- not exactly ... these are albums that you don't care for initially, but some time later, they suddenly and unexpectedly become favourites.

With slowburners, it's more of a gradual process. Also, the "unexpected" part ... sometimes I hear an album and think "this is good, I think it will grow on me", and eventually it does become a favourite. That, to me, is a slowburner.

With "()" for instance, I thought "this is nothing special", and I wasn't a huge fan of "Agetis Byrjun". So there was no reason for me to expect that I'd be loving it a few months later.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Sunday, 23 January 2005 23:38 (twenty-one years ago)

I really wouldn't go so far to say it's a masterpiece or anything, but I spent the last year kinda wondering what the hell people heard in the Postal Service record, and then I got the new single in the mail and listened to it a couple times and went "ah, okay, this is a good song." That was a pleasant surprise. I haven't bothered listening to the rest of the LP, though, so I don't know about the other songs.

― Matthew "Flux" Perpetua, Sunday, 23 January 2005 23:47 (twenty-one years ago)

i had managed to live my life without listening to a Wilco song until a few months ago. (bad associations, you know). But I caved in and bought YHF... and, well, damn.

― poortheatre (poortheatre), Monday, 24 January 2005 00:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. Genuinely great all the way through; a radical art-pop record. Don't know why I'd ignored it for so long...

― Tom May (Tom May), Monday, 24 January 2005 00:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Amnesiac -- I just started off annoyed by its whole existence, and it took someone putting it on for me in the car when I was in an unguarded moment and didn't realize what I was listening to.

― Hurting (Hurting), Monday, 24 January 2005 00:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Mojave 3 - Spoon And Rafter

― derrick (derrick), Monday, 24 January 2005 01:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Heh, funny you should mention that, Matthew. I just listened to the Postal Service record for the first time I think since it just came out and it's pretty good. I think you'd like it.

― Mike O. (Mike Ouderkirk), Monday, 24 January 2005 02:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Super AE, Fennesz's Endless Summer, Sung Tongs, Confield, Tigermilk, Post, Beaches and Canyons, Boy In Da Corner, in fact most of my favorite music has gone through a significant gestation period for me to get used to the sound and composition enough to really dive into it.

― thank god i ain't too cool for the safe belt (smile), Monday, 24 January 2005 02:38 (twenty-one years ago)

this happens to me all the time, yet i can cite no specific examples

― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 24 January 2005 03:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Surely it would be me reading the almanac.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 24 January 2005 03:11 (twenty-one years ago)

i wonder if it could be?

― bulbs (bulbs), Monday, 24 January 2005 03:23 (twenty-one years ago)

MindInRewind, it's hardly snappy, but how about an "ambush"?

― David A. (Davant), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:49 (twenty-one years ago)

About four months ago I listened to MENOMENA's only album on RealRhapsody. I was like, "eh." Slightly disappointed. Last week I bought it and HOLY SHIT. Maybe not a masterpiece, but I love it.

― Mickey (modestmickey), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 03:57 (twenty-one years ago)

this happened to me with bola's entire catalouge. in fact, lately has been soup. i really connected with fyuti one random day like a year ago when i was really getting into ambient techno and it was sort of a nice bridge for me between the modern idm i had been listening to and the a.r.t. type ambient techno which i love so much now.

― boo, Tuesday, 25 January 2005 04:01 (twenty-one years ago)

rogue wave's "out of the shadow," which they sent to me as soon as it came out like two years ago, and which I kind of ignored for six months, then finally put it in, and was like, "what the fuck? this is brilliant!"

― kyle (akmonday), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 04:19 (twenty-one years ago)

i've said it before and i'll say it again, that lifter puller soft rock thing. man oh man, i was never so wrong about an album. when i first played that thing i thought what is this sub-pavement alt-rock stuff with this guy yowling and jabbering like he can't remember the lyrics to detachable penis and why do my fine friends like kogan and eddy think this is the bee's shit turned to honey? i put that thing away and forgot about it with a vengeance! but i kept going back for another pek and then another peek until finally i was peaking on that record. i've played that thing a thousand times since then. i was as wrong as dirt.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 04:28 (twenty-one years ago)

it's hardly snappy, but how about an "ambush"?

That's not bad!

I tried to think of something along the lines of "dormant", i.e. the album remains dormant in your collection and suddenly explodes in your face one day. But "dormanter" or any other phrase I tried to pin on that word sounded like crap.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 05:13 (twenty-one years ago)

it was like a blind date i swore i'd hate, but the new wilco record is something else.

it really is. (i'm still afraid of her past tho... not sure if'n i'll go there.)
m.

― msp (msp), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 05:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Lots of hip-hop records for me:

Lots of Wu material, becuase some of it is just so dense.
Banner's Mississippi
Jay-Z's The Blueprint
Run-D.M.C's Raising Hell
The Mannie Fresh catalog -- boy, is that guy subtly great.

Others on the rock side:
BTS's "Perfect From Now On."
Death Cab For Cutie's "Transatlanticism."
LOts of Dylan, actually.

The ultimate, though. AC/DC's "Back in Black." Took me years to appreciate it.

― Chris O., Tuesday, 25 January 2005 05:58 (twenty-one years ago)

These are true masterpieces that I finally got around to acquiring and playing on my own time within the last few months: “Astral Weeks”, “Younger Than Yesterday” and “The Moon & Antarctica.”

Next, I’m going to try and tackle Talking Heads and…

― BeeOK (boo radley), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 06:08 (twenty-one years ago)

Shins' Oh Inverted World. 6 months of trying a song here or there, but not loving it. All of a sudden, it "clicked", and then several months later it started popping up in mickey D commercials.....

― mclaugh (mclaugh), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 12:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Definitely Sung Tongs. Didn't exactly hate it to start but found it too dense at first - 6 months later, slam it back on and WOWWEEEE!

― dog latin (dog latin), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 13:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Liquid Swords
I cannot stop playing this these days, especially random play where songs just jump in my face and surprise me. I'm not even sick of the skits yet. Why was I such a corny indie f@ck in the 90's? There was so much good hip hop back then and I wasn't listening to none of it.

― p.j. (Henry), Tuesday, 25 January 2005 16:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Ultra Vivid Scene's Rev, an album I've owned for roughly a decade. I dismissed it after a few cursory listens back in the day, but in the past month, it's been lodged in my CD player.

― Bruce S. Urquhart (BanjoMania), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 01:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Kiss 'Unmasked'

― dave q (listerine), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 07:02 (twenty-one years ago)

sung tongs fourthed. really, too many to name. vincebus eruptum, nevermind, many more

― peter smith (plsmith), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 07:10 (twenty-one years ago)

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